Proud Boys “elves” descend on a church hosting a Christmas event with a transgender Santa Claus in a tense incident captured in the upcoming HBO Max documentary Santa Camp.
The film focuses on the New Hampshire campsite where professional Santas, Ms. Clauses, and elves visit each year to gear up for the holiday season. Concerned about a lack of diversity in the Santa industry, the organizers of the New England Santa Society invited a Black Santa, a Santa with a disability, and a transgender Santa to their annual meet-up.
Following that year’s Santa Camp, a Facebook post announcing an appearance by Levi, the “Trans Santa” featured in the documentary, started to go viral — prompting hostile responses online, including a threat from the Proud Boys to protest the appearance.
“People left transphobic comments. The organizers also received voicemails rambling about it being ‘communism’ and ‘Marxism,’” director Nick Sweeney tells Rolling Stone. “It was alarming to see so much hate over the mere idea that Santa Claus could be portrayed by a trans person.”
The organizers shifted locations at the last minute, mostly out of concern for “the kids feeling safe and not wanting them to be exposed to the harmful comments,” Levi says. Unfortunately, the Proud Boys found them anyway.
“This is at the heart of the cultural problem in America today,” a Proud Boy tells filmmakers in the clip, explaining their presence at the event. “We’re Proud Boy elves and we’re protesting the outsourcing of our jobs and our bosses.”
Sweeney recalls, “The first thing we heard was the Proud Boys yelling, ‘Keep Christ in Christmas!’ One of them said, ‘The Bible that I read says that this is a sin.’ All I could think was, ‘But Santa’s not in the Bible,’ which you see them scoff at.”
But even catcalls from protestors — “Transgenderism is a perversion,” they yell from the sidewalk — can’t dampen the Christmas spirit at the Trans Santa appearance, as children who identify as trans file in to chat and have their photos taken with Levi and “Dr. Claus,” his friend Heidi.
“We witnessed poignant moments between the families and Trans Santa and Dr. Claus — emotional parents thanking them, young people saying it was ‘very empowering,’ to be in their presence, kids asking for hugs and telling jokes,” producer Stacey Reiss tells Rolling Stone. “Everyone got emotional when one young person told Trans Santa they were planning to come out fully this year. Seeing themselves represented in Santa made a big difference to these young people.”
“It made me realize that there really is a need out there for my visibility,” Levi says. “This event and everything we went through for this film really affirmed for me how important being a ‘Trans Santa’ can be.”
Santa Camp premieres on HBO Max on Nov. 17.