How "Straight Pride" parades like the one in Boston hide a far-right program – ThinkProgress



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During the month of pride, an organization related to violent hate groups, Super Happy Fun America, announced the organization of a Straight Pride parade in Boston.

The city of Boston has approved his candidacy for a public event. On Saturday, the parade will take place at noon, as participants parade from Copley Square to City Hall Plaza. Then they will organize a rally and hold a flag raising ceremony, presumably under their "Straight pride" banner.

On the Facebook page of the event, the group wrote, "Celebrate the diversity of history, culture and contributions of the right-wing community! The Straight Pride event will be organized with the goal of promoting inclusivity and raising public awareness of issues affecting straight lines in Greater Boston and beyond. "

The organizers speak of heterosexuals as an oppressed group, extol the traditional roles of men and women, and praise heterosexuals for their "prevention of extinction." The photos they shared and which illustrate their "absolute pride" are mostly couples and white families.

This narrative of victimization is common for far-right spaces. These topics range from outright hatred of LGBTQ people, linked to what white supremacists see as a weakening of the white race, to a more subtle opposition to a "liberal agenda" that includes any celebration of LGBTQ people.

Trans people, in particular, are increasingly being targeted for hatred by far-right groups. In June, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report on hate groups "intensifying" their demonization of transgender people. The SPLC stated that white supremacist groups used more violent language as trans equality movements became more visible and support for transgender rights grew.

For example, neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell recently wrote in Telegram, "Assisted suicide is the only help you can give to transsexuals." And Daily Stormer editor Andrew Anglin encouraged transsexuals to commit suicide last year.

According to the SPLC report, however, it is not just white neo-Nazi and extreme right nationalist personalities who have become more transphobic. The characters of both "alt-right" and "alt-lite" try to formulate their transphobia with humor, or describe the fight for trans equality as a politically correct uncontrollable.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the alternative right rejects "prevailing conservatism in favor of a policy that embraces the implicit or explicit racist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology".

The alt-lite tends to shun the expression of white supremacist views, but "is in tune with the rightist in his hatred of feminists and immigrants, among others," says the organization. . It tends to emphasize the "politically correct" and the "identity politics". Resist, the group to which the organizers are linked, is an example of an alternative group.

Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said the celebration of this year's pride in Detroit, where armed neo-Nazis faced parades with homophobic insults, was destined to gain ground and to support their extremist view of the world. These neo-Nazis were part of the The National Socialist Movement, which according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is one of the largest and most important Neo-Nazi groups in the United States.

There was another attempt to stage parades of the right pride, but this one was largely unsuccessful. Last week in Modesto, California, the National Straight Pride Coalition organized a rally for pure pride that brought together about 20 participants and a much larger number of counter-protesters. Many more people came to protest the event.

Modesto rally organizer Don Grundmann defended his coalition as a "totally peaceful racist group" – a description offered without any hint of irony.

"White supremacists and their animosity towards the LGBTQ community are well established," said Segal. "You also have these virulent online communities peddling white supremacist ideas that glorify violence and seek to normalize anti-LGBTQ sentiments, which also has a significant impact."

He continued, "Many people absorb this information online and develop their world view, which is problematic with many problems, including this one. But then there is a set of groups that do not fit perfectly with the white supremacy that people have dubbed the right-right and a movement that is rather parallel, which also has an agenda opposed to PC culture, liberalism, multiculturalism, feminism and democracy. it also often leads to the demonization of the LGBTQ community. "

Segal added that the Pride parades are reminiscent of the right-wing agreement on the phrase "White Lives Matter," and are intended to convey the view that the oppressed groups should not benefit from a special status. And as in many far right agendas, they frequently use the same ones and try to mask their hate lightly.

"That it is extremist extremists or alterites, it's an effort to promote their agenda with humor and irony." In many ways, some elements of this event are like a trolling attempt, "he said.

Although the name and memes of the parade focus on sexuality and not on gender, one of the organizers said that he did not want children to learn that gender is determined by each individual, a statement that seemed to confuse gender and sexual orientation. .

