Category Archives: Proud Boys

PLYMOUTH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IDRx, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to transforming cancer treatment with purpose-built precision combination therapies, launched today with a $122 million oversubscribed Series A financing. The financing was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Casdin Capital, with participation from Nextech Invest, Forge Life Science Partners and other undisclosed investors. Inspired by a few curative combination regimens in cancer and the successful drug cocktails engineered in other disease areas such as cystic fibrosis and antivirals, IDRx was incubated by Borisy Labs to address the limitations of todays precision cancer medicines with highly selective, purposely designed drug combinations to help more patients achieve prolonged, durable responses to therapy earlier in the course of their disease.

Although precision medicines have revolutionized the treatment of some cancers, tumors can evolve multiple escape mutations, said Alexis Borisy, co-founder of IDRx. At IDRx, we are leveraging deep scientific insights in tumor biology with now available drug engineering capabilities to pioneer novel, selective, intelligently designed combination therapies that aim to hit driver mutations hard, cover escape pathways and provide sufficient therapeutic index and safety profiles for use in early lines of treatment where there is the best potential to provide patients with durable clinical benefits.

IDRxs approach offers the opportunity to develop more effective cancer medicines for patients through intentionally built treatment combinations, and we are starting with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), where tumor biology is well known but, at the same time, there remains a high unmet medical need, said Ben Auspitz, co-founder and CEO of IDRx. We are proud to assemble this expert team of founders and leaders in precision medicine and in GIST, and to be launching as a clinical-stage company with our first-in-human study for IDRX-42 initiated. Our goal is to build de novo combinations to serve as transformative cancer treatments.

Advancing Pipeline of Precision Cancer Combination Therapies

IDRxs pipeline includes IDRX-42 and IDRX-73, small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors acquired through license agreements with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Blueprint Medicines, respectively, which are designed to inhibit the key genetic drivers and drug-resistant mutations of non-PDGFR-driven gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a sarcoma of the GI tract.

A Phase 1 first-in-human study of IDRX-42 has been initiated, and IDRX-73 is currently advancing towards the clinic. IDRX-42 was also recently granted Orphan Drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of GIST.

Accomplished Founders and Experienced Leadership

IDRxs founders and leadership team are comprised of established life science industry leaders with deep expertise in drug development, who collectively have been involved in the discovery, development and commercialization of more than 10 approved drugs.

IDRx Founders:

IDRx Management Team and Advisers:

About IDRx

IDRx is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to transforming cancer care with intelligently designed precision combination therapies. Inspired by a few curative combination regimens in cancer and the successful drug cocktails purposely engineered in other disease areas such as cystic fibrosis and antivirals, IDRx aims to address the limitations of todays precision cancer medicines with highly selective, engineered drug combinations to stop key tumor escape mechanisms and prolong response to therapy. IDRxs pipeline programs include small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors, IDRX-42 and IDRX-73, designed to inhibit key genetic drivers and drug-resistant mutations of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). Founded in 2021, IDRxs leadership team has extensive experience in drug development and collectively has been involved in the discovery, development and commercialization of more than 10 approved drugs. To learn more, please visit http://www.idrx.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

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IDRx Launches with $122 Million Series A Financing to Treat Cancer with Purpose-Built Precision Combination Therapies - Business Wire

DUBLIN, Aug. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --The 'Human Identification - A Global and Regional Analysis: Focus on Offering, Technology, Applicati n, End User, and Region - Analysis and Forecast, 2022-2032'report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Human identification Market Industry Overview

The global human identification market is projected to reach $6,435.6 million by 2032 from $1,385.8 million in 2021, at a CAGR of 14.77% during the forecast period 2022-2032. The growth in the global human identification market is expected to be driven by the increasing adoption of NGS in various research fields, high adoption of forensic applications, and technological advancements in the field of molecular techniques and diagnostics tests.

Market Lifecycle Stage

Human identification is widely used in forensics, paternity testing, disaster victim identification, and anthropology, among other applications, with DNA analysis/profiling being a key tool in this sector. Due to increasing demands on time and resources, human identification and forensics labs are under constant pressure to increase the efficiency of their workflows without sacrificing quality. Examining the variety of biological indicators that are available to investigators illustrates the basic principles of each process in criminal investigation and paternity identification.

While DNA and fingerprints are clearly the favored methods of identification, they require a prior record and verifiable baseline for comparison. Further remarkable advancements in the field of genomics, proteomics, molecular biology, data analytics, and technical engineering have paved the way for the development of advanced NGS-based technologies, such as SNP and STR sequencing.

The impressive research on molecular technologies and biomarkers using NGS has unlocked pathways for the development of various momentous procedures such as mtDNA sequencing. The growing demand for non-invasive diagnostic procedures enabling genetic profiling has further enhanced the requirement for NGS technologies.

