Gavin McInnes founded the Proud Boys in 2016 as a far-right fraternal organization. The group has since grown more extremist. In February 2019, McInnes filed a defamation lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) over their designation of the Proud Boys as a hate group. The SPLC replied that “rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists.”[1] The group was designated a terrorist entity by the Canadian government in 2021. The Proud Boys were a major player in the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.[2]
Gavin McInnes is a far-right political pundit who openly describes himself as xenophobic. McInnes was born in England and raised in Canada. He immigrated from Canada to the United States in 1999 when Vice magazine, a publication that McInnes co-founded, moved its offices from Montreal to New York City.[3] Throughout the early 2000s, McInnes developed increasingly radical views on racism and white supremacy – ideas that came through in his writing for Vice. In 2008, McInnes left Vice after the organization filed a separation agreement. After leaving Vice, McInnes was hired to write a weekly column for Taki’s Magazine, an online magazine that publishes far-right content.[4] McInnes has praised the magazine for being a “place where you can say whatever you want.”[5]
In 2016, McInnes launched “The Gavin McInnes Show” with Compound Media, a subscription-based media platform.[6] There, McInnes regularly brought on right-wing guests and began cultivating “an ideological space for frustrated young men to rally around.”[7] These men began holding meetings in New York City dive bars, from which the Proud Boys eventually developed. In July 2016, it was reported that McInnes had “convened his local ‘Proud Boys’ chapter for their first in-person meeting.”[8] Several months later, on September 15, 2016, McInnes publicly announced the formation of the Proud Boys in an article he wrote for Taki’s Magazine. In the article, McInnes reported that the Proud Boys had over 1,000 members on its private Facebook page. He claimed that there were Proud Boys chapters around the world, including in New York City, New Jersey, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nashville, Texas, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. McInnes also outlined steps for readers to start their own Proud Boys chapters.[9]
The group’s official ideology includes allegiance to western culture and stresses elevating masculinity, opposing Islam, and defending its community from a perceived “war on whites.”[10] Members of the Proud Boys undergo a series of initiation rituals in order to gain degrees of status within the group. There are four ranks, or degrees, within the Proud Boys, which “serve as a basic rule set each member must follow in his ongoing pursuit of promotion.”[11] The degrees of membership symbolize an individual’s allegiance to the group, and the higher a member is ranked, the more he is trusted and respected by other members. As such, “many Proud Boys boast their rank by displaying the degree symbol wherever they can, be it on their bodies or social media profiles.”[12]
To attain the first degree, members must publicly declare: “I am a Western chauvinist and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” Reaching the second degree of membership involves getting repeatedly punched until members can recite five kinds of breakfast cereal. According to Yosef Ozia, a member of the Southern Proud Boys chapter in Atlanta, Georgia, this step in the initiation process has no real significance and originated from the following nonsensical rule that McInnes and his friends had in the past: “if someone farted, they’d get beat on until they could list five kinds of breakfast cereal.”[13] Second-degree members are also required to adhere to the group’s masturbation policy, which restricts members from masturbating more than once a month.[14] To progress to the third level, members must get a Proud Boys logo tattoo.[15] Members achieve the highest level of status once they engage in violence on the group’s behalf, such as assaulting a left-wing activist. For example, in January 2017, McInnes was filmed punching a counter-protester at the Deploraball, a far-right gathering in Washington, D.C. When discussing his assault at a speaking event the next month, McInnes declared: “I cannot recommend violence enough. It’s a really effective way to solve problems.”[16]
Some Proud Boys goals include ending welfare, closing borders, and promoting traditional gender roles.[17] The name “Proud Boys” references a song from the musical Aladdin, “Proud of Your Boy,” a name McInnes reportedly chose because he believed that the song denigrated men.[18] He regarded the name as an ironic way to celebrate far-right views of gender roles and masculinity.[19]
The Proud Boys have a large online following and a smaller core group of members who instigate operations and attend events in person. Analysts estimated that, by the end of 2017, there were 6,000 official Proud Boys members and more than 40,000 followers on the group’s social media pages.[20] In more recent years, the extent of the group’s online following has become less clear since Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube banned the group in 2018.[21]
Proud Boys activities range from deliberately provoking, or trolling, leftists online to participation in overt action, notably by targeting political adversaries at protests.[22] In March 2017, a Proud Boys member named Brandon Vaughan of the Ottawa, Canada, chapter assaulted a Palestinian-American community college professor. Videos of the assault show Proud Boys members fighting alongside the Jewish Defense League, a right-wing militant organization.[23]
In March 2017, a man named Kyle Chapman was arrested for beating a counter-protester with a wooden dowel rod during the “Battle for Berkeley,” a pro-Trump rally in northern California. Members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militant group, also attended.[24] Shortly after, the Proud Boys fundraised more than $87,000 to pay for Chapman’s bail and legal fees. Chapman was also contacted by Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes and subsequently brought into the organization.