Samson Racioppi, one of the organizers, complained to the Boston Globe about a Netflix show featuring drag-queens and a teenager's daughter thinking about her sex. He said that heterosexuals were "ignored" and felt that the program was a "form of attack".

"We must reassure people that, despite the diversity of these messages, it is only natural to identify as a heterosexual," he said.

Another organizer, Mark Sahady, from the Resist Marxism group, was seen on video catch a trans woman during the women's march in Boston in January.

A group called Solidarity Against Hate-Boston, which is organizing a counter-demonstration on Saturday, denounced Resist Marxism in a statement released in June.

"RM is an attempt to imitate the culture of right-wing violence on the west coast. They failed because we met them with an overwhelming number of counter-testers, "he wrote.

"Even then, they were violent – choking, jostling, punching … They tried to disrupt the meetings of the DSA (Democrats Socialists of America), the gatherings for the rights of transsexuals and the rallies for the rights of migrants. The fact that the situation has not become more violent is a testament to the work that city dwellers do to counteract these actions, as well as RM's own incompetence. Said Solidarity Against Hate-Boston.

Sahady also has links with groups such as the Proud Boys, the New Hampshire American Guard and the Massachusetts Patriot Front. The Proud Boys group, which assaulted antifascists, also delivered a transphobic speech.

Gavin McInnes, who founded the group but claims to have left it in 2018, described transsexuals as "gay men with mental illness who need help, not to mention being maimed by doctors." [use of the N-word]. "

Sahady himself resorted to violent rhetoric. Like many right-wing personalities, he seemed to refer to the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who had killed at least 120 political dissidents by throwing them from helicopters. suggested that Republicans should throw the "anti-American Communists" on helicopters.

At the Rally for Freedom of Expression in July, organized by the Proud Boys and several far-right personalities, Brandon Sullivan, who was seen with Super Happy Fun America, would have threatened the protesters of Black Lives Matter and struck an anti-fascist.

Before the Maine Festival, held in May in Waterville, Maine, resist Marxism posted on Facebook "Beware of Patriots in Maine" to inform people that a drag queen intended to read children's books.

The far right has had the usual tactic of disrupting events like "Drag Queen Story Hour" like this. Drag Queen Story Hour is a national program that aims to capture "the imagination and play of the sexual fluidity of childhood and to give children glamorous, positive and incredibly strange models."

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the white nationalist Paul Nehlen urged his supporters to "take pictures of all the degenerate parents who are taking their children to hell. Get their license plates, all you can. "

Segal said that alt-lite and alt-right groups and speeches can lead people to more extreme white supremacist spaces.

"I think that in some ways groups like Resist Marxism, the Proud Boys and other groups like them are sort of a gateway to more extreme groups … We consider that [Proud Boys] to be an extremist group because of the violence associated with it, "said Segal.

"People do not tend to push a button and become white supremacists. So the normalization of hateful tropes, be it anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant sentiments or anti-LGBTQ sentiments, brings those who take this extreme view closer together. "

Anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ views tend to go hand in hand with the far right. An extreme right-wing religious group, Patriot Prayer, for which Proud Boys has provided security, has also engaged in transphobia. Last year, Patriot Prayer organized a rally called "#HimToo" in response to what they called "false allegations of rape," which involved misogynistic and anti-trans language.

Segal, of the ADL, said that all forms of bigotry should be taken into account when considering the radicalization of the population into extremist groups. Like the Red Pill Movement, a group associated with anti-feminist and misogynistic views, human rights advocates and "incels" or unintentional singles can help pave the way for more right-wing spaces, Transphobia and heterosexuals are oppressed by the LGBTQ community.

"When we examine extremist groups, we tend to consider racism and anti-Semitism, as well as other forms of bigotry and misogyny, which tend to be overlooked as an indicator of the fact that someone is embarking on the path of radicalization, "he said.

"I think the same is true for those who engage in transphobic speech or anti-LGBTQ sentiment more broadly. These are all forms of hate that are not only embraced by the extreme, but on which they count to attract the next generation of followers, "said Segal.

"That's why it's so important that people denounce these forms of hate."

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