To fight white supremacists, gay men flood #ProudBoys hashtag with kissing photos

Hate group tacitly endorsed by Trump gets Twitter-bombed

canadian-armed-forces-proud-boys-kissing-twitter An image shared by the handle for Canadian Armed Forces in the United States shows two soldiers kissing | CAFinUS Twitter

When US President Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacists during his debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden, choosing instead to tell the Proud Boys—a far-right outfit designated as a hate-group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre—to “stand back and stand by”, the group took it as a tacit endorsement of their actions.

They have since released memes and t-shirts bearing Trump’s quote (later taken down by Amazon). The Washington Post reported that Trump’s comments gave the group a boost, with membership on Telegram groups rising as well as mention of the group on social media.

Now, an LGBT movements seeks to drown out the group’s newfound publicity by taking over the #ProudBoys hashtag.

Referring to the movement by kpop fans to drown out alt-right hashtags with posts about kpop groups like BTS, Star Trek actor George Takei tweeted, “I wonder if the BTS and TikTok kids can help LGBTs with this. What if gay guys took pictures of themselves making out with each other or doing very gay things, then tagged themselves with #ProudBoys. I bet it would mess them up real bad. #ReclaimingMyShine”.

The tweet was retweeted over 12,000 times and soon sparked a hashtag revolution.

Users flooded Twitter with pics of gay and queer couples with the hashtag #ProudBoys.

However, the movement has not phased some members of the Proud Boys. One of the group’s leaders, Enrique Tarrio, 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."

Notably, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes has frequently claimed that the group is not against homosexuality.  

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