Washington (AFP) – An Ohio man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for trying to burn down a church that planned to host drag shows, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Aimenn Penny, 20, of Alliance, Ohio, pleaded guilty in October to attempting to set fire to the Community Church of Chesterland in Chesterland, Ohio.
Penny was sentenced on Monday to 216 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
According to court filings, Penny, a member of the neo-Nazi White Lives Matter group, attacked the church with two Molotov cocktails on March 25, one week before it planned to host two drag show events.
The attack caused limited damage, wrecking a sign and scorching a door, according to investigators.
On March 11, Penny and other members of the group had protested a drag queen story hour in Wadsworth, Ohio, carrying Nazi flags and “shouting racial and homophobic slurs,” the court filings said.
“Aimenn Penny will spend the next 18 years in prison because he committed crimes fueled by hate, attempting to burn down a church because its members supported the LGBTQI+ community,” said US Attorney Rebecca Lutzko of the Northern District of Ohio.
“Violent, bias-motivated extremism has no place in our country, and our office will aggressively prosecute those who commit such crimes,” Lutzko said.
The case comes amid objections by social and religious conservatives to communities, schools and libraries hosting drag shows and “drag story hours.”
