Ari Armstrong's Web Log (Main) | Archives | Terms of Use

Hate Groups in Colorado

This page collects and comments upon media accounts of hate groups in Colorado. This page initially was published on July 1, 2024 and last updated on July 2. It was inspired by the Southern Poverty Law Center's report on "hate and antigovernment groups" for 2023, and the resulting media reports. SPLC lists 30 such groups for Colorado. Here I discuss not only those groups but other groups that might plausibly be called hateful in some important respect.

SPLC has not (to my knowledge) released all of its background information (I asked SPLC for additional information but did not hear back). In some cases, I found little additional background. Some of the groups listed here are much worse than others. I wonder about including groups that advocate, promote, engage in, or tolerate violence with groups that spread bad ideas but repudiate violence. That is a major line, and I'd like to see SPLC and local media carefully delineate which side of that line a particular group or individual is on. In some cases, I have not personally reviewed sufficient evidence to affirm SPLC's characterization of a group as hateful. I have provided what leads I have so far found. I will update this document as a find additional information.

A Personal Note

Years ago I went to a gun-training event in Wyoming that some people might have wanted to call a "militia" event, in that some people at the event definitely would have fit SPLC's characterization of "antigovernment." The formal emphasis of the event was on gun training, and that's what I went for. I also used to participate in Bob Glass's Tyranny Response Team, a political and protest group that generally was opposed to new gun restrictions. Some TRT members were at times overly aggressive in their protest tactics. At one point the SPLC listed Glass's (former) gun shop, incorrectly, I think, as a "Patriot group" (in a now-unavailable article for Boulder Weekly, Wayne Laugesen defended Glass against the claims). As Dave Kopel has pointed out, suggestions that Glass, a Jew who lost family to the Holocaust, was an anti-Semite, were particularly ridiculous. For a time, Glass also ran for governor as a Libertarian, back when I was active in that party.

Here's where I stand. I used to be a libertarian anarchist; now I am very much an advocate of robust, rights-protecting constitutional democratic-republican government. (Note: Some very respectable libertarians, including Michael Huemer, are theoretical anarchists.) I used to be a Libertarian Party member; now I am repulsed by what the Libertarian Party has become.

I joined the Republican Party before the 2016 election explicitly to try to keep Donald Trump out of the presidency. Now officially I'm a Democrat, as I joined that party mainly to protest the takeover of the Republican Party of Colorado by Dave Williams.

In terms of ideology, I remain influenced by small-l libertarian ideas of free markets, Constitutionally limited government, civil liberties (including gun rights), and more-open immigration. I largely fit the traditional understanding of libertarianism as socially liberal, fiscally conservative (although "conservatives" often despise free markets). On various issues, including LGBTQ rights, abortion, the separation of church and state, immigration, the drug war, and criminal justice reform, I usually align with today's left. My advocacy of free markets and gun rights (with some restrictions including red-flag laws) would cause some to try to place me on "the right," but I don't fit on today's right at all, if by that you mean something like Christian nationalism and authoritarianism. I would call myself a liberal atheist, taking a broad or "classical" meaning of liberal.

As I write this, I am 52 years old. It will not surprise readers to learn that I have matured intellectually and personally a great deal since my 20s and even 30s. If you want to look back at some of my less-wise decisions from decades ago to dismiss my concerns today, I would suggest that you try to get serious about what's going on in the world around us.

My number-one fear is that Russia, China, and the United States, perhaps with some smaller nations (North Korea, Iran) also playing a role, will get involved in a large-scale exchange of nuclear weapons, which would cause probably billions of people to die (including from famine and violence), devastate the environment, and take human civilization back hundreds of years.

My number-two fear is that the United States will be taken over by theocratic fascism, something that would probably heighten the risks of nuclear war. Some intellectual leaders in the country already openly call for theocracy. Clearly theocratic fascism plays a large role in the MAGA cult.