Impact

Market Segmentation

by Offering

by Technology

by Application

by End User

Recent Developments in the Global Human identification Market

Demand - Drivers and Limitations

Drivers:

Challenges:

Opportunities

Key Topics Covered:

1 Market

2 Market Scope

3 Research Methodology

4 Market Overview

5 Industry Insights

6 Market Dynamics

7 Competitive Insights

8 Global Human Identification Market, by Offering, $Million, 2021-2032

9 Global Human Identification Market, by Technology, $Million, 2021-2032

10 Global Human Identification Market, by Application, $Million, 2021-2032

11 Global Human Identification Market, by End User, $Million, 2021-2032

12 Global Human Identification Market, By Region, $Million, 2021-2032

13 Market - Company Profiles

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/afd0ox

Media Contact:

Research and MarketsLaura Wood, Senior Managerpress@researchandmarkets.com

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Global Human Identification Market Report 2022: Massive Scope for Adoption of NGS and Capillary Electroph - Benzinga

Circuit Paul Ricard in France is one of the fastest on the calendar and requires full commitment throughout the lap. Logan Sargeant is coming off back-to-back feature race victories and will be looking to keep that momentum up. Having failed to score in the last race, championship leader Drugovich will be determined to set that right.

The last time F2 raced here was in 2019 and it was won by Nyck De Vries, who since left for Formula E. The track is 5.842-km long with two DRS zones and a lot of overtaking opportunities for those brave enough.

The tires are different from the last time they were here. The track is also known to be reasonably high for degradation. This means getting the strategy right in the Feature Race will be paramount to finishing well.

No rain is expected this weekend, just extremely high temperatures. It will present its own challenges to the drivers who will be pushing for every position they can. Mistakes are not uncommon around here, but drivers must always remember the golden rule

Dont hit your teammate!

Drugovich maintains a relatively healthy lead, but Sargeant is on a charge and looking to close the gap further.

Formula 2 is more about the drivers aiming to step up to Formula 1 but the last races have moved the championship order around a bit. Serial winners Prema now sit in fourth a little adrift. Thanks to Sargents recent wins, Carlin is only one point off the top.

With the gap since F2 last raced here, not many of the drivers will have experience of the track. Potentially leading to anything happening. So far it has certainly been a fools game to predict what will happen but it doesnt stop us from trying!

With it effectively being Pourchaires home race then cannot look much further than him for the win.

The Feature Race podium prediction:

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READ NEXT: F1 French Grand Prix Preview, Predictions, and How to Watch

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F2: France Preview, Predictions and How to Watch - Last Word On Motorsport

Alex Finley, a former C.I.A. officer who has seen yachts proliferate near her home in Barcelona, has weighed the superyacht era and its discontents in writings and on Twitter, using the hashtag #YachtWatch. To me, the yachts are not just yachts, she told me. In Russias case, these are the embodiment of oligarchs helping a dictator destabilize our democracy while utilizing our democracy to their benefit. But, Finley added, its a mistake to think the toxic symbolism applies only to Russia. The yachts tell a whole story about a Faustian capitalismthis idea that were ready to sell democracy for short-term profit, she said. Theyre registered offshore. They use every loophole that weve put in place for illicit money and tax havens. So they play a role in this battle, writ large, between autocracy and democracy.

After a morning on the docks at the Palm Beach show, I headed to a more secluded marina nearby, which had been set aside for what an attendant called the really big hardware. It felt less like a trade show than like a boutique resort, with a swimming pool and a terrace restaurant. Kevin Merrigan, a relaxed Californian with horn-rimmed glasses and a high forehead pinked by the sun, was waiting for me at the stern of Unbridled, a superyacht with a brilliant blue hull that gave it the feel of a personal cruise ship. He invited me to the bridge deck, where a giant screen showed silent video of dolphins at play.

Merrigan is the chairman of the brokerage Northrop & Johnson, which has ridden the tide of growing boats and wealth since 1949. Lounging on a sofa mounded with throw pillows, he projected a nearly postcoital level of contentment. He had recently sold the boat we were on, accepted an offer for a behemoth beside us, and begun negotiating the sale of yet another. This client owns three big yachts, he said. Its a hobby for him. Were at a hundred and ninety-one feet now, and last night he said, You know, what do you think about getting a two hundred and fifty? Merrigan laughed. And I was, like, Cant you just have dinner?

Among yacht owners, there are some unwritten rules of stratification: a Dutch-built boat will hold its value better than an Italian; a custom design will likely get more respect than a series yacht; and, if you want to disparage another mans boat, say that it looks like a wedding cake. But, in the end, nothing says as much about a yacht, or its owner, as the delicate matter of L.O.A.length over all.

The imperative is not usually length for lengths sake (though the longtime owner told me that at times there is an aspect of phallic sizing). L.O.A. is a byword for grandeur. In most cases, pleasure yachts are permitted to carry no more than twelve passengers, a rule set by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which was conceived after the sinking of the Titanic. But those limits do not apply to crew. So, you might have anything between twelve and fifty crew looking after those twelve guests, Edmiston, the broker, said. Its a level of service you cannot really contemplate until youve been fortunate enough to experience it.

