The Proud Boys, an extreme right-wing, neo-fascist organization, has a reputation for violence and hatred towards other races, religions, and those who support or are members of the LGBTQ+ community. Contradictorily, the group publicly denies connections to white supremacy and claims to condemn racism, labeling themselves as “Western chauvinists” who aim to spread a message of “anti-political correctness” and “anti-white guilt.” Its members’ participation in racist and anti-left events has caused the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to deem the organization as extremist conservative and a hate group, respectively. 

The Proud Boys’ name originated from the song “Proud of Your Boy” from Disney’s 2011 musical Aladdin, which started off as a joke, according to the group’s founder Gavin McInnes. Now, the organization has between several hundred to 6,000 members, an estimated number due to the group’s loose association. The membership initiation process includes four stages: the first level starting with a loyalty oath and the last test being surviving a fight for the group’s cause.

Gavin McInnes, a Canadian writer from the UK, formed the Proud Boys in the fall of 2016, eight years after leaving VICE Media, the company that he co-founded in 1994. After McInnes separated from VICE due to creative differences, the magazine confirmed that he had no association with the company following his departure in 2008.

In an email to her staff, Nancy Dubuc, the CEO of Vice, affirmed, “I’m sure we’re all still trying to make some sense of what was said in last night’s U.S. Presidential debate, but I wanted to write to you to make one thing clear: Gavin McInnes has no affiliation with VICE…What he did after that [leaving the company in 2008] – including founding the Proud Boys in 2016 – had nothing to do with VICE, our values or our people.”

Two years after creating the organization, Gavin McInnes formally stepped down from his position as head of the Proud Boys in order to alleviate the charges that some members faced for an attack that followed a speech by their leader. Contrary to his claim of severing all connections to the group, McInnes filed a defamation lawsuit against SPLC in February 2019 for their designation of the Proud Boys as a “general hate group”, but SPLC filed a motion to dismiss McInnes’ lawsuit five months later.

Following McInnes’ resignation, former Proud Boys attorney Jason Van Dyke took his place as Chairman but was promptly dismissed after posting a document with the organization’s new bylaws without redacting the names of members in the Elders Chapter.

With no leader once Van Dyke was removed, Afro-Cuban Henry “Enrique” Tarrio assumed the position as head of the Proud Boys, a role he currently holds. Recently, Tarrio was arrested by Washington police on January 4th under the suspicion of burning a Black Lives Matter flag from historically-Black Asbury United Methodist Church a month prior. He was also charged with the possession of two high-capacity rifle magazines and instructed by a judge to leave the city with a pending court date in June, preventing him from partaking in the Capitol riot (although other members were seen participating). In 2014, Enrique Tarrio pleaded guilty in a fraud case, receiving a sentence of 30 months in prison, which in January 2021, was revealed to have been decreased to 16 months after his lawyer informed the judge of his assistance as a “prolific” informer in two federal cases that led to the prosecution of 13 people.

When questioned by Reuters on his undercover cooperation with the police, Tarrio denied the allegations, saying, “I don’t know any of this. I don’t recall any of this.”

The Proud Boys leader insisted that his sentence was reduced because he cleared up questions about his own case, not other people’s cases. However, law enforcement officials and the court transcript contradict his claim, causing rifts in the Proud Boys organization. Some of the group’s state chapters have tried to disassociate themselves from the organization’s central leadership due to the controversy surrounding Tarrio’s affiliation with the authorities by renaming their groups or even removing the Proud Boys moniker altogether.

The organization gained most of its attention from social media following the first presidential debate in September 2020. When Trump was asked to condemn white supremacists, he acknowledged the Proud Boys, telling them to “stand back and stand by.” The phrase was embraced by the group’s members as it became a part of their logo and has been used as a “battle cry” ever since.

Less than a month after the insurrection on Capitol Hill, Canada labeled the Proud Boys as a terrorist entity, including the extremist group on its terrorist list alongside others such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The country cited the organization’s significant role in the riot in Washington D.C. on January 6th as a primary factor leading to its designation as a terrorist group.

“These groups are unfortunately active in Canada and around the world,” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said. “Their violent actions and rhetoric are fueled by white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia and misogyny.”