Jenny Donnelly, leader of anti-trans Don’t Mess With Our Kids, to host pre-election gatherings in Washington
The pro-Trump influencer has billed the event as a rallying call for mothers concerned about changing gender norms in modern America, gathering women under pink and blue banners emblazoned with the anti-trans hashtag #DontMessWithOurKids. In her promotional materials, Donnelly casts the event at the Capitol as an opportunity for women to stand their ground and play a pivotal role in changing the cultural and political trajectory of the US.
Although Donnelly will headline the prayerful demonstration, the event is a collaboration organized by multiple far-right Christian leaders affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation – a movement on the Christian right that seeks to establish Christian dominion over government and society in the long term – and get Trump elected in the nearer future.
Matthew Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, said the effort is aimed at “creating a network – a mass of people – who see it as their spiritual mission to take over Washington DC”.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which characterizes Engle as an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, notes that Engle has in the past compared the anti-LGBTQ+ push to the secessionist south during the American civil war, calling on opponents of gay rights to emulate confederate general Robert E Lee, who “was able to restrain Washington”.
Donnelly’s vision – of a crowd of moms descending on the Capitol in pink and blue – is her own. Engle, whose mass prayer rallies have drawn hundreds of thousands to DC in the past, offers a platform to turn people out