LGBTQ+ Resource Center in Kalamazoo Receives Hundreds of Threatening Calls, Messages

KALAMAZOO, MI — A Kalamazoo-based LGBTQ+ resource center has been under attack following a viral video that has led to hundreds of threatening and homophobic calls, emails and voice messages.

OutFront Kalamazoo, which has been instrumental in advancing social justice issues for members of the LGBTQ+ community throughout the region since 1987, has become a target in recent weeks as a result of its services being put on blast by a conservative online personality, Jeremy Hambly, who runs the YouTube channel “TheQuartering.”

Hambly, whose page has over 1.7 million subscribers, recently shared a TikTok video created by a former OutFront Kalamazoo employee in one of his YouTube shorts.

The TikTok video, which included the organization’s general email address and phone number, had been created by the LGBTQ+ resource organization to let community members know it was offering free gender-affirming products such as chest binders, packing briefs and tucking gaffes. The employee in the video, Clover, was 17 at the time the video was taken, and had left the organization prior to Hambly sharing it.

Hambly, who published the YouTube short, titled “She Belongs in Prison” in early January, called the TikTok video and work of OutFront “extremely predatory” and “disgusting.” The short has garnered over 34,000 likes and drawn over 4,800 comments on Hambly’s page, most of which attack OutFront’s work.

It also appeared to serve as a call to action for hundreds, many of whom in the weeks since have placed threatening calls, sent emails and left voice messages with the Kalamazoo nonprofit, prompting OutFront to turn a file filled with documented emails and messages over to the FBI and local authorities.

The threats have led to increased patrol in recent weeks near the resource center in downtown Kalamazoo, Jay Shatara, spokesperson with Kalamazoo Public Safety, confirmed with MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette on Feb. 8. No arrests have been made at this time, Shatara said.

“We don’t really ever need reminders of why we do the work we do, because we see the value,” OutFront Executive Director Tracy Hall told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette. “We see how it impacts people from younger middle schoolers, to high schoolers, on the way up to our seniors, our elder community, but it is a reminder. It’s a reminder of why our organization and every organization who does this work is needed.”

Most of the emails and messages, Hall said, were just hate-filled, but some had veiled threats in them, and others were direct threats. In total, there had been around 250 emails, calls and messages.

Two voice messages, which Hall shared with MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette, threatened the lives of those working at the organization, as well as the former employee, who appeared in the TikTok video.

“Hey you sick disgusting (expletives),” one message starts. “You’re giving children gender binding things? You sick (expletives). ... You need to be shut the (expletive) down immediately. You belong in prison. ... Leave the children alone you (expletive) pedophile mother (double expletive).

“And that (expletive) in the video? She will be tracked. She will be tracked. She will be hunted down and she will be dealt with, just like the rest of you sick mother (expletives).”

Another voice message, after a series of expletives, tells the organization to quit grooming children to think they are something they are not. If they don’t, the caller says, he will come to their houses and kill them. He closes by using an anti-gay slur.

Emails were filled with language, such as: “Offering these products to children is beyond sick;” “You should be ashamed of yourselves;” and “Let’s all hope and pray there comes a day when you (expletive) psychopath child predators are rounded up and thrown into prison for the rest of your miserable lives.”

The messages and calls, which came in at such a high rate in the days that immediately followed Hambly’s YouTube video, led to the organization going so far as to turn off their phones for a couple days, only answering when the caller ID showed that the number appeared to be a local one, and only returning calls that appeared to be people actually needing the organization’s services.

“We had parents calling and asking if it was safe for their kids to come to youth group,” said Grace Gheen, OutFront director of communications, referencing the weekly youth group meetup that offers a space for teens to come together, play games and share more serious discussion as well.

Gheen said, in that regard, those who have been threatening the organization accomplished what they set out to do.

