Twitter Users Flood Far-Right Proud Boys Hashtag With Gay Pride Images

Proud Boys, a far-right outfit, calls itself a "white chauvinist" organisation but is considered a hate group by the non-profit Southern Poverty Law Center.

By Reuters | Updated: 5 October 2020 10:41 IST

Twitter Users Flood Far-Right Proud Boys Hashtag With Gay Pride Images

The official Twitter of the Canadian Armed Forces in US shared an image of serviceman kissing his partner

Highlights

Trump declined to condemn them during Tuesday's presidential debate
Trump told Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by"
Trump later denounced the group in a Fox News interview

Twitter users are flooding the #ProudBoys hashtag on social media with images of LGBTQI+ pride, displacing posts made by neo-Nazis and white supremacists using the tag.

Proud Boys, a far-right group founded in 2016, calls itself a "white chauvinist" organisation but is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The group was in the news after US President Donald Trump declined to condemn them during Tuesday's presidential debate, instead telling them to "stand back and stand by," which many group members took as an endorsement. Trump later denounced the group in a Fox News interview.

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On Sunday the #ProudBoys hashtag began trending in North America as LGBTQI+ users included it on photos of their significant others or wedding days and other pride imagery.

"Look at these cute lil #ProudBoys," Bobby Berk, a host of the popular Netflix show Queer Eye, wrote on Sunday, alongside a photo with his husband. "Retweet and make this hashtag about love, not hate."

Look at these cute lil #ProudBoys (#retweet and make this hashtag about love, not hate) pic.twitter.com/AddflCUMpi
— Bobby Berk (@bobbyberk) October 4, 2020

The official Twitter account of the Canadian Armed Forces in the United States shared an image of a serviceman kissing his partner, captioned with emojis of the Canada flag and rainbow pride flag and the hashtag #ProudBoys.

"If you wear our uniform, know what it means. If you're thinking about wearing our uniform, know what it means," the organization said in a follow-up tweet. "Love is love."

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????????????️‍???? #ProudBoys pic.twitter.com/rEFL7xIqXu
— Canadian Forces in ???????? (@CAFinUS) October 4, 2020

An internal report from the Canadian military in November 2018 found 53 members were found to have made discriminatory statements or were linked to hate groups including the Proud Boys and anti-immigrant group Soldiers of Odin.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

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