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A controversial "right pride" parade in Boston on Saturday drew more than 1,000 counter-protesters and a few hundred supporters.
The right provocateur, Milo Yiannopoulos, was the "grand marshal" of the event, for which a group calling itself Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) got a license in June.
SHFA said he wanted to draw attention to the hetero community. Yiannopoulos, who is gay and conservative, told the crowd, "Add S to LGBTQ!"
Kept by hundreds of Boston police officers and reprimanded by shouts of "Nazi scum", the right-wing group went to the Boston City Hall for a conference program.
Students stuck their noses against the dormitory windows of Emerson College, next to signs saying "Be gay" and "No need for pride". The school is known for its large number of LGBTQ students and its integrity. Its president, Lee Pelton, published this week a letter describing the march as "perversion".
Thousands of people filmed the marchers on video and exchanged songs while a chariot with giant letters saying, "Trump has built the wall" has moved to the streets.
At the Town Hall, where 19th-century Fur Elise played on the loudspeaker, SHFA organizer John Hugo said that his organization hoped to exercise its first rights of amendment and that it was not not anti-gay. Dressed in a Captain America t-shirt, he said his outfit was meant to troll actor Chris Evans, who said the parade organizers were homophobic.
Hugo then addressed the crowd and asked Trump supporters to raise their hand, which most did. He said the re-election of the president would be a "shoo-in".
Hugo criticized the Mayor of Boston: "Mayor Marty Walsh said that there would only be 20 people here today. Look around you. Not only is he intolerant, but he can not count. "
Although she denied being anti-LGBTQ, the organization allowed several people at the mic to complain about the "LGBTQ teaching program in public schools" and the fact that their children were homosexuals. People dressed in Maga hats and t-shirts "How can I offend you?
Some speakers had links with a far-right organization, the Proud Boys, which incited violence. Hugo's co-organizer, Mark Sahady, was the brain behind a rally for freedom of expression in 2017 that brought a small group of white nationalists to Boston. He is connected to a group on the right, Resist Marxism.
It appeared that there were about 200 protesters. The counter-protesters were cordoned off but a man shouted: "Boston hates you!"
During a counter-demonstration titled "Fight Supremacy, Beat Our Pride" earlier in the day, Black Lives Matter co-organizer and activist, Monica Cannon-Grant, said that "pure pride" does not exist. Did not exist.
"Today is our business," she said, adding that the city should not have given permits to SHFA.
A black activist who called Rachel said, "We know that the organizers of the so-called Pride Parade do not limit their fanaticism to heterosexuality."
Melissa Thomas, 22, drew "Love is Love" on the ground with blue chalk and lime green: "I'm here to show everyone that people are accepted. We do not want fascists or Nazis in our city. "
She stated that she was harassed as a young bisexual woman in her suburbs of Massachusetts and that her LGBTQ ID friends were also harassed.
"No one should be subject to this," she said.
Genevieve Rodriguez and Dan Paglia started arguing, each pushing the other slightly. Paglia, clutching the "Do not walk me" flag, was a supporter of the Pride parade, claiming that he had been "vilified and accosted" for being straight.
He claimed to have members of the gay family. "But we are only expressing our first right of amendment," he said, denying being racist or white nationalist.
For Rodriguez, a homosexual Latina who claimed to have experienced insults and anti-gay clashes in the white-hot West Roxbury district, this clash did not scare her. Instead, he provided a release.
"The trauma just left my body," she said. When asked if a man like Paglia could change ideology, she replied, "I think people can choose to prioritize their own privileges."
In this counter-demonstration, people drew rainbows and positive chalk messages and danced to the sound of music while cheering on the "JUST JP" drag queen.
Thirty-six people were arrested, most of the counter-demonstrators. There were four wounded officers, the police said. A spokesman declined to provide a number of agents providing security.
Members of the US Democrat Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley urge people to donate to those arrested. "A way to support the local LGBTQ community affected by the White supremacist parade in Boston? Contribute to the bail fund for activists, "they tweeted.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(@AOC)One way to support the local LGBTQ community affected by the White supremacist parade in Boston?
Contribute to the surety fund for activists who have come into play to protect the Boston community: https: //t.co/z2NRSqHMve
(Any remaining $ is going to @MassBailFund+@Boston_GLASS) https://t.co/G9xhIda6sF
During a confrontation with opponents, a police officer sprayed several while the group was trying to obey requests to free up space. Access to so-called "pure pride" organizers was limited; a Boston police sergeant refused some media despite his identification information.
During the SHFA event, the speakers repeatedly said that they plan to make it an annual event and possibly organize actions on Christmas Day.
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