Here, Queer and Armed

*The names of the people in the article have been changed to protect their identities. 

The dry pops of shotgun fire echo off nearby trees among the metallic clanking of people reloading their guns. The smell of BBQ mixes with dirt and pine tree sap. Near the entrance of the shooting range, a white sign reads ‘armed queers don’t get bashed’ with a 2-D illustration of a person aiming a gun inside of a pink triangle above the name Pink Pistols. 

The sign and logo of the Pink Pistols sits at the entrance of the shooting range where their practice took place in rural New England. July 2025. 

At the far end of the range, gun instructors patiently point to parts of the shotgun, explaining how it works to several first-time gun users. 

Pink Pistols is a national, queer, gun safety and defence group that was founded in the United States in 2000. Since the election of Donald Trump in November 2024, the organisation has seen a surge in membership and the creation of new chapters across the country.

The targeting of LGBTQ+ people under the Trump administration has made many in the community search for ways to protect themselves and others around them, including education groups and gun defence. 

‘Armed queers don’t get bashed’

The Pink Pistols describe themselves as a gun education group that advocates for "the use of lawfully owned, lawfully concealed firearms for the self-defence of the sexual minority community."

Jon, a 25-year-old security engineer who has been a member of the Pink Pistols for six months, explained that he had thought about joining for a while before committing to the group. 

"It's something that I’ve prioritised and it’s something that a lot of my close friends have developed an interest in because of ongoing politics and tensions," he said. 

For people like Jon, it is about making sure that queer people have access to learning how to use a firearm for self-defence if they so choose.

 Jon covers his face with a pink and red bandana behind the shooting range where the Pink Pistols are meeting. July 2025.

"There are a number of people who do not like us and those people are armed and in the past they have violently targeted and killed us," Jon said.

"We want to be prepared so that does not happen again, and we want them to know that we’re prepared."

Legislative attacks

According to GLAAD, a non-profit LGBTQ+ advocacy group, there have been more than 100 legislative and legal attacks against the queer community by the Trump administration since he took office in January 2025. 

The administration has rolled back civil rights protections, eliminated nearly all LGBTQ+ and HIV-related resources from several government websites and issued an executive order banning transgender women from sports. The FBI has further asked people to report doctors or facilities that perform gender-affirming care to minors, claiming that it amounts to child mutilation. 

As federal courts push back against some of these new laws and executive orders, people are often left to wonder what their legal rights are. 

Although there have been countless attacks against LGBTQ+ people and rights under the Trump adminsitration, there are still communities that embrace queer people across the country, especially in New England. July 2025. 

Heide Lester, the deputy director of EqualityMaine, an LGBTQ+ rights organisation in northern New England, said that the confusion created by these new laws is part of the government’s plan. 

"We’ve always been a source for information and resources, but not to this extent," Lester said.

"There’s this tenor of fear and uncertainty, and we very much know that’s the objective of this administration. The chaos wasn’t an accident; it was very much intentional."

Hate crimes

Over the summer, there have been several notable attacks against queer people across the country. 

In early July, a gay University of California, Berkley professor was beaten by a group of people in San Francisco while returning home after pride celebrations. On 26 July, a trans woman and her friends were beaten by a group of men at a swimming hole in Austin, Texas. And in June, voice actor Johnathan Joss was shot and killed by his neighbour in San Antonio, Texas, after the neighbour shouted homophobic slurs at him and his husband. 

According to Lester, however, it might be difficult to track hate crimes moving forward, as many in the community have lost trust in the institutions that are supposed to protect them. 

"We had trusted partners at the federal level; those federal partners are now gone", they explained. "Most of them have left their organisations either willingly or were pushed out in some way. We’ve had to get a lot more creative, we’ve had to get a lot more grassroots."

Growth of gun defence groups. 