In April 2017, after the violent “Second Battle of Berkeley” protest, Chapman announced the formation of the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK). The FOAK was originally organized as the “tactical defense arm” of the Proud Boys.[25] In a Facebook post, Chapman wrote that the FOAK aimed to “protect and defend our right wing brethren when the police and government fail to do so.”[26] FOAK members have wielded weapons at rallies and events, such as hammers, daggers, and pepper spray.[27] While the FOAK and the Proud Boys insist that they only engaged in violence in self-defense, Chapman encouraged members to provoke confrontation. For example, he told followers in June and July 2017 to declare “open season on Antifa,” “smash on sight,” and lynch politicians who endorse immigration.[28]
The Proud Boys has frequently attended far-right demonstrations, such as the “March Against Sharia” rallies in June 2017, which were organized by the Islamophobic hate group, ACT for America. In July 2017, the Proud Boys joined other anti-government militant groups, namely the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters, to caravan through Islamberg, New York. They claimed that the rural community was “an Islamic training ground.”[29]
The next month, in August 2017, the Proud Boys received national attention following the “Unite the Right” rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia. One woman was killed, and more than 30 people were injured at the event.[30] The rally was organized by former Proud Boys member Jason Kessler, who, along with other organizers, was found liable for injuries to counter-protesters in a civil suit in Virginia.[31] McInnes later attempted to distance the group from the event, claiming that the Proud Boys had “nothing to do with it.”[32] However, Jason Kessler discussed the rally less than two months earlier on McInnes’s talk show, “The Gavin McInnes Show,” and many Proud Boys members (including future Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio) attended the rally.[33]
Throughout 2017 and 2018, the Proud Boys continued to engage in street violence targeting those on the political left. The group often coordinated with Patriot Prayer – a Washington-based far-right group – to target left-wing activists in the Pacific Northwest.[34] Following June 2018 protests in Portland, Oregon, several Proud Boys members were arrested for assaulting counter-protestors.[35] Two months later, Twitter suspended the accounts of both the Proud Boys and McInnes. Facebook and Instagram followed suit shortly after.[36]
In October 2018, at the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City, McInnes gave a speech in which he “railed about socialism and political correctness.”[37] Members of the 211 Boot Boys, a local neo-Nazi skinhead group, were reportedly in attendance.[38] After the event, a fight broke out between the Proud Boys and counter-protestors, resulting in the arrests of several Proud Boys members on charges including attempted assault, gang assault, and riot. Convictions and prison sentences followed.[39]
In the face of mounting pressure and legal threats, in late November McInnes announced in a YouTube video that he was “officially disassociating” himself from the Proud Boys. He called this move a legal gesture that would “show jurors they are not dealing with a gang and there is no head of operations.”[40] This was in contrast to a 2017 interview, where McInnes had proclaimed, “I started this gang called the Proud Boys” that engages in violence “for fun.”[41]
When Proud Boys leader and founder Gavin McInnes stepped down in November 2018, Jason Lee Van Dyke was elected as the group’s chairman by members of the Proud Boys leadership council, known as the Elders Chapter.[42] Van Dyke was a practicing lawyer, and he served as the Proud Boys primary legal counsel and the sergeant-at-arms of the Dallas/Fort Worth Proud Boys chapter. In August 2017, Van Dyke had filed an application to trademark the name “Proud Boys,” which was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in May 2018.[43] However, Van Dyke served only two days as chairman before he was removed for failing to redact the Elders’ names when he published the group’s new bylaws online.[44] The Proud Boys website announced that Van Dyke left the group on November 29, 2018, although Van Dyke remains the owner of the trademark.[45] In an interview with the Huffington Post reporter Andy Campbell, Enrique Tarrio described the decision to appoint Van Dyke: “We picked [Van Dyke] and I thought that was a horrible, horrible idea. He didn’t have the chill. The chairman position was pitched as more of a PR person, and I just felt he was too emotional.”[46]