As yachts have grown more capacious, and the limits on passengers have not, more and more space on board has been devoted to staff and to novelties. The latest fashions include IMAX theatres, hospital equipment that tests for dozens of pathogens, and ski rooms where guests can suit up for a helicopter trip to a mountaintop. The longtime owner, who had returned the previous day from his yacht, told me, No one todayexcept for assholes and ridiculous peoplelives on land in what you would call a deep and broad luxe life. Yes, people have nice houses and all of that, but its unlikely that the ratio of staff to them is what it is on a boat. After a moment, he added, Boats are the last place that I think you can get away with it.

Even among the truly rich, there is a gap between the haves and the have-yachts. One boating guest told me about a conversation with a famous friend who keeps one of the worlds largest yachts. He said, The boat is the last vestige of what real wealth can do. What he meant is, You have a chef, and I have a chef. You have a driver, and I have a driver. You can fly privately, and I fly privately. So, the one place where I can make clear to the world that I am in a different fucking category than you is the boat.

After Merrigan and I took a tour of Unbridled, he led me out to a waiting tender, staffed by a crew member with an earpiece on a coil. The tender, Merrigan said, would ferry me back to the busy main dock of the Palm Beach show. We bounced across the waves under a pristine sky, and pulled into the marina, where my fellow-gawkers were still trying to talk their way past the greeters. As I walked back into the scrum, Namast was still there, but it looked smaller than I remembered.

For owners and their guests, a white boat provides a discreet marketplace for the exchange of trust, patronage, and validation. To diagram the precise workings of that tradethe customs and anxieties, strategies and slightsI talked to Brendan OShannassy, a veteran captain who is a curator of white-boat lore. Raised in Western Australia, OShannassy joined the Navy as a young man, and eventually found his way to skippering some of the worlds biggest yachts. He has worked for Paul Allen, the late co-founder of Microsoft, along with a few other billionaires he declines to name. Now in his early fifties, with patient green eyes and tufts of curly brown hair, OShannassy has had a vantage from which to monitor the social traffic. Its all gracious, and everyones kiss-kiss, he said. But theres a lot going on in the background.

OShannassy once worked for an owner who limited the number of newspapers on board, so that he could watch his guests wait and squirm. It was a mind game amongst the billionaires. There were six couples, and three newspapers, he said, adding, They were ranking themselves constantly. On some boats, OShannassy has found himself playing host in the awkward minutes after guests arrive. A lot of them are savants, but some are very un-socially aware, he said. They need someone to be social and charming for them. Once everyone settles in, OShannassy has learned, there is often a subtle shift, when a mogul or a politician or a pop star starts to loosen up in ways that are rarely possible on land. Your security is relaxedtheyre not on your hip, he said. Youre not worried about paparazzi. So youve got all this extra space, both mental and physical.

OShannassy has come to see big boats as a space where powerful solar systems converge and combine. It is implicit in every interaction that their sharing of information will benefit both parties; it is an obsession with billionaires to do favours for each other. A referral, an introduction, an insightit all matters, he wrote in Superyacht Captain, a new memoir. A guest told OShannassy that, after a lavish display of hospitality, he finally understood the business case for buying a boat. One deal secured on board will pay it all back many times over, the guest said, and it is pretty hard to say no after your kids have been hosted so well for a week.

Take the case of David Geffen, the former music and film executive. He is long retired, but he hosts friends (and potential friends) on the four-hundred-and-fifty-four-foot Rising Sun, which has a double-height cinema, a spa and salon, and a staff of fifty-seven. In 2017, shortly after Barack and Michelle Obama departed the White House, they were photographed on Geffens boat in French Polynesia, accompanied by Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, and Rita Wilson. For Geffen, the boat keeps him connected to the upper echelons of power. There are wealthier Americans, but not many of them have a boat so delectable that it can induce both a Democratic President and the workingmans crooner to risk the aroma of hypocrisy.

The binding effect pays dividends for guests, too. Once people reach a certain level of fame, they tend to conclude that its greatest advantage is access. Spend a week at sea together, lingering over meals, observing one another floundering on a paddleboard, and you have something of value for years to come. Call to ask for an investment, an introduction, an internship for a wayward nephew, and youll at least get the call returned. Its a mutually reinforcing circle of validation: shes here, Im here, were here.

But, if you want to get invited back, you are wise to remember your part of the bargain. If you work with movie stars, bring fresh gossip. If youre on Wall Street, bring an insight or two. Dont make the transaction obvious, but dont forget why youre there. When I see the guest list, OShannassy wrote, I am aware, even if not all names are familiar, that all have been chosen for a purpose.

