Who Is Anonymous LT Opponent Of Conservative Group?

LA GRANGE, IL — Late last month, a Patch reader wrote about the request by conservative group Turning Point USA to get official club status at Lyons Township High School.

Around the same time, an online petition appeared opposing Turning Point's effort at the school.

On Patch, the reader went by "Lyons Township Students." He listed himself as "Concerned Student" on the Change.org petition, which has drawn more than 500 signatures.

The student has been anonymous these last two weeks. But he agreed on Tuesday to give his identity. He is George Taylor, a junior at Lyons Township High School.

In an interview, Taylor told Patch that Turning Point has been a "haven for hateful people" in some places. He said it would be an injustice for the school to allow Turning Point to use its resources.

In 2018, the Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center published a report linking Turning Point to white supremacists.

Turning Point, started by Wheeling High School graduate Charlie Kirk, says it teaches students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.

In an interview, Turning Point field representative Chris Howse said his group doesn't want anything to do with white nationalists.

"We got out of our way not to associate with them. Anyone that has done anything that smells of white nationalism we disassociate," he said. "We're in the business of promoting free markets, loving America and limited government. Those are the things we stick with."

Taylor said while the Change.org petition has collected more than 500 signatures, those supporting the group amount to 25.

"That's the community speaking out on this," he said.

In the Change.org petition, Taylor said Turning Point members have friendly relations with neo-Nazis and white nationalists.

"People who advance such detestable causes as these have no place in our community, and as such, we urge the administration to deny them our school's endorsement," Taylor said in the petition.

Taylor cited local examples that he said showed the community has a complicated history with hate:

• Racist minstrel shows were held at Lyons Township High School in the 1940s, many of them coordinated by a music teacher.
• Nicholas Fuentes, now a nationally known white nationalist, is a former Lyons Township student body president who graduated in 2016.
• In December, Black Lives Matter banners were stolen from a light post at First Congregational Church in La Grange. A month later, an LGBTQ+ pride flag was removed from a flagpole and burned.

Turning Point's Howse said his group is nonprofit with a 501c3 tax designation. He said his group is a place for students to express conservative ideas and talk about the Bill of Rights.

"People confuse partisanship. They don't want an explicitly political club," he said. "We don't affiliate with the Republican Party. We don't back any candidate. We never backed Trump in the last election."