The Proud Boys supremacist group has no official presence on Twitter since the social media site banned them in 2018 for abusive language and hate speech. Thus, they were celebrating their newly found fame, thanks to Trump, on Parler. Parler is a relatively new social media app which gained its popularity among conservatives.
On Sunday, though, gay men on Twitter actively seized control of the #proudboys hashtag, posting videos of men happily embracing, kissing, and celebrating love, calling themselves the real #proudboys.
“We’re proud of all the gay folks who have stepped up to reclaim our pride,” Takei, who initiated the campaign, wrote and posted a picture of himself and his husband Brad. “Our community and allies answered hate with love.” His post received nearly 94,300 likes.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Proud Boys group named Enrique Tarrio said he doesn’t get what these men are aiming at. He told CNN: “I think it's hysterical. This isn't something that's offensive to us. It's not an insult. We aren't homophobic. We don't care who people sleep with. People think it's going to bother us. It doesn't.”
But the Anti-Defamation League states that the Proud Boys’ ideology is “misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic, and anti-immigration."
#11