For OShannassy, there is something comforting about the status anxieties of people who have everything. He recalled a visit to the Italian island of Sardinia, where his employer asked him for a tour of the boats nearby. Riding together on a tender, they passed one colossus after another, some twice the size of the owners superyacht. Eventually, the man cut the excursion short. Take me back to my yacht, please, he said. They motored in silence for a while. There was a time when my yacht was the most beautiful in the bay, he said at last. How do I keep up with this new money?

The summer season in the Mediterranean cranks up in May, when the really big hardware heads east from Florida and the Caribbean to escape the coming hurricanes, and reconvenes along the coasts of France, Italy, and Spain. At the center is the Principality of Monaco, the sun-washed tax haven that calls itself the worlds capital of advanced yachting. In Monaco, which is among the richest countries on earth, superyachts bob in the marina like bath toys.

Shut up and play the hits!

Cartoon by Maggie Larson

The nearest hotel room at a price that would not get me fired was an Airbnb over the border with France. But an acquaintance put me on the phone with the Yacht Club de Monaco, a members-only establishment created by the late monarch His Serene Highness Prince Rainier III, whom the Web site describes as a true visionary in every respect. The club occasionally rents roomscabins, as theyre calledto visitors in town on yacht-related matters. Claudia Batthyany, the elegant director of special projects, showed me to my cabin and later explained that the club does not aspire to be a hotel. We are an association, she said. Otherwise, it becomesshe gave a gentle wincenot that exclusive.

Inside my cabin, I quickly came to understand that I would never be fully satisfied anywhere else again. The space was silent and aromatically upscale, bathed in soft sunlight that swept through a wall of glass overlooking the water. If I was getting a sudden rush of the onboard experience, that was no accident. The clubhouse was designed by the British architect Lord Norman Foster to evoke the opulent indulgence of ocean liners of the interwar years, like the Queen Mary. I found a handwritten welcome note, on embossed club stationery, set alongside an orchid and an assemblage of chocolate truffles: The whole team remains at your entire disposal to make your stay a wonderful experience. Yours sincerely, Service Members. I saluted the nameless Service Members, toiling for the comfort of their guests. Looking out at the water, I thought, intrusively, of a line from Santiago, Hemingways old man of the sea. Do not think about sin, he told himself. It is much too late for that and there are people who are paid to do it.

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The Age of the Superyacht - The New Yorker

Washington A group of Proud Boys accused of seditious conspiracy on Wednesday successfully petitioned a judge to delay their trial until at least the end of the year. The move comes less than two weeks after their alleged leadership role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol took center stage in the first House Select Committee public hearing on the riot.

Judge Timothy Kelly said he "reluctantly" agreed to move the trial start date to December, pushing back its previously-scheduled start date of Aug. 8 .

Spearheaded by defendant Joseph Biggs who investigators say is an organizer of Proud Boys events and who is accused of being at the forefront of the far-right group's ascent on the Capitol the group argued the publicity and attention they received during the hearings would make their August trial unfair.

"It is estimated that trial will last from four to six weeks," Biggs' defense attorney argued, "Approximately 20 million Americans, which includes prospective jurors in this judicial district, watched and heard that Thursday evening prime-time production."

The House Jan. 6 select committee alleged in their first in a series of public hearing that hundreds of Proud Boys began marching to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump's speech at the nearby Ellipse rallying supporters even began. One of the two witnesses who testified in the hearing was Nick Quested, a filmmaker who was with the Proud Boys on Jan. 6.

The defendants argued in court filings that this focus on the accusations against them would inject bias into a Washington, D.C. jury pool that is already likely "overrepresented among the hearing's viewership."

Criminal investigators in the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office allege the group, led by Enrique Tarrio, conspired to obstruct and stop the counting of the Electoral College votes by forming a mob to force entry into the Capitol building.

Prosecutors revealed in a court filing late last week that they sent a letter to the House select committee members asking for access to transcripts and relevant evidence that may have been collected to assist in the criminal probe related to the riot. The interview transcripts, which the committee says total over 1,000, are "potentially relevant to our overall criminal investigations" and relevant to specific cases already in process, according to the letter from the Justice Department.

They have attempted to gain access to the Congressional evidence, but have so far failed to do so.

House Jan. 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said that while the committee is cooperating with the Justice Department and may allow prosecutors to view some of the evidence later this summer, they have their own timetable for releases and would not disclose the transcripts until they deemed fit.

Biggs and some of his fellow co-defendants argued that the pending release of these transcripts and a final report by the committee, which prosecutors said they were told might happen in September, would further lead to "contaminating" the potential jurors tasked with deciding their guilt

"The most shrill and spectacular overtures about the alleged role of the Proud Boys on January 6, 2021 are arguably yet to come and showcased before the nation in the next few days," Biggs' attorney wrote on Tuesday in arguing the trial should be moved until at least December.

Tarrio, the alleged leader of the Proud Boys on Jan. 6, opposed moving the trial date. His attorney told the court Tarrio, "believes that an impartial jury will never be achieved in Washington D.C. whether the trial is in August, December, or next year," adding, "Tarrio is innocent of all the accusations contained in the indictment and every day he spends locked up in jail is a travesty of justice."

