During the heyday of the “alt-right” — a term that members of the movement, researchers and journalists used to describe a big tent approach to white supremacist organizing during the early years of the Trump presidency — the SPLC documented a historic increase in the number of white power street demonstrations. Between 2016 and 2018, SPLC analysts found that far-right activists from a variety of ideologies, including from the white power movement, organized and attended 125 rallies, marches and protests nationwide. That level of activity was a dramatic departure from previous decades, when the movement eschewed this kind of activism in favor of holding buttoned-up conferences, publishing racist “scholarship” and, in general, attempting to make themselves appear respectable to mainstream audiences.

While the number of white power street demonstrations in the first half of Trump’s presidency was historically significant, today’s street activism far surpasses it. This past year saw almost twice as many demonstrations as 2017 — the high point of activism for the alt-right. Whereas alt-right activists held several much larger and nationally focused events, such as the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, today’s cadre of white power activists has focused their energies on smaller, more localized events.

The focus of white power demonstrations has also shifted in recent years. Alt-right groups planned their rallies and marches often as a show of force, meant to promote their ideology while intimidating Black people, leftists and others. The impulse was perhaps best epitomized by the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, which aimed to “unite the right.” Recent white power events, though, are more specifically targeted and overtly reactionary – focusing, most often in the past two years, on targeting LGBTQ+ people. That focus has also tightened: In 2022, about 32% of white power demonstrations and protests targeted LGBTQ+ people, but by 2023 that proportion grew to 47.5%. Most of those demonstrations targeted specific community events, including drag and Pride events and a children’s literacy program called Drag Story Hour.

In comparison, in 2023 antisemitism was a prominent part of about 20% of white power demonstrations, while 35% focused broadly on promoting white supremacist ideology.^[2]

The white power movement designates as an enemy any group that they deem a threat to a white, patriarchal, Christian social order: Black people, nonwhite immigrants, religious minorities, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The fact that the movement is now focused so heavily on LGBTQ+ people is a clear response to popular trends in right-wing politics. As the GOP stepped up and normalized the assault on LGBTQ+ people, and trans people in particular, the white power movement is emboldened to lend them a hand — operating in the streets as right-wing operatives pushing their anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in legislative bodies, through lobbying efforts, and in the media.

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