TWIBS: PA Punishes Angry Gay Grandpa
Last year, activist James Lantz, known online as Angry Gay Grandpa, was arrested for a demonstration in PA. Now, they want to take thousands of dollars from a man with terminal cancer for the sin of… caring about trans kids?
Humor by Alyssa Steinsiek
This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s oldest column! Every Friday, Alyssa Steinsiek digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
Sometimes, when I’m cruising headlines to find a story worth looking into for this column, I come across an event that exists in the strange purgatory zone between so unpleasant it couldn’t possibly be funny and so absurd that it’s hysterical how evil these people are. These are often the most interesting stories I get to talk about, and I’m happy to report that this week we’ve achieved the absolute perfect equilibrium between those two states by discussing the story of James Lantz, the gay grandpa with terminal cancer who was fined thousands of dollars by the state of Pennsylvania for protesting on behalf of trans kids.
I’m not particularly religious, but I have to say… my God!
A little background: Lantz is an activist who is best known for bringing attention to a spate of suicides among trans youth in Pennsylvania, which he talks about in a video on his website where he alleges that former Republican State Senator Ryan Aument is culpable for these deaths as a result of his frequent promotion of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. He likens conservatives’ spreading of toxic rhetoric against queer people to the sort of damage a corporation does to the environment in the film Erin Brockovich, as well as the delayed negative repercussions of his own exposure to radiation that caused his own cancer.
There are other videos on Lantz’s website explaining his desire to fight against figures like Aument. While he focuses chiefly on this specific state senator, he also speaks broadly against the culture of fear, hatred and toxicity that conservative politicians are introducing into the world. He draws a direct line between those evils done to the queer community, and the tragic loss of queer lives to suicide.
In other words, Lantz recognizes the patterns members of our communities have been seeing develop over the last decade, and he’s trying to create a platform to fight back against the people perpetuating so much harm against us.
Lantz’s most recent protest was, of course, in Pennsylvania, where he glued his hand to a Pennsylvania Capitol railing on the fourth floor of the visitors’ gallery to protest lawmakers like Ryan Aument and their indifference towards trans youth.
“I felt that if the cycle could be interrupted, even by one voice, one story, we might save a life, here or nationally,” Lantz told Dauphin County Judge William Tully. “Time, I believed, was of the essence. I knew I had to act. I also knew my time was limited. I have stage 4 cancer … I remember what I endured as a closeted teen in the 1970s. I don’t want to see another LGBTQ kid die by suicide. Our kids are suffering physically, mentally and emotionally. And I did what I felt I had to do. I just wanted to be heard peacefully.”
Unfortunately, prosecutors from the Dauphin County District Attorney’s office disagreed that damaging public property constituted peaceful protest, and tried to charge Lantz with felonies related to institutional vandalism and criminal mischief in April of last year, as well as a misdemeanor offense for obstructing an official proceeding. Lantz pleaded guilty to criminal mischief on Tuesday as part of a plea deal that stipulates he must pay $16,575 for the damage done to the railing he glued his hand to.
Lantz called the fees associated with his demonstration “politically punitive and grossly inflated,” and it’s hard to argue with him when the county is charging him $3,775 for removing glue from the railing, $11,250 for carpet replacement, and $1,550 repairs to the wood trim finish. The county argues that the high costs associated with the repairs are due to the historic antiquity of the materials. I would argue that they’re being ripped off by their contractors.
Regardless, Lantz’s courage is commendable, and his message should be heard far and loud. Like just about any other queer community elder, he recognizes the parallels between the horrors of living in the closet generations ago and the fear and hatred conservatives are fomenting today, particularly for trans people.
Here’s hoping the folks who need to hear Lantz’s message receive it loud and clear.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.