Federal prosecutors notably consented to the proposed delay, arguing it was "necessary to avoid the potential Constitutional and due process issues that have been presented in the parties' filings."

The government agreed that the lack of committee interview transcripts and other potentially relevant information could impede the government from providing defendants with all of the information legally required for a fair trial.

"It is reasonably foreseeable that information relevant to the defendants' guilt (or innocence) could soon be released to the parties and the public. The parties' inability to prepare their respective cases to account for such additional information is potentially prejudicialto all parties," prosecutors wrote.

They noted, "Were the trial in this case not continued, the parties in this case could find themselves in the unprecedented position of litigating a criminal trial simultaneous to the release of a Congressional report that is likely to include robust descriptions of the criminal conduct" that would be at issue at trial.

Tarrio, Biggs, and co-defendants Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, and Dominic Pezzola have all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them and remain in pretrial detention. Charles Donohoe, another alleged leader of the group, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and assaulting and impeding police officers earlier this year and is now cooperating with investigators.

Wednesday's successful calendar shift was not the first time Biggs has worked to change the course of the pending jury trial on account of alleged juror bias from the House Jan. 6 committee hearings.

Last week, Biggs' attorney once again asked Kelly to move the criminal trial out of Washington, D.C., accusing the House committee of fomenting "misrepresentations" and "outright lies" about the Proud Boys.

"The good, well-meaning, informed, media-attentive citizenry of the District of Columbia from which jurors are drawn will believe that spectacle as packaged," Biggs' request said, "They trust Congress."

So far, despite over a dozen separate attempts, no Jan. 6 defendant has successfully petitioned a judge to move their criminal cases out of the nation's capital.

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Proud Boys' trial delayed after defendants say Jan. 6 committee ...

Newly revealed video shows Proud Boys leaders calling on members to remain orderly and professional during the Jan. 6, 2021, march that turned into the U.S. Capitol riot.

Enrique Tarrio and some of his top lieutenants met Dec. 30, 2020, for a video conference to found the right-wing paramilitary group's Ministry of Self-Defense, and they told group members to remain in a defensive posture for their march the following week and keep "normies" away from them, but that's not what happened, reported the New York Times.

Were never going to be the ones to cross the police barrier or cross something in order to get to somebody, Tarrio said.

The extremist group's members played an aggressive and apparently coordinated role in breaking into the Capitol, and Tarrio and several other Proud Boys members have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the deadly riot.

Proud Boys members also repeatedly instigated Donald Trump supporters around them in a tactic that members later described in private messages as riling up the normies.

The video conference has been mentioned in court papers but hasn't been widely seen, and the Times obtained a copy recently that had been seized from Tarrio's phone.

Proud Boys lawyers say the video recording shows the Ministry of Self-Defense was not "formed to plan a violent attack on the Capitol," as prosecutors allege, but shows the group was trying to avoid the chaos and violence from a Dec. 12, 2020, march in Washington, D.C., following a pro-Trump rally.

However, the video shows group members using flagrantly misogynistic, homophobic and antisemitic language and rarely mention the Capitol at all, and prosecutors say some of the Proud Boys in that meeting used violent language in private messages ahead of the riot.

Time to stack those bodies in front of Capitol Hill," one of the members posted in a group chat that included other members of the ministry.

What would they do if 1 million patriots stormed and took the Capitol building," said another member in the group. "Shoot into the crowd? I think not.

Link:

New video shows Proud Boys ignored their own orders against violence ...

By WECT

Wilmington, N.C. A Wilmington library that was celebrating Pride month with a reading was disrupted by Proud Boy demonstrators Tuesday.

The Southern Poverty Law Group has designated the Proud Boys as far-right extremists and a hate group.

Some of the families in the library said they were frightened by the protest.

"I definitely felt very unsafe, though," said Emily Jones.

A Pride story-time event at Pine Valley Library on Tuesday started peacefully. But parents said it quickly turned chaotic and filled them with fear when a handful of Proud Boys showed up in the window of their event room.

"They're doing that on purpose, for sure, to intimidate people," said Jones.

Jones was inside with her 1-year-old daughter. She said she takes her daughter to the story-time events often and was especially excited for this one, but her excitement quickly turned to panic.

"When a group of known violent people ... at that point, when those people show up, and they're coming into the library and trying to disrupt the story time, that's when I felt unsafe," said Jones.

The New Hanover County Sheriff's Office had deputies at the event to prevent the Proud Boys from entering the room.

Angie Kahney was in the hallway when the demonstrators walked in. She said the group was loud and disruptive.

But in a statement, the sheriff's office said there was no disturbance.

"They were yelling obscenities about how their tax money was being spent on pornography and drag queens. There was shouting. It was loud their attempt was to intimidate and create a disruption, and that's exactly what they did," said Kahney.

