New Hampshire has joined Massachusetts in leveling legal action against a New England neo-Nazi group and its leaders for alleged discriminatory actions.

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella (Courtesy / NH Department of Justice)

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella has filed a complaint stating that NSC-131, which has been documented by groups including the Anti-Defamation League as spreading Nazi propaganda and imagery, violated the state’s Law Against Discrimination during an action in June that targeted a Concord cafe to try to coerce it to cancel a planned drag queen story hour event.

The complaint also alleges that the group attempted to “terrorize the café into refusing performers access to its venue for no other reason than the sex, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity of those performers.”

“The Department of Justice will continue to enforce the State’s antidiscrimination laws to the greatest extent possible to ensure that people of all backgrounds can live free from discrimination, fear, and intimidation because of who they are,” Formella said in a statement. “We must and will send a clear message that New Hampshire is not and never will be a safe haven for hate groups that commit illegal acts that harm our citizens.”

In the incident in question, the complaint alleges, NSC-131 leader Christopher Hood led 19 others — all of whom are listed as defendants as “John Does 1-19” — on June 18 to demonstrate at the Teatotaller Cafe in a bid to cancel the event “and to discontinue hosting such events in the future.”

“Defendants did this because the performer at the story hour identified as a male and was dressed in drag and therefore traditionally feminine attire,” prosecutors wrote in the complaint. “Defendants did this because of the cultural connection between drag performances and the LGBTQ+ community.”

The New Hampshire complaint follows one filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell in Suffolk Superior Court on similar grounds.

Campbell’s office said they filed suit due to what they called “an escalating series of unlawful and discriminatory incidents” between July 2022 and January of this year. Those incidents include demonstrations at “Drag queen story hours” and at hotels housing recently arrived migrants to Massachusetts.