I agree with most of what SPLC says about "hate and antigovernment" groups in the nation and in Colorado. I regard such groups as a big part of the growing theocratic fascist movement in this country. My main aim in this document is to help spread awareness of the problem specifically as manifest in Colorado.

General Notes

I wrote a column for Complete Colorado for July 2 about the SPLC's report. I am critical of some aspects of the report.

See also the SPLC's nationwide "hate map," and SPLC's "The Year in Hate & Extremism, 2023," which includes a link to the full 76-page pdf report.

Following are some recent Colorado news reports about the SPLC's report.

Southern Poverty Law Center reports 30 antigovernment or hate groups in Colorado
9News
Jaleesa Irizarry (with additional broadcast reporting by Kyle Clark)
June 5, 2024

30 hate, extremist and anti-government groups operate in Colorado, Southern Poverty Law Center says
Denver Post
Noelle Phillips
June 5, 2024

White nationalist, anti-LGBTQ activity on the rise, annual hate report shows
Colorado Newsline
Ashley Murray
June 5, 2024

Hateful Movements in Colorado's History

When I attended public school in Colorado, I did not learn about how the Ku Klux Klan took over much of state government, including the governorship, in the 1920s.

In my view, the single most important work on Colorado's KKK era is Robert Alan Goldberg's 1981 book, Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado. The book is available online via the University of Utah. See also my 2020 interview with Goldberg about the book. See also my 2020 article for Complete Colorado, "The Klan's short-lived Colorado reign."

I have yet to read the other two books about that era (that I know of), Alan Prendergast's 2023 book about Philip Van Cise, Gangbuster: One Man's Battle Against Crime, Corruption, and the Klan, and Phil Goodstein's 2006 In the Shadow the the Klan: When the KKK Ruled Denver 1920–1926.

Starting in 2018, Meg Dunn wrote a series of articles about the Klan for Northern Colorado History.

In 2021, David Flomberg wrote a column for the Colorado Times Recorder about the distribution of a flyer in Broomfield and Westminster featuring a Swastika and a "white pride" symbol.

Wikipedia has an entry about Alan Berg, a radio host who was murdered by white supremacists in 1984. One can find numerous local news reports about that. Peter Boyles wrote a June 16 article for the Denver Post. Craig Silverman wrote July 2 article for the Colorado Sun.

The Republican Party of Colorado

SPLC does not include this group; I am including it here because the state GOP under chair Dave Williams (in 2024) has taken a decidedly anti-LGBT stance, even saying "God Hates [Pride] Flags" and calling on people to burn all Pride flags.

I have written three main articles about this:

The Colorado GOP's transgender moral panic
Complete Colorado
June 4, 2024

Pride goeth before the state GOP's destruction
Complete Colorado
June 11, 2024

Exaggerations, Half-Truths, and Lies: How CO GOP Leader Williams Wraps Bigotry in Faux-Religious Rhetoric
Colorado Times Recorder
June 18, 2024

Lots of news reports covered the messages at hand from Williams and the GOP; I won't try to link to all of those articles here.

Denver Democratic Socialists of America

This is another group not mentioned by SPLC. I'm not sure why not. On October 16, 2023, the Anti-Defamation League posted a release stating:

The Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Region is deeply concerned by the extremely harmful and troubling statement released on Oct. 14 by the Denver chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. The statement appears to justify the atrocious massacre by the terrorist organization Hamas in Israel. It lacks any basic human decency by failing to denounce the war crimes committed by Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians and seemingly defending the terrorist violence that included the brutal killing of children, women and men, including babies and Holocaust survivors.

The Denver DSA's statement promulgates several false and dangerous allegations about Israel. Indefensibly, the chapter ended its statement with the anti-Israel slogan, "May Palestine be free, from the river to the sea." Make no mistake, this statement is not a call for peace. It is a clear call for the Jewish state of Israel to be entirely dismantled. Calling for the destruction of Israel and its people is unbridled hate and antisemitism in the extreme.