"They definitely disturbed us," said Jones.

The sheriff's office said because it's a public place, there was no need for the Proud Boys to be removed. The sheriff's office declined an on-camera interview with WECT, but did release a statement from Sheriff Ed McMahon saying he "took an oath not to uphold opinions but to uphold the law, which is exactly what my supervisors and deputies did."

The Wilmington library said they were aware the Pride reading might create some controversy. Librarians coordinated with the sheriff's office in advance and brought additional staff and volunteers to help.

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Proud Boys disrupt Pride event at Wilmington library

Kathryn Vargas wasnt sure whether she would take her kids to the Pride Month Family Storytime event on Saturday at a public library in McKinney, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas.

The straight mom of three young boys, who lives in nearby Plano, wants to raise her children to be open-minded and accepting, but having seen similar Pride events become targets for confrontation around the country she had some reservations. There was already chatter of protesters showing up to this event, and with her firefighter husband at work, it would just be her with the kids.

Still, she felt compelled.

We decided that sometimes being an ally is just showing up, Vargas said. And so we decided that we would still show up and that it was important.

But when she arrived at the Roy and Helen Hall Library, she was greeted by an unexpected sight: a huge group of counterprotesters had completely outnumbered the right-wing demonstrators.

Wearing Pride rainbows and carrying signs to support the library and the LGBTQ community, these counterprotesters were on a mission to drown out the hate and make those attending feel welcome.

The word went out on the internetand people showed up, said Michael Phillips, a historian and senior research fellow at Southern Methodist University, who was among the counterprotesters. It was pretty well organized to make sure that the families bringing their children to this event weren't harassed, werent harangued basically to form a human shield.

We formed a corridor that families could pass through, Phillips added.

Courtesy of Michael Phillips

As an unusual Pride Month draws to an end, LGBTQ activists around the country have been disturbed by an increase in political and legislative attacks on the community, which have in turn compelled some on the far right to attend Pride events in order to intimidate people or cause mayhem.

On June 12, Idaho police arrested 31 white nationalists including seven from Texas in Coeur d'Alene, accusing them of seeking to disrupt a Pride event in a city park. On the same day in Alameda County, California, Proud Boys interrupted a Drag Queen Story Hour at a Bay Area library, shouting anti-gay and anti-transgender slurs. One of the men was wearing a T-shirt with an image of an AR-15 and the text "Kill your local pedophile." And just this weekend in Sparks, Nevada, Proud Boys also turned out to protest at a Drag Queen Story Hour event at a library on Sunday. Police were on scene, but had reportedly left by the time one of the men approached the library while carrying a gun, sending counterprotesters fleeing inside.

Story continues

Texas has been a hotbed for much of the anti-gay sentiment. In February, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state workers to investigate families who provide gender-affirming care for their trans children as potential child abusers however, this has been temporarily blocked by state courts. Abbott has also said he intends to prioritize a Texas version of Floridas Dont Say Gay bill, which would restrict mentions of LGBTQ topics in classrooms. Just this month, Abbotts Republican Party in Texas inserted anti-gay language into their official platform, calling homosexuality an abnormal lifestyle choice and opposing any special legal status for LGBTQ people or penalties for people who oppose the community, among other things.

We are the Republican Party of Texas, not the Westboro Baptist Church, one Republican delegate who opposed the changes told the crowd before he was met with boos.

Multiple LGBTQ events have also been targeted in the Dallas area by right-wing extremists, as Salon reported last week. These have included a family drag show at a local gay bar, an adults-only drag brunch, and a city council hearing that had passed a proclamation in support of Pride Month. A couple in McKinney have also called on school officials to remove almost 300 books they believe do not promote a healthy lifestyle.

Saturdays library event in McKinney came one day after another Pride event at a local clothing store was also threatened by protesters.

Denise Lessard, a spokesperson for the city of McKinney, told BuzzFeed News the Pride Month Storytime was in keeping with other library events that celebrate the communitys diversity. In honor of Pride Month each year, we display age-appropriate literature throughout the library and host programming that celebrates our LGBTQIA+ community, Lessard said. Our programs are clearly marketed so residents can choose what activities they want to attend. All are welcome.

Patrick Cloutier, a McKinney City council member at large, told BuzzFeed News he had apprehensions about the books that would be read at the event, so had visited the library on Friday to read them for himself. Objecting to mentions of the words queer and drag queen, he said he let other council members know he was concerned and wouldnt want his 2-year-old granddaughter exposed to such things.

But attending himself on Saturday, Cloutier said he was pleasantly surprised. The event was held in a room that wouldnt disturb other patrons who hadnt bought tickets or who didnt want to hear the readings. And the woman who read the books who was not a drag performer was engaging and made the children smile, Cloutier said.

I was appreciative that people who were voluntarily there got what they wanted and what they were looking for, Cloutier said. The way she engaged the kids and the words that came out of her mouth, I saw nothing wrong with when I was in there.

