A San Diego-based Navy SEAL is under investigation by the service for allegedly violating the military's rules against participating in extremist activity, a Naval Special Warfare official told KPBS Wednesday.
The SEAL, Chief Special Warfare Operator Bryce Henson, has become a leading figure at school protests against LGBTQ+ rights throughout Southern California, according to a recent Los Angeles Times investigation.
Henson — who has spoken at school boards, city councils and to the Los Angeles Times under the false name "Ben Richards" — told the Times in an interview he is a "veteran," but that's only part of the truth. He's a Navy SEAL and still on active duty, the Navy confirmed.
In a collection of photos and videos collected by community members at rallies over more than one year and sent to the Navy, Henson often appears next to alleged members of the Proud Boys — designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
For years, members of the Proud Boys have engaged in street violence across the country and played a key role in the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the U.S. House Select Jan. Sixth Committee. The group's former leader, Enrique Tarrio, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in the plot to overturn the election in May and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Henson is also pictured rubbing shoulders with a man with a large Nazi eagle tattoo on his head and swastika tattoo on his arm during two separate anti-LGBTQ+ rallies in Santee.
"We are investigating allegations of a Naval Special Warfare service member possibly participating with, or supporting, extremist causes," a Navy spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "While Sailors are always allowed to exercise their rights to freedom of speech and assembly if they follow the law and policy restriction, participation with hate or extremist groups of any kind is contradictory to the core values of the Navy and is not tolerated by NSW."
Henson could not be reached for comment through his attorney.
Henson is assigned to Naval Special Warfare Training Command in Coronado, his Navy biography says.
He enlisted in 2010 and was assigned to a West Coast SEAL team in 2011. In 2015, he was assigned to Naval Special Warfare Development Group in Dam Neck, Virginia. "DEVGRU," better known as "SEAL Team 6," has a reputation for only taking the best of the best SEALs.
Henson returned to a West Coast SEAL unit in 2016.
Henson has been seen at rallies and school board meetings in Glendale, Temecula, Chino Valley, Orange County, San Diego and Santee, said Kelly Stuart, a Southern California-based photojournalist. She's documented much of Henson's activism on her website.
In one of Stuart's videos at a Chino Valley Unified School District rally July 20, she confronts Henson over his "Proud Boy" friends also in attendance — one of whom has a Proud Boy logo tattooed on his arm.
"So what?" Henson says to her. "Can they not be my friends? They're my friends."
Photos provided to KPBS from Stuart show Henson has appeared at no fewer than 12 rallies, most of them in opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, since July 2022.
Stuart said Henson often appears at rallies with the same group of people. Photos show men in Proud Boy attire — yellow neck gatirs and clothing with Proud Boy logos and slogans — at the same rallies.
In January, Henson participated in two rallies at the Santee YMCA after a teenage girl complained a trans woman using the women's locker room — a protected activity under California law.
At the first rally on Jan. 18, most rally attendees remained in the main body of the rally near the podium in front of the YMCA building. But Proud Boys and other extremists — Henson alongside them — separated from the main rally and crossed a large muddy field to confront anti-fascist counter-protesters.
During several tense confrontations between masked Proud Boys, far-right extremists and anti-fascists, Henson stands with the extremists, video taken by KPBS shows.
In at least two photos Henson is shoulder-to-shoulder with a local man with a large Nazi tattoo on the side of his head and a swastika tattooed on the back of his arm, video and photos from the two Santee rallies show.
Henson took the podium and spoke at a second rally at the YMCA Jan. 21.
Then, on Jan. 25, Henson spoke to the Santee City Council under his false name. After leaving the council chambers, he began screaming in the faces of LGBTQ+ supporters waiting in the hallway, one woman on the receiving end of his ire told KPBS.
The woman, who researches extremism and helps expose members of hate groups, asked KPBS not to identify her by name because she fears for her safety.
Livestreamed video of the council chambers shows in the moments after Henson steps out the meeting comes to a stop due to the disruption.
Stuart said the rallies in Santee are where she first became aware of Henson when he called a trans woman a "predator," and a "pedophile" — slurs that are increasingly deployed against people in the LGBTQ+ community.
Service members are not authorized to participate in "extremist activity." In 2021, the Pentagon expanded its definition of those activities to include participating in or leading extremist rallies or advocating for "unlawful" discrimination against people due to their sexual or gender identities.