A search for news about "denver democratic socialists of america antisemitism" yields a handful of articles, including a news report from Axios:

Liberals split on Israel-Hamas war
John Frank
October 20, 2023

Truth and Liberty Coalition

This is another group not listed by SPLC.

James O'Rourke writes for the July 1, 2024 Colorado Times Recorder:

"What if we gave parents the right to enforce the anti-grooming, the obscenity, the pornography legislation that's currently on the books in most states, probably even Colorado?" asked Janet Folger Porter, founder of Faith2Action, on a June 19 episode of the Teller County-based Truth & Liberty Coalition's online livecast.

Calling people supportive of LGBTQ rights and people "groomers" is a common anti-LGBTQ smear. Talking about "obscenity" laws is a call to censor books and other materials.

O'Rourke continues:

Porter has enjoyed a long partnership with Truth & Liberty, which pushes a Christian nationalist agenda across the country. In Colorado this year, the group has backed a set of ballot initiatives aimed at restricting the rights of transgender youth.

Wiki has an entry on Porter, whose group is based in Ohio.

The Times Recoder has a tag for Andrew Wommack of Truth and Liberty.

In a 2022 article, Heidi Beedle reported that "approximately 3,500 people attended the Truth and Liberty Coalition's annual conference in Woodland Park."

It's fair to call Wommack a Christian Nationalist. It's also fair to call him anti-LGBTQ. He writes in a recent article: "There are a lot of woke ministers out there these days who are misusing the Bible to say Jesus would approve of abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, and all kinds of ungodly things. That's just terrible!"

Faith Education Commerce (FEC United)

This group was cofounded by Joe Oltmann, who has called for violence against his political enemies. SPLC has an information page.

A 9News page search of FEC United and of Joe Oltmann brings up numerous stories.

A Colorado Times Recorder search for FEC United and Oltmann likewise turns up numerous articles.

Moms for Liberty

In my column for Complete I discuss the inclusion of Moms for Liberty in the SPLC report.

SPLC lists four Colorado branches of Moms for Liberty but for each links to a generic article that doesn't mention Colorado.

The Colorado Times Recorder has a Moms for Liberty tag listing eight articles (as of June 30, 2024), but a page search for "Moms for Liberty" lists 49 articles.

9News mentions Moms for Liberty in several articles, including these two:

Colorado GOP calls for all children to be pulled from public schools
9News
May 21, 2024

Colorado conservatives call for law enforcement action to ban books
9News
November 28, 2023

Asatru Folk Assembly

SPLC calls this a "Neo-Völkish" group, which SPLC characterizes as concerned with "ethnocentricity and archaic notions of gender." SPLC's entry on Asatru does not mention Colorado.

The only local news coverage of the group that I've found is a set of articles by KRDO. Here is the latest-dated one:

Middle school teacher [in Colorado Springs, Andrew Stutts] not returning to District 11 amid white supremacy group allegations
KRDO, ABC 13
April 28, 2023

American Freedom Network

SPLC calls this radio station "conspiracy propagandists," but it doesn't offer details. Offhand I couldn't find good recent local news coverage of the station. Wikipedia has an entry that lists a few older stories, including a 2020 report by the AP about how the "right-wing, anti-government" station "was gutted by fire."

A personal note: Many years ago, Bob Glass rented time from the station in an effort to launch a radio show. I appeared on Glass's show to discuss Harry Potter (of all things). Given the station's history, which I didn't know at the time, I made a mistake in appearing on the station.

Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform

SPLC lists this group as "anti-immigrant" but provides no additional information. Nor could I find substantial news reports. The Wikipedia stub is of little use.

I would point out here that lots of politicians, including many Democrats, are "anti-immigrant" in the sense that they favor severe restrictions on immigration. Presumably SPLC is looking for groups that demonize immigrants.

