Proud Boys Set to Target Pride Month Celebrations: Report

Four former leaders of the Proud Boys were recently found guilty of sedition for their part in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but members have not stopped operating. The group plans to disrupt the march toward tolerance and inclusion by attacking Pride celebrations nationwide.

That's according to Proud Boys members’ social media accounts and extremist watchdogs.

Their counter-offensive is dubbed “Proud” month, a celebration of “straight pride” and “Western values” meant to provoke violence, grow their membership, and “challenge this perversion of nuclear family and gender,” as a member said on an internal Telegram channel, Insider reports.

“We are seeing just a singular focus on LGBTQ people,” among the Proud Boys and far-right hate groups in general, said Heidi Bierich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

“And I don’t see how we don’t end up having more violence next month,” she warned. “It’s frankly getting a little out of control.”

Unlike the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys have experienced steady growth in loosely affiliated regional chapters since participating in the January 6 insurrection in 2021.

Nearly 180 anti-LGBT+ demonstrations were recorded nationwide in the last year by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

As Pride month approaches, the Proud Boys’ anti-LGBTQ+ efforts have intensified. There are also expectations that the white nationalist group Patriot Front will increase its presence at Pride events after members of the group were foiled from attacking a Pride celebration in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, last summer.

Over the past two months, over a dozen Telegram channels have been used to plan the Proud Boys’ Pride offensive.

Transphobic memes and invective are shared, including mocking trans suicide and joking that “LGBTQ” is “Let’s Go Bully The Queers.”

The members also shared photos of homemade banners for “Proud” month in preparation for demonstrations against “anti-straight hate” and “gay child molesters.”

As a countermeasure to the wildly popular family-friendly Drag Queen Story Hours during Pride, some suggested more chapters might conduct “Proud Boy Story Times” throughout June.

The Proud Boys have spent the greater part of a year menacing people who attended LGBTQ-friendly events across that country.