MA Hate Group Stages Protest At NH Drag Show

PORTSMOUTH, NH —The lead actor in "Honey Punch and Pals" at Portsmouth's Seacoast Repertory Theatre says he has received death threats since members of a Massachusetts-based neo-Nazi group protested the show on Saturday.

Members of NSC-131 gathered outside the theater with a hand-lettered banner reading "Drag Queens Are Pedophiles" after learning one of the actors is a drag queen dressed as a 50s homemaker who reads books to puppets. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, shows at the theater, including "Honey Punch and Pals," have played to an empty house with the performances streamed online.

Dressed in black and wearing facemasks with NSC-131's logo, the protesters marched from Maine into Portsmouth and gathered outside the theater. Co-directors Brandon James and Ben Hart said they were unnerved by the "militant line of aggression," but that performance of the show, which debuted its third season on Saturday, would continue.

"I stood inside our lobby in our theater and watched these men hurling hate outside the theater," James told News Center Maine, which first reported this story. "And I had to ask myself and look inside: 'What are we going to do? What are we, as humans, going to do? What are we, as an organization, going to do?'

"The answer is not [to] stay silent," James said. "We’re not going to close up our shutters, and we’re not going to roll over and let these men repeat history."

NSC stands for "Nationalist Social Club," according to the Anti-Defamation League, and 131 is the alphanumeric code for ACA, or Anti-Communist Action. There are chapters around the United States and in France, Hungary and Germany. Members of the group participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in Washington, D.C.

"Originally named the New England Nationalists Club (NENC), the group was started in December 2019 by a handful of neo-Nazis in Eastern Massachusetts," the ADL says in its dossier on NSC-131. "Led by Chris Hood, the group's original focus was covering up anarchist and gang graffiti with their own graffiti in the areas of Worcester, Boston, Quincy, Rutland and Sturbridge."

The group renamed itself the Nationalist Social Club in early 2020 and expanded in May 2020 when the white supremacist group Legion of St. Ambrose fell apart and many of its members joined NSC-131. Since then, according to ADL, the group has added chapters in Florida, Kentucky, Texas and Virginia. ADL said it also identified members in Arizona, Indiana, New Hampshire and New York.

In videos posted last June, Hood, 23, and other NSC-131 members urged college students to bully "kids who race mix."

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the U.S., says at least one member of the group put up stickers during a May 29, 2020 protest in Boston. The group's Tennessee Chapter posted a photo of "WHITE LIVES MATTER" spray-painted on the Rock, a landmark at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, on the same day.

"We're just a few guys who started in the [Black Lives Matter] riots who said 'F--k that. We're not going to let them burn down our city and, if they do, we're going to be there to say something about it'," Hood said in June. "We attract people who are definitely down to be the white defense force."

The nonprofit Counter Extremism Project says NSC-131 is a "leaderless, decentralized organization" and lists Hood, previously of Malden, as its "alleged founder." During the Jan. 6 riot, screenshots taken from Telegram, the encrypted messaging app NSC-131 uses to communicate, showed members holding up the group's logo outside the Capitol.

"Known NSC tactics include antagonizing social-justice protesters, vandalism, and posting stickers and other propaganda," the Counter Extremism Project says in its entry on NSC-131. "NSC members have joined right-wing and pro-police rallies where they have displayed Nazi flags and symbols, as well as engaged in physical altercations."

'A Great Success Story'

In 2017, Hood graduated from Henry Owens High School, a Chelsea school for behaviorally and academically challenged students and adults run by the Shore Educational Collaborative. In 2016, the nonprofit featured a photo of Hood on its annual report.

"Chris is a good student, respected by his teachers, counselors, support staff, and peers," the photo's caption reads. "He is involved in Shore's Student Council and is on the Track Team. Chris attributes his high school success to the individualized support he has received from his teachers and counselors at Shore. Chris plans to attend college after he graduates in June 2017 and intends to become a police officer. Chris's effort and self-determination, combined with the opportunities offered by Shore, has made for a great success story."

Hood was linked to hate groups in December 2017, just months after he graduated from high school, when he was photographed participating in a "free speech" protest in Harvard Square as a member of the Patriot Front.

In addition to Patriot Front, Hood was affiliated with other white nationalist groups — including the Proud Boys and the Base — before forming NSC-131 in late 2019, according to the ADL. The New England chapter of NSC-131 was active in Black Lives Matter rallies in Boston earlier this year and provided security at a June 27 anti-Black Lives Matter rally on Boston Common, the ADL said in its dossier.

In Feb. 2019, Hood and two other men were arrested after police said they spotted them wearing masks and posting racist fliers in East Boston. Police found about 50 fliers reading "Keep America American. Report any and all illegal aliens. They are not immigrants. They are criminals. Call: 1-866-DHS-2ICE."

Police said they found a knife and brass knuckles on Hood and Tylar Larson, 20, of Rochester, New York. A third man, Matthew Wolf, 26, of Lowell, was charged with assault and battery on a police officer.

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).