The Straight Pride Parade held in Boston on Saturday was greeted by counter-protesters — and a large degree of ridicule.
“In dueling demonstrations about a mile apart, a Straight Pride Parade with a few hundred marchers holding small American flags stepped off at noon from Copley Square as a vocal counterprotest continued to grow at City Hall Plaza, the destination of the controversial march,” the Boston Globe reported Saturday. “Hundreds of police, many with gas masks and helmets, stood watch or walked beside the parade toward Government Center, where protest organizers pumped up the crowd with chants such as ‘No justice, no peace, no racist police’ and ‘We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous.’”
“The parade was organized by the group Super Happy Fun America, whose leaders have denied allegations of bigotry,” the newspaper noted. “Protesters, however, called the parade an affront to the LBGTQ community that is intended to stoke discrimination.”
“Parade organizer Mark Sahady is part of Resist Marxism, a group founded by an alt-right leader that has a history of violence. That group helped organize a ‘free speech’ rally in Boston in 2017 that critics said attracted white nationalists,” the Globe noted.
Here are some of the images from Boston: