Ermiya Fanaeian, the leader of Armed Queers SLC—a group advocating for LGBTQ gun rights—has become the focus of a federal investigation in connection with the individual accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk, according to the New York Post. Fanaeian is known as a radical transgender activist with links to communist organizations.
After the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk, the Armed Queers SLC group removed much of its online presence. According to law enforcement sources, authorities have compiled all publicly available data about the organization and forwarded it to the FBI. The investigation includes Fanaeian’s social media, which features advocacy for both revolution and trans liberation. She has called for bold activism, sometimes referencing historical instances of protest, like the Stonewall Riots, as justifying violent action for LGBTQ causes. During a TV interview at the University of Utah, Fanaeian said that protest sometimes requires intense action to produce results.
“Sometimes violence, protest, and really riots and those kinds of loud rebellions must take place for tangible change,” she said.
Federal agents are still assessing potential charges against the accused killer of Charlie Kirk and are investigating whether others—including members of the Armed Queers SLC—may have assisted him during the September 10 tragedy at Utah Valley University.
Fanaeian began her activist work by starting the Salt Lake City chapter of the Pink Pistols in 2020, a national group promoting firearm ownership for LGBTQ people. She previously supported tighter gun restrictions but soon changed her views, citing personal experiences and evolving beliefs. Within a year, she left Pink Pistols, which has since distanced itself from her because she expanded their messaging beyond their focus on safe, legal firearm use for queer communities.
She went on to found QueersLC, which hosted campus events about “queer resistance” and collaborated with other leftist student groups. Promotional materials for these events sometimes depicted armed individuals promoting a militant stance.
According to The Post, “Despite her fringe leftist views, Fanaeian has time and again been welcomed by the political mainstream, and even rewarded for her advocacy. In 2022, Fanaeian was given a ‘7 for 17’ award for ‘gender equality’ by the Utah Global Diplomacy, a nonprofit that worked with the State Department to “promote citizen diplomacy and international exchange in Utah. Fanaeian also joined then-presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) onstage during an April 2019 campaign event in Salt Lake City, an archived picture from Fanaeian’s since-deleted Facebook page shows.”
Fanaeian was instrumental in forming a student chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), whose curriculum draws on the teachings of figures like Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Fidel Castro, and the Black Panther Party. She told the campus paper that PSL is an “anti-capitalist, working-class revolutionary movement,” not just a student club. The PSL is largely funded by Neville Singham, a US tech millionaire with reported links to the Chinese Communist Party, who also supports several other radical organizations.