Filed under: Announcement, Anti-fascist, Northeast
Call to oppose the so-called “Straight Pride” Parade in Boston, which is being organized by far-Right groups tied closely with white nationalists and neo-Nazis.
Facebook Event HERE
The fascist creep is coming to Boston on August 31st, and we need you out there to help us resist it.
The Straight Pride Parade sounds like a joke, but it is organized by fascists who are trying to coalesce a myriad of alt-right activists, fascist street gangs and literal Neo-Nazis into a coherent movement.
The longtime goal of Boston’s local fash goons has been to replicate the situation that has existed in Portland, with heavy and violent numbers at regular rallies, in Boston. Several of them have made a habit of flying out to Oregon to participate in street fighting. We have been resisting them for years, and have been largely able to prevent them from building strength. But due to the high-profile nature of this particular event, we could use your help!
The Straight Pride Parade is an overtly queerphobic and especially transphobic event, and any gathering of fascists also endangers people of color, Jews, Muslims, immigrants, disabled people, leftists, and others. We need as many people as possible to turn out and show that we won’t let any of these communities be threatened by a bunch of violent goons.
SAT 8/31/19 11am – 3pm
Straight Pride is Hate Pride@Bos_Solidarity https://t.co/RytYurnaPi pic.twitter.com/m5e9c0iEnA— Activist Calendar (@ActCal) August 28, 2019
The Straight Pride Parade will feature buffoons like Milo Yiannopoulos, but also more dangerous fascists such as Enrique Tarrio. Tarrio will likely draw Proud Boys fresh from Portland, still raring for a fight after their bad news week. The Straight Pride “security team” is being run by Chad Hidler (yes, that’s his real name), president of the Patriot Saints. The Patriot Saints are a Nazi biker gang who sent members to assault the Boston Women’s March in 2019. The American Guard will also likely have a strong presence on this “security” team, led by the head of their New Hampshire chapter, the violently racist and misogynistic John Camden. Camden and the New Hampshire American Guard attacked demonstrators at events in Providence, Rhode Island last year. Another expected member of the security team is Proud Boy Ken Lizardo, best known for showing up at videographer Vic Berger’s house to make threats.
4/ Chad Hidler is the President of the Patriot Saints, a splinter cell of anti-immigrant hate group the Soldiers of Odin USA. pic.twitter.com/7mILRIp5b5
— AntiFash Gordon (@AntiFashGordon) August 15, 2019
The organizers of the Straight Pride Parade are Super Happy Fun America, an attempt by the fascist umbrella group Resist Marxism to rebrand. (For an idea of what these folks think is super, happy, and fun, know that SHFA is also having a straight-themed cosplay contest — in other words, a “nonviolent” cover story for showing up in helmets and flak jackets and all the goofy tacticool shit they like to wear.) Resist Marxism, founded by Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, started off by trying to organize “free speech” rallies and the like, but met with strong opposition from the Boston antifascist scene. After years of work from dedicated antifascists, Resist Marxism got to the point where they couldn’t even organize an argument at a bar – not that this has stopped its lead organizer, human thumb Mark Sahady, from trying.
ICYMI: "Super Happy Fun America" was the same group behind the "free speech" rally on the Common in 2017, and grew out of Boston's "Resist Marxism" – our friendly neighborhood extremist right-wing org ?https://t.co/eIn4gFuPyG
— Liam Hefferman (@Nerdwiththehat) August 28, 2019
Unfortunately, the Straight Pride Parade runs the risk of undoing our success. It went viral in a way that makes it hard to predict who it may attract and what we can expect. We need everyone we can possibly rally to disrupt these fascists and send them home disappointed.
The Straight Pride Parade will leave Copley Square in Boston on its way to Government Center at noon on August 31st. We hope to see you there. Follow bit.ly/hatepride and @bos_solidarity for more information.
– Solidarity Against Hate, Boston