Proud Boys
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| Named after | "Proud of Your Boy" |
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| Formation | 2016 |
| Founder | Gavin McInnes |
| Type | Far-right men's organization |
| Headquarters | New York City |
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Proud Boys is a far-right men's organization founded in 2016 by Vice Media co-founder and former commentator Gavin McInnes. McInnes describes the organization as a "pro-Western fraternal organization" for men who "refuse to apologize for creating the modern world." The group has been referred to as alt-right or alt-lite.
The group takes its name from the showtune "Proud of Your Boy," a song introduced in the 2011 stage-show version of Disney's Aladdin.
In 2017, Kyle Chapman, also known as "Based Stickman," formed a new wing of the Proud Boys called the "Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights" (FOAK).
The Proud Boys have a four-degree initiation process for new members. In the first degree, a recruit must declare “I am a Western chauvinist who refuses to apologize for creating the modern world.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the second degree involves five or more Proud Boys punching the recruit until he names five breakfast cereals. To earn the third degree, the recruit must get a Proud Boy tattoo. The fourth degree requires the recruit to get into a physical fight with an anti-fascist activist at a public rally.
In February 2017, McInnes arrived at New York University to give a speech, accompanied by a group of about ten Proud Boys. Minor violence broke out between Proud Boys and anti-fascist protesters, and the NYPD said that eleven people faced criminal charges. One member of the Proud Boys encouraged others to fight the "faggots wearing black that won’t let us in", and was later arrested for punching a reporter from DNAinfo.
At the 2017 March 4 Trump rally in Berkeley, California, Kyle Chapman was recorded hitting a counter-protester over the head with a wooden dowel. Images of Chapman went viral, and the Proud Boys organized a crowdfunding campaign for Chapman's bail after his arrest. After this, McInnes invited Chapman to become involved with the Proud Boys, through which he formed the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights.
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