The organization states on its web page (as of June 30, 2024), "We are honored to announce that the hateful SPLC hate group has listed CAIRCO.org on their hate site."

For what it's worth, the "about" page of the group states:

We work toward a complete halt to illegal immigration and a reduction of legal immigration to sustainable numbers. We are concerned about the impact of immigration-driven population growth on future generations of Americans—of all races, creeds, and colors. We at Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform are pro-legal immigrant and pro-legal immigration but at numbers consistent with cultural assimilation and ecological sustainability.

Offhand this sounds like what used to be Bernie Sanders's position on immigration, except Sanders emphasized the economic protectionist side of restricting immigration. Perhaps someone will look into SPLC's claims that the organization is a "hate group."

Colorado Eagle Forum

SPLC labels the group "antigovernment general"; I didn't find much about it offhand. I did find a Facebook page with 170 followers (as of June 30, 2024) and occasional posts.

Colorado Parents Involved in Education

SPLC lists this as another "antigovernment general" group; I found a Facebook group with 35 members.

Colorado State Assembly

SPLC lists this under "sovereign citizens movement"; I didn't find anything about this. Online searches are complicated by the name sounding like that of the Colorado legislature.

Family Research Institute

This is listed as an anti-LGBTQ group. Judging from the Wiki entry, that's a fair assessment.

Freedom First Society

SPLC tags this group as "antigovernment general." The group's web site very explicitly complains about "the Conspiracy targeting our freedom," not a good start! Here is a line from an "about" page: "This Conspiracy stands in opposition to the values of all of the great religions and seeks to infiltrate, undermine, and subvert all significant institutions for its satanic purposes." You will not be surprised to find the name Robert Welch on the same page; another "about" page explains how the Freedom First Society arose from "a highly unfortunate internal division" of the John Birch Society.

Front Range Active Club

SPLC lists this as a "white nationalist" group. NPR has a story about the general movement. ADL says, "Active Club members see themselves as fighters training for an ongoing war against a system that they claim is deliberately plotting against the white race." See also the Wiki entry.

Heidi Beedle reported on August 30, 2023:

This Saturday’s Douglas County Pride Fest was protested by a number of different groups—Able Shepherd, a nonprofit that provides mass shooter training to churches and schools, Patriot Front, the white nationalist group arrested en masse for conspiracy to riot in Idaho last year, the Rocky Mountain Active Club, the local chapter of the white supremacist fight club started by Robert Rundo, and the Proud Boys.

Generations

This is another anti-LGBTQ group, says SPLC, accurately. This group is tied up with Kevin Swanson. James O'Rourke reported on June 6, 2024:

One of the [Christian Home Educators of Colorado] conference's [listed] keynote speakers is Kevin Swanson, a Colorado pastor and host of the radio show "Generations." Swanson previously said that gay people should be put to death, in accordance with his interpretation of the Bible.

III% United Patriots

Abbie Burke wrote a bizarre article in 2017 for Fox21 that basically serves as promotional propaganda for the "militia" group (as SPLC calls it). Burke paraphrases one member: "This group focuses on community service and being good neighbors." Burke also writes, "Right after the Orlando nightclub shooting, the organization provided security for Denver's Pride Fest, for free." (I haven't found confirmation of that claim.)

SPLC writes:

[The Colorado organization is a] national militia headquartered in Colorado, founded by Mitch Nerem and Marine Veteran Mike Morris, aka Fifty Cal. The organization has claimed that its objective is to build a patriot network. Morris has said, "We're not out looking for some newfound revolution. But we are prepared, should the day come, to defend our nation, defend our neighbors, and defend our way of life." [See the cite below.] The group has participated in paramilitary trainings and border vigilantism, setting up camp along the American and Mexican border in past years. The group has alleged that they coordinated with border patrol agents on the detention of migrants. One leader of the militias border patrol is Jerry Karl, aka Ghost, who made incendiary statements about Muslims in America in a video he posted to Facebook on March 16, 2019.

