The organizers of a controversial “Straight Pride” parade in Boston, Massachusetts, alerted law enforcement earlier this week about a suspicious letter they received in the mail, believing it to possibly be a dangerous piece of parcel sent by opponents of their rally.
“The envelope immediately struck me as different,” Samson Racioppi, the treasurer of “Super Happy Fun America” (the group putting on the event), said to NBC News. “There was no return address, and it was taped around the edges, as if they didn’t want anything to fall out. I pinched the bottom and felt this granular substance.”
The president of the group described the package as an “act of domestic terrorism.” It turned out to simply be glitter.
The “Straight Pride” parade, which is being put on in response to LGBTQ pride parades and events across the country last month, drew widespread criticism from that community and its allies as missing the point of Pride Month in general, and being anti-LGBTQ in principle.
“Glitter bombing” — which doesn’t involve a literal bomb — is a common protest method used by those in the community, in which individuals who are opposed to LGBTQ rights are covered in glitter by an activist.
In spite of the non-danger that the group was in, Racioppi still maintained that the action was a severe one. “I wouldn’t wish this for anyone,” he said, according to Talking Points Memo.
Meanwhile, the people that Racioppi associates himself with have been involved with some shady characters themselves. Super Happy Fun America’s president, John Hugo, also has strong associations with another group called Resist Marxism, which endorsed him when he ran for Congress in 2018. Super Happy Fun America’s vice president, Mark Sahady, also has strong ties to the right-wing group.
Sahady also organized the right-wing “Free Speech Rally and Rally for the Republic” in Boston, which was a right-wing response to the violent protests that erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, per reporting from The Independent. Resist Marxism, which is an informal organization, also led a counter-protest against the Boston Women’s March earlier this year.
Despite it’s members’ confrontational tone in other events, Super Happy Fun America insists it’s Straight Pride march isn’t anti-LGBTQ, but merely pro-straight.
Featured image via Andy Phelan/Flickr