Erin Palette, the national coordinator for the Pink Pistols and founder of Operation Blazing Sword, an adjacent organisation that connects gun instructors with queer people who want to learn how to use guns safely, said that both organisations have experienced an increase in interest recently. 

While Operation Blazing Sword has seen a slow but steady increase and now has nearly 2,000 volunteer instructors across the United States and beyond, the Pink Pistols chapters have grown exponentially. 

"We don’t track membership and we don’t take dues, but what we can track is the number of active chapters that we have across the country", Palette told FairPlanet. "Since election day last year, 24 chapters have been created or reactivated."

The new or reactivated chapters constitute more than half of the 45 active Pink Pistols chapters across the country. 

Palette explained that this is not the first time that these kinds of groups have seen an increase in membership. She witnessed a similar spike in interest after the first Trump presidency and the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016, which was the catalyst for the creation of Operation Blazing Sword. 

"What we do is education," Palette said. "We don’t believe in abstinence-only sex education, so why would we believe in abstinence-only gun education?"

Protecting the community

Andrea, a 25-year-old queer person, recently joined their local chapter of the Pink Pistols and was trained how to safely use a shotgun for the first time this past month. 

 Andrea covers her face with a pink, homemade balaklava while watching Pink Pistol members practice shooting. July 2025. 

"I joined because I would rather know how to shoot than not; for self-defence and for the defence of others," Andrea explained. "It feels like in the current political climate it would be preferable that they [homophobic people] aren’t the only ones who know how to use them."

Andrea believes that while they live in a country like the United States, where guns are so easily accessible, it’s important that the people who know how to use those guns are not just on one side of the political spectrum. 

Andrea aims a shotgun for the first time while listening to a Pink Pistols instructor explain how the gun works at a shooting range in rural New England. July 2025.

"Whatever your concerns about guns in the US is right now, whether its about mass shootings, whether its about militias, whether its about cops killing people…" Andrea told FairPlanet, "…I don’t think that it makes logical sense to have that concern and to leave all of the knowledge and understanding of those weapons in the possession of your political opponents."

Andrea and Jon cover their faces to protect their identity while participating in a Pink Pistols shooting practice. July 2025. 

Bracing for the worst

River, a 29-year-old resident in rural New England, sits on a bench near a stream, swatting away persistent mosquitoes. She has been a gun owner for three years and was first introduced to guns in the Boy Scouts. 

She explained that when she asks her friends why they have guns, they usually say that they have them because they want to protect and defend their community, but for her, the question is a bit complicated.

"Incarceration is my greatest fear, and as a trans woman, if I were to successfully use a gun in self-defence, there’s no world in which I won’t get treated harshly," River said. I would rather avoid that at all costs; that’s why I’ve been learning martial arts. I feel safer using my fists than a gun due to the potential legal consequences of successfully using a gun."

FairPlanet reached out to queer defence groups that do not use firearms, but they did not respond to our requests for comment. 

River, who owns multiple guns, said that her reasons for having them are multifaceted.

A 9mm handgun rests on a car seat in northern New England. This is similar to one of the guns that River has. July 2025.

"When I think about my use-case for having my gun, it's familiarity so I can disarm someone else with a gun or know how to safely take it away from someone else," she explained. "The other reason is the revolution. If the civil war breaks out, I want to have firearms."

This fear of preparing for a worst-case scenario is present among many in the community, especially trans people who have been particularly targeted by the Trump administration and its allies. 

"There’s a lot of anticipation, not knowing what’s going to happen, but knowing that it’ll be bad," River said. "We’re worried that all gender affirming care will be banned… we’re just waiting for the Gestapo to disappear us. I know trans people that are stockpiling meds and preparing for the worst."

As the sun disappears behind the trees, River pauses, looking warily at people passing by. 

"I don’t want there to be a war; it would be horrible," River said. "Most of the people caught up in this [Trump supporters] aren’t evil, they’re just fucked up… I don’t want to fight my neighbours."

Images by Savin Mattozzi.