CRIME
Gay #Walkaway Founder Busted for Role in Capitol Riot
Brandon Straka posted eight-minute video during deadly January 6 insurrection
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
The out gay founder of a
movement that encouraged
Democrats to leave
that political party and
join the Republican Party was
arrested in Nebraska for his participation
in the rioting that took
place on January 6 in the Capitol
building as Congress gathered to
count the electoral votes for president
and vice president.
“The FBI received multiple tips
referencing the video of Brandon
Straka at the US Capitol, including
a tip from Witness-1,” a January
25 criminal complaint says, noting
that “Witness-1” is “a relative of
Straka.”
The complaint references content
on social media accounts
that Straka uses that the FBI
agent who wrote the complaint
cited to show probable cause to
make the arrest. The posts include
an eight-minute video of
a livestream that Straka made
during the January 6 riot. It
shows him marching up the
Capitol building steps and stopping
a few yards from a door
into the building. The FBI “received
multiple tips referencing
the video of Straka at the U.S.
Capitol,” the complaint says. Media
outlets in Nebraska reported
that Straka, 44, was arrested in
Omaha. Straka, who founded
the #WalkAway Campaign, was
raised in Nebraska and subsequently
moved to New York City,
where he had a career as a hair
stylist — though he may have left
New York City.
Straka faces one count of “impeding
law offi cer enforcement during
civil disorder,” one count of “knowingly
entering and remaining on
restricted grounds without lawful
authority and/or engaging in disorderly
conduct within proximity
to a restricted building to impede
offi cial function,” and one count
of engaging in “disorderly conduct
with intent to disturb a hearing
before Congress.” These appear to
be misdemeanors, though disrupting
Congress can be charged as a
Brandon Straka was arrested in Nebraska less than three weeks after the Capitol riot.
felony.
Straka has over 552,000 followers
on Twitter and there was an
outpouring of sympathy for him on
that app. Some of his followers were
using #FreeBrandon, #FreeBrandonStraka,
and similar hashtags.
But some in the LGBTQ community
were not at all sympathetic, noting
that the January 6 riot was an
effort to overturn an entirely legal
election result that was untainted
by any fraud or cheating.
“I’m delighted to see that the
traitor @BrandonStraka will ‘walk
away’ in handcuffs,” wrote Wayne
Besen, a longtime LGBTQ activist,
on Twitter. “The gay seditionist
TWITTER/BRANDON STRAKA
stormed the Capitol and urged
rioting thugs to ‘take the shield’
from a policeman. I hope the prison
guards remember his particular
crime. Lock him up!”
At about four minutes into the
livestream, the crowd assaults
a police offi cer while chanting
“USA, USA.” The crowd took a
plastic shield from the offi cer. The
FBI agent who wrote the complaint
asserted that Straka participated
in the chanting, though
that is not clear in the video because
many people are chanting.
There is no indication that he entered
the building. An archived
webpage sent to Gay City News
by an anonymous tipster shows
Straka tweeting “I was quite close
to entering myself as police began
tear gassing us from the door. I
inhaled tear gas & got it in my
eyes.”
Capitol police are known to have
used tear gas inside the building.
In the livestream, a person near
Straka can be heard saying they
smell the gas, but no gas is visible
in the video. At about six minutes
in the livestream, Straka turns his
phone on himself and says “They’re
using gas, we’re being gassed right
now.”
Straka founded the #WalkAway
Campaign in 2018 after posting
a six-minute video on YouTube
in which he cited some standard
right wing complaints about the
left, including some that the Democratic
Party would likely also
agree to. While professing loyalty
to the Democrats, a 2019 review of
his voting record at the city Board
of Elections showed that he had
voted just six times since registering
as a Democrat in 2004 and
only one of those votes was cast in
a primary. He was popular among
conservatives. He spoke at major
right wing events, such as the
Conservative Political Action Conference,
or CPAC, as it is known,
campaign rallies for Trump, and
continues to appear on far right
media outlets.
Straka was scheduled to speak
in Washington, DC the night before
the riot at a rally that included
some leading anti-LGBTQ voices,
including a speaker from the
Eagle Forum, a right wing group.
With right wing groups and social
media companies purging content
related to the riot from web sites
and apps, Gay City News could
not confi rm if Straka spoke at
that rally.
In 2019, Straka rented a room
at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual &
Transgender Community Center in
Manhattan for a #WalkAway Campaign
town hall. Following a community
outcry, however, the Center
cancelled the rental. Straka sued,
but the case was dismissed last
year.
JANUARY 28 - FEBRUARY 10, 2 22 021 | GayCityNews.com
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