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Boston’s ‘Straight Pride’ was basically a white supremacist Trump rally

Well, surprise surprise — it's basically a pro-Trump rally featuring Milo Yiannopoulos.
By · Updated on January 19, 2021
Boston Straight Pride
Photo: Ford Fischer

Today, organizers with ties to white supremacy held a so-called Straight Pride parade in Boston. Only about 100 to 200 attendees are participating, including alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos — they are vastly outnumbered by far-more-stylish counter-protestors. We have tweets on it below.

The event included a march following the same route as Boston’s Pride parade. Counter-protests took place at City Hall Plaza with another confronting the parade at Copley Square, where the march ended

Related: California’s “Straight Pride” event attended by 20 bigots & 200 counter-protestors

Boston Pride issued the following statement calling Straight Pride “a trolling event”:

It has become increasingly clear that the Straight Pride Parade is organized by a group of white supremacists and is an attempt to bait the Boston LGBTQ community, as well as racial and ethnic minority communities in Boston.  It’s a trolling event, designed to get a rise out of vulnerable communities.

Boston Pride is not interested in responding to their bait. Our strength comes from directing our attention and energy to helping one another meet the challenges of intersecting oppressions. Boston Pride will continue to focus on supporting and empowering members of the LGBTQ community. We will continue to focus on the needs of people of color, trans individuals, and all those who have experienced racism, xenophobia, and sexism.

We remain thankful for the estimated one million people, including our straight allies, who joined us at the 2019 Boston Pride parade and festival on June 8th and we’re looking forward to planning our 50th anniversary celebrations for June 2020.

Here are numerous tweets from people covering the event on Twitter:

The event was arranged by Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) to celebrate “the diverse history, culture, and contributions of the straight community,” but one of the group’s organizers Mark Sahady runs the Boston chapter of a small far-right group called Resist Marxism which traffics in anti-Semitism and white supremacism.

SHFA’s other organizers have ties to white supremacist and alt-right organizations. As such, the Straight Pride movement is inextricably linked to the White Pride movement.

SHFA’s Straight Pride website falsely claimed to have corporate sponsorships from Netflix and TripAdvisor, and both companies threatened legal action against them for their lies. Netflix wrote SHFA, “Our legal department is here, it’s queer, and it’s telling you to steer clear,” and TripAdvisors’ cease-and-desist letter made numerous references to gay anthems.

In response to the march, MassEquality, a Boston-based group supporting LGBTQ rights in Massachusetts, released the following statement denouncing the march and its dishonest message:

“MassEquality works to ensure that everyone in the Commonwealth can thrive without discrimination and oppression based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. That language is inclusive. The non-discrimination and hate crimes laws that LGBTQ people fought long and hard for protect straight people too. If a straight person feels targeted or excluded based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, they now have avenues to pursue justice. Straight rights are indeed human rights – and they’re already protected.

We absolutely reject the idea – prominently featured on the Parade organizers’ website — that straight people are oppressed. Straight people’s rights are not diminished when society makes room for LGBTQ people. There is space at the table for all of us. MassEquality supports a vision where we live together in peace.

That said, MassEquality does support the right of all Americans to lawfully assemble, whether that be in peaceful protest or in celebration. We also support the right of counter demonstrators to gather to peacefully express concern about the motives or message of those assembled. Unfortunately we live in a time where we’re witnessing the rise of forces that seek to stamp out diversity in this country. It serves us all to be vigilant.”

 

Note: A previous version of this article erroneously referred to Sahady as “Matt.” His name is “Mark.” We regret the error.

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