DUNNELLON, Fla. — A Dunnellon man is facing federal charges after FBI agents said he threatened attendees of an LGBTQ+ art festival last month.
Michael Stephen Wilcox was taken into custody after Facebook users complained about his comments, which showed a meme of a gun being loaded and the words, “can’t expect God to do all the work.”
The comments were made on a post for the Goblin Market, which took place this past Saturday, and in response to other users who expressed concerns about the potential for violence.
“It is likely that WILCOX knew when he made the Threat that at least some individuals would consider his post to be indicative of a threat of violence, specifically a threat to shoot and kill members and/or supporters of the LGBTQ+ community,” agents wrote in their report.
Agents said Wilcox was known to law enforcement. The page they said he ran posted dozens of times per day, mostly with right-wing and anti-LGBTQ+ content, and they were easily able to track down his information to make the arrest.
Pride Chamber of Commerce CEO Gina Duncan took note of the fact that Wilcox was part of a broader trend of people openly hostile and calling for violence against the gay community.
She chalked it up to men feeling insecure about themselves.
“Toxic masculinity is an extreme position, and you’re either over here and you’re having to over prove your masculinity, and in doing so, you have to push back against everything that’s woke,” Gina Duncan said. “The most hateful posts that we see and comments on social media comes so often from young white southern men who are in this category, pushing back against wokeness, pushing back against DEI, pushing back against Pride Month, in such a hostile and vile manner that it’s overdone.”
People who are targets of hateful online content, especially content that can be construed as a threat, can file a report with the FBI here.
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