Tarrio, who previously led the Miami, Florida, chapter, was then appointed as national chairman. Tarrio has been known to use his Afro-Cuban ethnicity, as well as the ethnicity of other non-white Proud Boys members, as evidence that the group does not promote white supremacy. However, Tarrio has espoused racist sentiments on his personal social media accounts and attended white supremacist gatherings.[47]
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the groups’ paramilitary wing, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, was dissolved in early 2018 because of infighting and legal pressures facing FOAK leader Chapman.[48] However, Chapman remained involved with the group.[49] In 2020, Chapman expressed dissatisfaction with the Proud Boys' leadership. In a post published on Telegram, Chapman complained that the Proud Boys was not radical enough and should take a more hardline white supremacist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic stance. Chapman wanted to reorient the group to better address issues of “White Genocide” and the “failures of multiculturalism.” In his post, Chapman claimed to take over leadership of the group: “Due to the recent failure of Proud Boy Chairman Enrique Tarrio to conduct himself with honor and courage on the battlefield, it has been decided that I Kyle Chapman reassume my post as President of Proud Boys effective immediately.”[50] Despite this rhetoric, however, Chapman did not successfully take over control of the Proud Boys.[51]
In November 2018, there were reports that the Proud Boys was designated as an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism” by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).[52] However, the FBI soon issued a correction to clarify that the FBI had not designated the Proud Boys as extremist.[53] There is no legal mechanism in the United States to designate a domestic group as terrorist or extremist.[54] However, the FBI can list individuals on its Terrorist Screening Database, a watchlist that is distinct from the “No Fly” list and the designation of foreign terrorist organizations. At the time of the attack on the Capitol, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database reportedly contained the names of dozens of participants in the riot, many of whom were suspected white supremacists.[55] The names of individuals listed in the Terrorist Screening Database are not made public, and it is unknown whether Proud Boys members are or were included.
The wave of civil and political unrest associated with the 2020 presidential election gave the Proud Boys new opportunities to engage in coordinated violence, specifically against left-wing protestors in Democrat-heavy areas like Portland, Oregon. The Proud Boys engaged in near-daily violent demonstrations in Portland during the summer of 2020, leading Oregon’s governor to declare a state of emergency in September.[56] Proud Boys members were videoed using baseball bats and other weapons to assault opposing protestors.[57]
Proud Boys member Alan Swinney was arrested on numerous assault and unlawful weapon charges following a Portland demonstration on August 22.[58] In September, Swinney gained national attention when news outlets published a series of leaked messages between Proud Boys members and other far-right militia groups – such as Patriot Prayer, Resist Marxism, and American Guard.[59] A message from Swinney read: “We need to inflict as much damage as possible in the time we have.” Another group member, Anthony Mastrostefano, proclaimed: “When the time comes, I will stop at nothing to fully eradicate them all,” referring to the Proud Boy’s political enemies.[60]
In late 2020, the group generated new interest and membership. Tarrio claimed that over 20,000 new members joined the Proud Boys.[61] This surge may have been due in part to the comments of then U.S. President Trump during the first presidential debate. When asked if he would publicly denounce white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys, Trump responded, “Proud Boys stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”[62] Analysts found that Proud Boys members on the conservative social media site Parler and the encrypted messaging app Telegram interpreted Trump’s comments as an endorsement of the group. One Proud Boys member said that Trump was giving them permission to attack counter-protestors.[63] Other Proud Boys members turned the former president’s comments into an opportunity for recruitment and fundraising, selling merchandise with the group’s logo and the message, “PROUD BOYS STANDING BY.”[64]
Following the November 2020 presidential election, the Proud Boys participated in “Stop the Steal” events across the United States.[65] Between the election and President Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021, more than 70% of Proud Boys-related events took place in state capitals and Washington, D.C., which suggests a shift to focusing on the government as the enemy.[66]
