A national fracture has erupted between two far-right groups quarreling at an Oregon LGBTQ+ Pride event, with threats of violence against each other.
In Oregon City, far-right groups protested the town’s first Pride Night festival on June 24. Rose City Nationalists, an international network of fitness-oriented neo-Nazis affiliated with Active Club Network, and PDX Proud Boys attended the event. However, they targeted more than just LGBTQ+ people. The two attacked each other as well, VICE News reports.
A video posted on Twitter shows the Proud Boys intimidating the neo-Nazis.
One of them shouted, “Begone, bitch!” Eventually, individual fights broke out between the Proud Boys and the Nazis. Several punches were thrown, and stomps attempted, but the Proud Boys mainly targeted the neo-Nazi skull masks.
“Demask them,” a member of the street gang called out.
For fear of being identified, the unmasked neo-Nazis hid their faces from the cameras as they fled. In the aftermath of the brawl, Oregon Live reported two arrests.
The Rose City Nationalists and all the other Active Club-affiliated groups felt humiliated and greatly upset as a result of this incident. “Proud Boys will be treated as enemy combatants from here on out. Let’s knuckle up,” the Tennessee Active Club urged, according to VICE.
According to a source with inside knowledge of the situation, what had happened was the former Proud Boy, who started Rose City Nationalists, was tweeting about his former colleagues, the outlet reported.
He faced backlash offline when he appeared at an anti-LGBTQ protest. It can be heard that the members of the Proud Boys are calling the former member turned neo-Nazi organizer homophobic slurs.
Around the world, neo-Nazi clubs are forming Active Clubs, networks of white racist men who train in fitness and combat sports. Chapters and fight tournaments are organized in the US, Canada, Europe, and Scandinavia. The group’s events have been banned in Germany.
A leader of Active Clubs, Robert Rundo, was arrested earlier this year in Romania.