But outside, protesters had gathered. Initially, there had been a mix of people wearing Trump gear or religious insignia. Soon, suspected members of the Proud Boys and Three Percenters hate groups showed up, some armed and wearing body armor, others wearing face coverings from rest stop chain Buc-ee's that has become part of the Proud Boys uniform.

It was clear that they were there to intimidate, to scare, said Jesse Ringness, a documentary journalist in nearby Frisco who is running for state office as a Democrat.

Sisters Josie and Mallie, who asked that their last names not be published out of fear they might be targeted, said the militia members soon began making crude and hateful comments in attempts to agitate the counterprotesters.

They started kind of saying different things, calling us groomers, pedophiles. They were fat-shaming people, they were calling other women whores and just horrible things, Josie said. You could tell that they wanted to incite some type of violence. They just wanted to make us get angry so they could have something to use against us.

I was just thinking about how scared little tiny kids would be seeing masked people with big vests on wearing black, Mallie said. Like, that would be scary, just walking out in the library.

Four counterprotesters who spoke with BuzzFeed News said they purposefully tried not to pay any heed to the rhetoric, for fear of inflaming the situation. Instead, their goal was to try to counteract the hate with love.

When the kids started walking out from Pride storytime, they were booing them and kind of yelling different comments at them. So we just kind of cheered louder, Josie said. And people walked in front of the kids so they wouldn't see them.

It wasn't about fighting the other side. It wasn't about getting some viral clip. It was 100% about supporting those that were there for a free public event, Ringness said. And it's really disheartening to see a public library youth event for families drawing out armed militiamen. What did those armed militiamen expect to do with guns and pepper spray? I don't understand.

Given the expected protesters, officers were on hand to supervise, said McKinney Police Department spokesperson Carla Marion Reeves: We were not called to the scene, but were nearby, monitoring and keeping an eye on things to make sure the event was peaceful.

There were no arrests, but police issued one citation for assault by contact to someone who pushed another person an incident that appeared to be caught on camera and shared by Steven Monacelli, who first reported on the protests on Twitter.

Vargas, the mom who took her sons to the event, said she had felt uneasy by the right-wing protesters. Her oldest son had wanted to explore the library during the storytime event, but she insisted that he stay close in case LGBTQ opponents crashed the event.

There's nothing that can quite prepare you for just a deeply unsettling feeling of seeing armed hate groups close to your small brown children, Vargas said.

But when her family exited the event, any hateful chants were drowned out by cheers from LGBTQ supporters. One person even walked them to their car while blocking out hateful signs using an umbrella. Vargas said she felt extremely grateful, but also heartbroken that LGBTQ people had to protect an event that was designed to celebrate them.

There were protesters there that held up signs about protecting kids, but it was members of the LGBTQ community and allies that shielded my brown boys from these hate groups, Vargas said. They were the actual targets on Saturday. And yet, they absolutely would not flinch when hatred stared at them.

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Proud Boys Showed Up To A Pride Month Library Event But Were Met With A ...

Twice in two weeks, at libraries in North Carolina and in California, members of the Proud Boys have crashed Pride Month events for kids in angry pursuit of storytellers in large wigs and very high heels.

"Bring out the drag queens!" witnesses say members of the Cape Fear chapter of the extremist group chanted on Tuesday, outside a locked reading-room door at a library three miles south of Wilmington, North Carolina as a half-dozen frightened preschoolers and their parents listened inside.

"It wasn't even a drag queen event," Emily Kaufman of the Anti-Defamation League told Insider. "It was Pride Storytime, and they were reading 'Heather has two Mommies' and 'Daddy & Dada.'"

No matter.

Even the rumor of Drag Queen Story Hour was enough for seven or eight men in Proud Boys regalia to try to enter the room and to lead other demonstrators in demanding to "see the drag queen," according to WHQR.

The New York City-based program brings drag queens to schools, libraries, and bookstores around the country, to read to kids in a celebration of books and diversity.

"During storytime we entered the library to ensure the children were not subject to a drag queen or age-inappropriate behavior from the staff," the "Official Cape Fear Proud Boys" posted later on Tuesday, on Telegram.

"If this is happening in your town let them know you're watching."

It was the second incident in as many weeks.

On June 11, a Saturday, some 10 men in Proud Boys regalia barged into a reading room of a library in San Lorenzo, California, where Bay Area drag queen Panda Dulce was reading to children.

The men made white power hand gestures and shouted "Who brought the tranny?" and "It's a groomer. It's a pedophile," Dulce told ABC.

"One of the Proud Boys at the scene wore a T-shirt displaying an image of an assault rifle," said Kaufman. "Alongside the phrase, 'Kill Your Local Pedophile.'"

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office has opened a hate crimes investigation into the incident, NBC News reported.

"The Proud Boys are incredibly transphobic," Kaufman said of the group, which has some 119 chapters in 46 states recognized by its national organization.

