Kansas man charged with assault on Nashville Pride event
A Kansas man has been indicted on charges of threatening to commit violent attacks at a Pride event in Nashville this month, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The man, Joshua Hensley, 25, responded to a sponsored Facebook post for Nashville Pride on April 26, threatening to “make shrapnel pressure cooker bombs for this event” and “committing a mass shooting,” the indictment said.
FBI agents arrested Mr. Hensley, who also goes by the name Josh Echo, according to authorities, at his home in Hoisington, Kan., on June 15, the Justice Department said in a press release.
A grand jury indicted Mr. Hensley on two counts for conveying an interstate threat of kidnapping or wounding, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will appear Friday at a hearing in Wichita, Kan. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We will not tolerate hate-based threats of violence designed to intimidate Tennesseans,” Henry C. Leventis, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said in a statement.
The FBI said in March that hate crimes increased nearly 12 percent between 2020 and 2021, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Of the 12,411 known victims of hate crimes in 2021, 15.9 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ sexual orientation bias and 3.2 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ gender identity bias, the FBI said.
Nashville Pride, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday, includes a parade and festival with food vendors, market stalls, and concerts. The organizers said in a statement Wednesday that there had been no credible threat against the event and that they “looked forward to creating a safe and secure space this weekend for the LGBTQ+ community to be authentically and vulnerable themselves.”
“Safety and security has been, has been and always will be a top priority for Nashville Pride,” the statement said. “While no credible threat existed, Nashville Pride is grateful to the FBI and US law firm for their proactive efforts and response.”
The festival is working with a private security company and local, state and federal agencies to design and enforce security measures, the statement said.
Nashville Pride began in 1988 with a march attended by 125 people and grew to thousands in the early 2000s, according to the festival website. In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, more than 75,000 people attended, That reports WTVF-TV.
This year’s event coincides with an effort by Republicans in Tennessee and across the country to enact laws targeting LGBTQ Americans. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said state lawmakers had done so introduced more than 520 bills this year attacking LGBTQ rights.
In March, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, signed a bill restricting drag shows and banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. A federal judge this month ruled that the drag law was unconstitutional, preventing it from being enforced in Shelby County, which includes Memphis. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, said he expected to appeal the decision, claiming the ruling would not affect the application of the law in the rest of the state.
The Ministry of Justice asked a federal court to prevent the medical care ban from taking effect on 1 July.