06 October 2020 - The LGBTQ community take over the Proud Boys hashtag
Proud Boys: Far-right group becomes LGBT trend online
(BBC News, 05/10/2020)
Members of the LGBT community have been making #ProudBoys trend on social media by posting images of gay pride and pictures of themselves with loved ones.
The trend is part of efforts to drown out posts and content related to a far-right, anti-immigrant group of the same name.
Actors, artists and the Canadian armed forces are among those who have shared supportive pictures.
Gay men have taken over the Proud Boys Twitter hashtag
Alaa Elassar (CNN, 03/10/2020)
The Proud Boys hashtag, which members of the far-right group have been using, was trending Sunday after gay men on Twitter hijacked it and flooded the feed with photos of their loved ones and families and with memes.
The Proud Boys recently made headlines by celebrating President Trump's reply at last week's debate, when he was asked to condemn White supremacists. The President instead used his allotted time to blame what he called "antifa and the left" for violence and to tell the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by."
Gay Men Hijack ‘Proud Boys’ Hashtag In Powerful Social Media Campaign
Mary Papenfuss (The Huffington Post, 05/10/2020)
Gay men launched a savvy campaign over the weekend to appropriate the hashtag of the white supremacist “Proud Boys” with a tsunami of touching images and messages on social media.
The love resistance movement sent “Proud Boys” zooming into the trending stratosphere.
But the posts weren’t riddled with the disturbing images and hate-spewing messages by the group Donald Trump told to “stand by” after he was asked to condemn white supremacists at last week’s presidential debate. (He finally renounced the Proud Boys days later after a backlash.)
The Proud Boys were emboldened by Trump’s words. Then, LGBTQ couples reclaimed the group’s hashtag.
Jacelyn Peiser (The Washington Post, 05/10/2020)
At last week’s presidential debate, President Trump refused to condemn white supremacists and far-right groups like the Proud Boys, an organization that has been known to incite violence.
The president’s comment telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” provided a boost to the group on social media, emboldening its members to use Trump’s words as a rallying cry. Two days later, amid rising outrage, Trump denounced the group.
But then actor and activist George Takei suggested a clever comeback — a way to drown out the hate on social media and replace it with something, well, gay.