“They wanted to scare us and make us feel horrible because they don’t like the fact we give away gender-affirming products and that makes them feel uncomfortable,” Gheen said. “It’s good for people to know what’s happening and that it’s happening locally.

“It’s not just happening at other places around the country. It’s happening to our resource center.”

The resource center is there for people of all ages and whether that individual is working through gender-identity of sexual orientation issues, it is meant to be a place where people can feel safe, Hall said.

Hall, who said she takes offense to people saying the organization is grooming or indoctrinating kids, said grooming is what takes place when children are molested and brought up to think that is normal.

That is not what OutFront is doing by any means, she said.

Hall, who is openly gay, went on to say that the gender-affirming products that the resource center gives out are all products that are completely legal. Many of them, she added, can be purchased at places like Target.

“The difference between us and Target is we are offering these items for free,” she said. “I would argue one of the reasons why it’s so important for us to offer these items now, in addition to the cost burden, is it’s life-saving in some ways, to have access to something that will affirm who you are. That can go a long way.”

Hall said if a minor does seek out the organization, they will ask them if they have communicated with their parents, but they also would never out a minor to their parents, if the minor was uncomfortable.

“It really depends on that child and what the issue is,” Hall said. “We have done everything from reaching out to a counselor, if they have a counselor, or getting them in touch with a counselor or family friend or relative.

“When I think about the security and the health and safety we know that our LGBTQ younger people are at higher risk for, so many things, homelessness, suicide, suicide ideation, mental health, because of depression and anxiety, bullying; having a drop-in place, or having a youth group, or even a space where somebody can come in and just chill on our couch and get something to drink and eat a bag of chips ... this is the safest place that hey have.”

Hall attributed the wave of threats to the political climate of the last seven years that has placed many marginalized communities under attack.

“They are too busy condemning us and don’t have any real interest in knowing the work we are doing here,” Hall said. “Maybe if they could try to be vulnerable enough to think about their own mind, their own identity, what has shaped them. Nobody caused anyone to be straight or cisgender. It’s just who we are.

“And it’s the same if you are talking about queer kids, or queer people, whether it’s their sexual identity or their gender identity. And I think just talking to someone, maybe having an open mind (they’ll find) the stereotypes (they) grown up hearing about, maybe aren’t so bad. Contact theory is a really powerful thing.”

For Clover — who identifies as nonbinary and did not want their last name used due to the made threats — the entire experience has been one that has reaffirmed why the work they did at OutFront was important.

“OutFront Kalamazoo isn’t here to take your children and turn your children transgender or anything like that,” Clover said. “OutFront is here to affirm what your children are feeling.

“Being transgender isn’t a mental illness. It’s not something that needs to be fixed about someone.”

Clover, who came out as nonbinary two Christmases ago, said they had the support at home that they wish others had, regardless of age.

“Working for OutFront Kalamazoo made me realize how many people don’t have the support I had on my queer journey and my gender journey,” Clover said. “And it really opened my eyes about how great of a place OutFront Kalamazoo is because they’re helping people with things that I never knew people needed help with. Being able to be that support person for somebody through my job at OutFront was just really empowering and made me feel fulfilled at the end of the day.”

Clover went on to say that while so much negativity has come out of the YouTube short that was released by Hambly, they hope that others will see it in its viralness and it will help lead them to OutFront, whether they are 13 or they are 60.

“My favorite part of the job while I was working there was when people would come in for those gender-affirming products,” said Clover, who said they have used the very products OutFront gives out. “I would get to give them to those people and see the joy on their faces after they finally found a binder that fits them the right way and see them feel affirmed with who they are and their identity and how they look.”

Original story by Ryan Boldrey | rboldrey@mlive.com https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2023/02/lgbtq-resource-center-in-kalamazoo-receives-hundreds-of-threatening-calls-messages.html?fbclid=IwAR2AueMFeCAZR2R-hG55NqkKL7gurza5ENIhmzFbURMzT-2hC61obC_3uw4