On December 12, 2020, the Proud Boys descended into Washington, D.C. for a “Stop the Steal” campaign event dubbed the “2nd Million MAGA March.” The demonstration mostly featured Proud Boys members, other Trump supporters, and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.[67] As was typical, the Proud Boys provoked fights with counter-protestors. At least four people were stabbed near Harry’s, a dive bar where the Proud Boys gathered during the march. Although several eyewitness and video reports showed Proud Boys members involved in the stabbings, no arrests were made. On the National Mall, Proud Boys members and other far-right rioters were filmed assaulting a counter-protestor.[68] Later that day, several Proud Boys members tore down and set fire to Black Lives Matter banners at two historic Black churches in Washington, D.C., Asbury United Methodist Church and Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.[69] The latter congregation filed a lawsuit against Tarrio and the Proud Boys, claiming they “violated D.C. and federal law by trespassing and destroying religious property.”[70] On June 30, 2023, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the Proud Boys to pay more than one million dollars in damages to the church.[71]
The “Stop the Steal” campaign culminated in the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the certification of the 2020 election. Tarrio had encouraged Proud Boys members to travel to D.C., asserting on his personal social media pages: “We will not be wearing our traditional black and yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams.”[72] However, when Tarrio arrived in D.C. two days before the rally, he was arrested in connection with the December 2020 attack on United Asbury Methodist Church, mentioned above, when he burned a Black Lives Matter banner and was found to be in possession of high-capacity firearm magazines.[73] In August 2021, he was sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty. Tarrio admitted to the court that he had made a grave mistake for which he apologized profusely.[74]
Ethan Nordean took charge after Tarrio’s arrest. U.S. prosecutors allege that Nordean led the Proud Boys in executing their plan to split up into groups and attack the Capitol from as many points as possible.[75] Video evidence shows Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola shattering a window on the west side of the building, allowing Proud Boys members William Pepe, Gilbert Garcia, and Joseph Biggs to be among the first rioters to enter the Capitol.[76] In November 2021, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 assault on the Capitol issued subpoenas naming Proud Boys International and Enrique Tarrio.[77]
In February 2021, the Canadian federal government designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist entity, citing its role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol.[78] Shortly after, at least one Proud Boys chapter in Canada announced that it had “officially” dissolved itself.[79] The Proud Boys’ U.S. chapters also began to split off, especially after leaked reports about Tarrio’s past as an informant for local authorities and the FBI.[80] Several Proud Boys chapters issued social media posts distancing themselves from the national leadership or “any subsequent body that is formed to replace them,” with some chapters claiming they had disbanded altogether.[81]
Analysts argue that reports of Proud Boys disbanding or distancing from the national leadership should be viewed with caution.[82] They warn that new factions of the organization are drifting further right and growing increasingly violent. Infighting about what direction the Proud Boys should take allows more extreme members to gain prominence among the group’s large network of followers.[83] For example, the former “Proud Boys Uncensored” Telegram channel was rebranded, dropping the “Proud Boys” name to focus more on spreading ultra-nationalism and other neo-fascist ideologies.[84]
Statements from Proud Boys members also indicated a growing disillusionment with the Republican Party. Nordean accused President Trump of abandoning the group by failing to pardon himself and other Proud Boys members charged in connection to the insurrection, lamenting: “Yes he woke us up, but he led us to believe some great justice was upon us ... and it never happened.”[85]
