A Kansas man has been indicted on charges of threatening to bomb and “commit a mass shooting” at an LGBTQ pride event this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee.
Joshua Hensley, 25, was arrested by FBI agents on Thursday and charged with two counts of transmitting an interstate threat after he allegedly posted Facebook comments in April threatening to “make shrapnel pressure cooker bombs” for this year’s annual Nashville Pride celebration and “commit a mass shooting” at the event, according to a statement released Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.
“We will not tolerate hate-based, threats of violence designed to intimidate Tennesseans,” U.S. Attorney Henry C. Leventis said in a statement. “We will continue to work with our partners at the FBI to ensure that the civil rights of all persons are protected.”
If convicted, Hensley faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge. He is also known as Josh Echo, according to the Justice Department.
Nashville Pride did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
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Christopher Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, a statewide LGBTQ group based in Nashville, said that despite the threats, the community “will come together to honor our past and build power to face our challenges.”
“Pride is a celebration of our lives, especially when they are under threat by terrorizing forces,” he wrote in an email. “The climate is more dangerous for our community this year, but Pride gatherings have been a source of strength for over 50 years.”
The alleged threat against Nashville Pride comes amid an uptick in anti-LGBTQ demonstrations across the U.S. and a surge in state bills targeting the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender people.
The Crowd Counting Consortium, a research group that tracks the size of political protests, found that there have been an average of 39 anti-LGBTQ protests nationwide each month since June 2022, compared with just three per month from January 2017 through May 2022.
And earlier this month, the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ people in the U.S. — the first time it has done so in its 40-year history — in response to the unprecedented spike in state legislation targeting LGBTQ people.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