Stephen Hall wrote a June 9, 2020 article for the Ark Valley Voice stating:

Ark Valley Voice discovered 11 Colorado Facebook groups or pages devoted to the Three Percenters. These groups totaled more than, 11,700 members or followers. Accounting for duplicate subgroup membership, the total is just over 9,500 member followers. . . . [T]he official Three Percenter website emphatically states they are "NOT" a militia and "NOT" anti-government.

Mother Jones published an article by Shane Bauer on October 26, 2016:

In 2013, Mike Morris, a Marine veteran and IT manager from Colorado, co-founded a militia group called Three Percent United Patriots (3UP). This armed faction was an offshoot of the larger three percenter movement, which sprung up after the election of President Barack Obama.

Morris told Bauer:

I got involved in the militia movement back in the late '90s. I was involved in state militias in Colorado and then got involved in a group called the Tyranny Response Team, which I was one of the original members of. . . . The object for 3UP is to unite patriot groups across the United States and to build a patriot network of shared resources, education, and training. We set out to train people to be able to take care of themselves, protect their families. We are preparing for anything, from bad snowstorms to a blackout. I can tell you what we're not: We're not an organization trying to take over the government. That being said, we do have an interest in trying to preserve what we see as the founding principles of the nation as codified by the Bill of Rights. We're not out looking for some newfound revolution. But we are prepared, should the day come, to defend our nation, defend our neighbors, and defend our way of life. I don't think there's a lot of patriots out there that are looking to run from the fight, but it's not the patriots that are gonna bring the fight.

Mass Resistance

SPLC lists this an an anti-LGBTQ group. Wikipedia has a general article.

The June 13, 2023 Rio Rancho Observer published an article by Michaela Helean:

The library board meeting took a turn from routine business June 12 at Loma Colorado Main Library as many people signed up for public comment to speak on the topic of banning books. . . .

The conservative group Mass Resistance(MR), which has targeted LGBTQIA books in several states this year, promotes itself as a pro-family activist group while others classify it as a hate group.

Mass Resistance has also targeted several books at the Rio Rancho City Council meetings and now the library board meeting. . . . Michael Jackovich, the only MR speaker at the board meeting, repeated his concerns that these books are against library code in that they are pornographic.

National Justice Party, Colorado

This is a "white nationalist" group.

An ADL release of March 26, 2024, states:

White supremacist propaganda distribution reached historic levels across the United States in 2023, with a total of 7,567 incidents, a 12-percent increase from 2022, according to the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Center on Extremism's annual assessment released today. Colorado saw 227 total incidents of white supremacist activity, a record number in the state. This marked the highest level of incidents since ADL began tracking such data in 2017. . . .

The Goyim Defense League Network was particularly active in Colorado. . . . While more than 50 different white supremacist groups and networks distributed propaganda [nationally], three of them—Patriot Front, National Justice Party (NJP) and Goyim Defense League (GDL)—were responsible for 92 percent of the activity.

I'm not sure about the size of the group in question in Colorado.

National Socialist Resistance Front

Wikipedia, citing the Counter Extremism Project, says, "The Atomwaffen Division (Atomwaffen meaning 'atomic weapons' in German, also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front, is an international far-right extremist and neo-Nazi terrorist network."

A Colorado reference to a related neo-Nazi group appears in a 2020 article by Jeremy Jojola of 9News:

Neo-nazi stickers placed on business windows in this city [Colorado Springs] indicate the white supremacy group formerly known as Atomwaffen is attempting to reestablish itself after several of its members were arrested by the FBI this past year.

The National Socialist Order (NSO), which has been born out of the now-defunct Atomwaffen Division, has established a new website and social media accounts to share its racists' views. The white supremacist group calls for violence and civil war within the United States.

The Atomwaffen Division was linked to five murders before it disbanded after federal authorities arrested several members of the group this past spring.

