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The Proud Boys are a male-only, neo-fascist and white nationalist political organization that was founded in 2016 by alt-right political commentator Gavin McInnes. Taking its name from a song from the musical Aladdin, the group was dedicated to preserving patriarchy in the United States and Canada, and claimed that men and Western culture were under siege, opposed Antifa and other socialist political movements, criticized Islam and feminism, opposed immigration, supported transphobia, glorified violence, and embraced racism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry. The organization's participation in the 2017 Unite the Right rally brought it nationwide attention in the United States, and McInnes attempted to distance the group from the rest of the alt-right by de-emphasizing its racial views; in 2019, the Afro-Cuban Enrique Tarrio became the group's chairman. However, the group returned to the media spotlight after participating in counter-protests during the George Floyd protests, and after President Donald Trump told them to "stand back and stand by" during a presidential debate; the Proud Boys adopted this statement as a battle cry. Sure enough, when Trump called on "patriots" to march with him to the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 and force the US Congress to invalidate the 2020 presidential election results (in Trump's favor), the Proud Boys - led by Enrique Tarrio - joined the 2021 United States coup d'etat attempt, storming the Capitol in Washington DC before they and the other far-right insurrectionists were forced out of the building by riot police.

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