Twitter users are flooding the Proud Boys hashtag, replacing images of white supremacy with ones of LGBTQI+ positivity.
Proud Boys, a far-right collective founded in 2016, calls itself a "white chauvinist organisation" but is considered a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Anti-Defamation League calls the Proud Boys' ideology "misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic, and anti-immigration."
The group recently made headlines after they were mentioned by name by President Donald Trump when he told them to "stand back and stand by" when asked to condemn white supremacy during his debate with Joe Biden.
He later denounced the group in an interview with Fox News.
On Sunday the #ProudBoys hashtag began trending on Twitter as LGBTQI+ users included it on photos of their significant others or wedding days and other pride imagery.
“Look at these cute lil #ProudBoys,” Bobby Berk, a host of the popular Netflix show Queer Eye, wrote on Sunday, alongside a photo with his husband. “Retweet and make this hashtag about love, not hate.”
The official Twitter account of the Canadian Armed Forces in the United States shared an image of a serviceman kissing his partner, captioned with emojis of the Canada flag and rainbow pride flag and the hashtag #ProudBoys.
“If you wear our uniform, know what it means. If you’re thinking about wearing our uniform, know what it means,” the organisation said in a follow-up tweet. “Love is love.”
Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, said he doesn't see what people are trying to accomplish.
"I think it's hysterical," Tarrio told CNN.
"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."