9Wants to Know obtained a Colorado Springs Police report describing how a man dressed in camouflage pants was seen putting up a racist NSO sticker on a business window over a Black Lives Matter poster. . . . The sticker contained an image of Adolf Hitler, a swastika and an email for recruitment. . . .

See also 9News's 2019 report about James Mason, who has ties to the group. See also the Wiki entry.

Northern Kingdom Prophets

A 2020 article by Chelsea Brentzel of KRDO, citing SPLC, says "the Northern Kingdom Prophets is a hate group in Pueblo that is strongly anti-white, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ." I did not find details.

Patriot Front

This "white nationalist" group is one of the few for which SPLC provides additional information, although SPLC does not discuss the Colorado connection.

The American Library Association mentions, "The BookBar bookstore in Denver suffered vandalism before and during a reading it hosted by drag queen Miss Shirley Delta Blow on June 27, 2019."

9News has published multiple articles about Patriot Front, including the following:

21-year-old enters plea in hate crime at BookBar
February 25, 2020

A man accused of vandalizing a Denver bookstore [BookBar] during an event in honor of Pride Month . . . pleaded guilty to a bias-motivated crime. . . .

In November, 9Wants to Know highlighted [Samuel] Cordova's case as part of a series called Homegrown Hate in Colorado, which revealed the state's growing hate crime problem.

Cordova was arrested moments after vandalizing the store. A police report says officers found "Patriot Front" stickers in his backpack.

St. Paul's Hmong Cultural Center vandalized
September 9, 2021
"The vandals—three white men captured on surveillance camera—left a slogan often used by the Patriot Front, a white supremacist group."

3 Coloradans among those arrested near Idaho pride event
June 13, 2022

Three Coloradans were among the 31 people arrested near an Idaho pride event Saturday after they were found packed into the back of a U-Haul truck with riot gear, according to Kootenai County Sheriff's Office records. Coeur d'Alene police said they believe the people arrested have ties to a white nationalist hate group, Patriot Front.

See also a follow-up article from 9News.

Advocates say PrideFest demonstration is part of national trend pushing 'baseless lies'
August 30, 2023

"Outside the event, a group of people wearing the same uniform as white nationalist hate group Patriot Front lined up in protest." Meanwhile, inside, men known to be members of Able Shepherd wore white T-shirts saying "Stand To Protect Children" and stood up to block a drag show. "The protest lasted about 40 minutes before the protesters left." Participants at the event said the demonstration made them feel intimidated and fearful.

Proud Boys

SPLC also has additional information about this "general hate" group. Here is a Colorado connection: "Rick Hervey, the vice president of the Colorado chapter, appears in a Facebook photo [date not included] wearing a shirt bearing the white supremacist '14 Words' slogan."

9News again has related articles:

710KNUS won't comment on alleged neo-Nazi and Proud Boy connections
Jeremy Jojola
December 12, 2019

A local radio producer for conservative talk radio station 710KNUS [Kirk Widlund] said years worth of neo-Nazi social media posts attributed to him are an elaborate hoax by the leftist group Antifa.

In a follow-up, 9News notes that KNUS subsequently fired or laid off Widlund.

Colorado Proud Boys remain active, have protested with neo-Nazis
Jeremy Jojola
September 30, 2020

The far-right extremist group the Proud Boys publicly claim they are not white supremacists, however local members in Denver have been seen at protests with known neo-Nazis.

In 2019, 9NEWS profiled local Proud Boys in an investigation titled Homegrown Hate.

The Anti-Defamation League . . . says on its website the Proud Boy organization tends to attract racist behavior while vehemently denying it's a white supremacy group.

"Misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration," the ADL website says. "Some members espouse white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideologies and/or engage with white supremacist groups."

Jeremy Shaver, a regional director with the ADL in Colorado. . . estimates there are a few dozen active Proud Boys in Colorado among hundreds of members across the country.

The Colorado Times Recorder has a "Proud Boys" tag. Following is an article.

House Republicans Just Elected a Proud Boy to Leadership
Logan Davis
February 8, 2024

By electing Ty Winter as Assistant Minority Leader, the Republican caucus in the Colorado House of Representatives outdid this decade-long parade of bigotry and farce [as discussed] in one fell swoop: they elected a Proud Boy to leadership. . . .

The FBI categorizes the Proud Boys as an "extremist group with ties to white nationalism." The Colorado Information Analysis Center classifies their movement as "white supremacist extremism." In 2018 and 2019, Ty Winter was one of them.

At the time, Winter, who now represents Las Animas County in the state legislature, went by the Myspace-esque moniker Ty Freedom (or occasionally Ty "Freedom" Winter). His ties to the Proud Boys are not a passing gotcha, they run deep: from serving as the cohost of the Proud Boys podcast "Major League Liberty," to cohosting and attending a Proud Boys rally outside the Colorado state Capitol, where he now works.

Scriptures for America Worldwide Ministries

SPLC lists this as a LaPorte "Christian Identity" group. I didn't find anything substantial about it.

Team Law

SPLC lists is as a Grand Junction "Sovereign Citizens Movement" group. I didn't find anything substantial about it.

American States Assembly

SPLC lists is as a statewide "Sovereign Citizens Movement" group. I didn't find anything substantial about it.

Jefferson County Assembly

SPLC lists is as a statewide "Sovereign Citizens Movement" group. I checked out the organization's web site, and I can confirm the SPLC's designation is accurate. I have no idea how many people are involved with this group. There's some indication that the contents of the web site were adapted from some other site.

Pray in Jesus Name Project

SPLC lists this as an anti-LGBTQ group. Wiki has an entry about the founder, former legislator Gordon Klingenschmitt.

Here's an old Denver Post article:

El Paso County GOP candidate Klingenschmitt compares Obama to demon
Jesse Paul
June 26, 2014

A recent Colorado Pols article offers some helpful links, including the following.

GOP condemns Klingenschmitt's comments about gay Boy Scout leaders
Denver Post
Elizabeth Hernandez
July 29, 2015
Klingenschmitt suggested that gay Boy Scout leaders would abuse children and said those leaders would be better off dead.

United Network News

SPLC lists this as a Durango "Conspiracist Propagandists" group. I didn't find anything substantial about it.

We Are Change

SPLC lists this as a Denver and Walsenburg "Antigovernment General" group.

Johnny Hurley stopped an armed murderer in Arvada in 2021. Then Arvada police, mistaking Hurley for the perpetrator, shot and killed Hurley. Whatever else we say about Hurley, he acted heroically that day, and the police killing of him was a horrible error.

Hurley also "started the group We Are Change Colorado," reports 5280.

I am not aware of any evidence that Hurley was "antigovernment" in the sense of endorsing extra-legal violence. 5280 says he was a theoretical anarchist (as are numerous libertarian university professors).

There's strong indication that Hurley bought into various conspiracy theories, including about 9/11 and fluoridated water.

The Colorado Times Recorder published Erik Maulbetsch's June 25, 2021 article on Hurley and We Are Change:

We Are Change Colorado is a state chapter of We Are Change, a right-wing conspiracy group founded by alt-right conspiracist and 9-11 truther Luke Rudkowski . . . WAC Colorado promotes a wide variety of disinformation, ranging from "9-11 was an inside job" to various anti-vaccine, COVID hoax, and 2020 election fraud conspiracies, including the debunked "Dominion Voting flipped votes" conspiracy. . . . The [WAC web] page also shares QAnon conspiracies about "elite child sex trafficking rings." . . . WAC Colorado shares numerous memes . . . promotes gun-related conspiracy theories, including Alex Jones' debunked claim that the 2012 Aurora theatre massacre was a "false flag" government operation intended to facilitate stricter gun control laws.