Despite internal and external pressures, the Proud Boys have shown no sign of slowing down. In fact, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the period since the insurrection “has been the most active [one] in the group’s history.”[86] In 2021, the Proud Boys continued to mobilize—sometimes violently—in response to persistent narratives related to the “Stop the Steal” campaign and the COVID-19 pandemic. Reports found a strong presence of COVID-19 conspiracy theories on social media accounts associated with the Proud Boys, with the majority of disinformation posts arguing that COVID-19 was created by Bill Gates.[87] Proud Boys appeared at more than 20 events in 13 cities across North America in the six months after January 6, 2021.[88] Between 50-60 Proud Boys members attended an April 2021 protest in Fresno, California, where fights broke out.[89] In August 2021, dozens of Proud Boys engaged in street fights with counter-protestors, shooting paintball guns and smashing windows.[90] In 2022, the Proud Boys significantly increased their attacks on reproductive justice and the LGBTQ community.[91] As of July 1, 2022, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), the group has participated in 27 abortion-related events, which “amounts to a 160% spike over the previous year.”[92] Moreover, during the first six months of 2022, the group targeted eleven LGBTQ-related events, the majority of which featured drag queens.[93]
In December 2021, it was reported that Proud Boys chapters were becoming increasingly involved in local politics as well as cultural issues. Members of the group have been present at school board and town council meetings in several states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, and North Carolina. The shift from national to local politics is seen by some researchers to be part of a larger strategy to attract new members by championing local causes, such as challenging coronavirus restrictions and mask mandates.[94]
In September 2022, the Proud Boys held its annual “WestFest” convention in Las Vegas, which McInnes attended. There, the former leader found the group “bitterly divided, split roughly evenly between two factions that call themselves ‘Standard’ and ‘National.’”[95] According to McInnes, “Both sides say that the other side is racist and tolerates pedophiles.” This split dates back to the revelation that Enrique Tarrio was previously a federal informant. Whereas the National faction still maintains allegiance to Tarrio, the Standard faction does not, opting instead to be governed by a “Standard” of behavior. It is unclear what such behavior refers to; however, one supporter on Telegram explained that the two main rules of the faction are “No snitches. No sex criminals.”[96] Days after the event, McInnes attempted to quell the infighting on Telegram, claiming without evidence that the division was the result of a ploy by the federal government to break up the Proud Boys. Soon after, McInnes expelled two members from the Standard faction, including Brien James, a longtime white supremacist. According to Will Sommers, a reporter for The Daily Beast, these actions suggest that McInnes “still holds leadership power over the Proud Boys, despite his claims to the contrary.”[97]
In June 2022, five leaders of the group – Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola – were federally indicted on seditious conspiracy charges “for their actions before and during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”[98] On May 4, 2023, after a four-month trial, Tarrio and three of the other defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy, a charge which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Dominic Pezzola was found not guilty on the sedition charge, but he was convicted of other major felonies.[99] On September 5, 2023, Tarrio received a sentence of 22 years in prison; previously, Ethan Nordean was sentenced to 18 years in prison, Biggs to 17 years, Rehl to 15 years, and Pezzola to 10 years.[100]
At least 40 other members of the group were charged in relation to their participation in the January 6 riot. Several were convicted or pleaded guilty to the charges.[101] They include Jeremy Bertino, a leader in the group who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, also Nicholas Ochs, the founder of the group’s Hawaii chapter and Nicholas DeCarlo, both of whom pleaded guilty to the felony of obstructing an official proceeding.[102] Another member, Joshua Pruitt, was sentenced to 55 months, or 4.5 years, in federal prison.[103]
In the wake of the 2023 convictions of the Proud Boys national leadership, no members have come forward to lead the group.[104] Like other far-right extremist organizations in the United States, the Proud Boys is a highly decentralized organization does not require an active national leader to continue operations. Semi-autonomous local chapters can make decisions and plan activities without direction from a central leadership. As of September 2023, it remains to be seen whether a new national leader or leadership will emerge to publicly replace Tarrio and claim control of the group.