"But this month, many chapters have decided to celebrate quote-unquote Western Pride Month instead," said Kaufman.

"Several chapters have committed to posting anti-LGBTQ-plus rhetoric every day during Pride Month," she said.

"This is the most intense rhetoric I've seen from the Proud Boys since I've been monitoring them for the last two years," she added. "It's been so heinous and awful."

So why are the Proud Boys so obsessed with drag queens?

Jonathan Hamilt is the executive director for Drag Queen Story Hour, which has 50 chapters throughout the US and 20 more overseas.

Hamilt thinks the rabid opposition from extremists of all stripes has to do with ignorance and misinformation the very things that his organization strives to abolish through inclusiveness and play.

"We're challenging the patriarchy and challenging the binary. We're challenging societal norms and forced gender roles and stereotypes that have been in our culture literally forever."

As for the Proud Boys themselves, "We're trying not to say their names in interviews or call attention to it because they're getting enough air time," Hamilt said.

"It's Pride Month and we're trying to focus on being proud of who we are and doing our programming," he explained.

"We have a great community that loves us and wants us there. That's always been way greater than any opposition," he added.

And like the extremist group whose name he won't mention, "We are defiantly loud and very organized as well," he said.

"Just with glitter."

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Why Are the Proud Boys so Afraid of Drag Queens?

Lisa Gialdini Schurr| Sarasota Herald-Tribune

A collective sigh of relief was exhaled by many when they read the recent Herald-Tribune article reporting thatSarasota County School Board candidate Robyn Marinelli had finally decided to skip a meet-and-greet eventthat was to be hosted, for her benefit, by local Proud Boy James Hoeland his wife Kathy.

But if you believeMarinelli deserves a standing ovation for doing the right thing, you may want to sit back down.Marinelli has continued to claim that she did not know Proud Boy Hoel, but that is clearly not the case.

Marinelli met and spoke with Hoel at The Hollow in Venice on Dec.3, 2021, during an event sponsored by Unmask Freedom, a Proud Boy front group. In a video that was livestreamed and publicly posted by Unmask Freedom, Hoel and Marinelli are clearly shown having a one-on-one chat and after their discussion, Marinelli appears to give Hoelher business card.

Hoel was the emcee at the Hollow event, where current School Board Member Karen Rosewas a featured speaker.Roses appearance with the Proud Boys was detailed in a Dec. 28, 2021 Herald-Tribune guest column thatI co-authored. But at that time we were unaware that Marinelli had also attended the event.

Publicly available Florida incorporation records indicate that Hoel and his wife established Unmask Freedom as a nonprofitshortly before the event at The Hollow.The other incorporators were Proud Boy Nicholas Radovich, and his wife, Melissa Radovich. Unmask Freedom was used as a front group for these Proud Boys to hold events and make social media posts.Numerous photos have been publicly postedshowing Hoel and Radovich at various events and protestswhile wearing Proud Boy gear andwaving Proud Boy flags.

Hoel and the Radovichs, along with other Proud Boys and their followers, are frequent disruptors at Sarasota County School Board meetings and they sometimes weartheir Proud Boy gear. During aDecember 2021 SchoolBoardmeeting, Nicholas Radovich directly addressed Board Member Bridget Ziegler and stated the group's support for her. In case anyone is curious, Ziegler has never publicly repudiated the Proud Boys support.

None of these facts are secret; this information is widely available.Unfortunately, what may not be as widely known is how involved the Proud Boys, their affiliated front groupsand their assorted followers have become in local elections, particularly in supporting School Board candidates Ziegler, Marinelli and Tim Enos.

Nor has it been widely reported that the Sarasota County Republican Party, through precinct captains Jim and Sally Nista, were planning to take an active role at the Proud Boy-sponsored event at the Island Organics Caf in Venice.

The Proud Boys have worked through several other front groups over the last six months, as have their wives and supporters. And whenever their cover is blown, they simply move on to another front group.

Lately, they seem to be working through a group called Sarasota Freedom Friends,"which appears to be an unincorporated organization.You may soon find them showing up at your front door or at your church or synagogue handing out campaign literature.

Are Ziegler, Marinelli and Enos as well as Sarasota County's Republican Party willing to accept support and backing from a known hate group like the Proud Boys? Do they support the hatred and oppression that is espoused by the Proud Boys? And, perhaps more importantly, what is it about these candidates and their platforms that the Proud Boys and their front groups find so appealing?

There comes a point in time where wemust draw a line in the sand on this issue.But in addition to drawing thatline,we must also erect a barricade against the toxicrhetoric espoused by the Proud Boys and other hate groups. And that's why the time has come for all of the candidates running for the Sarasota County School Board to loudly and publicly denounce the Proud Boys.

This challenge is not just for the School Board candidatesit also appliesto our localRepublican and Democratic parties. Our community must say it loudly and clearly: Hate has no home in Sarasota County!

Lisa Gialdini Schurr is a retired international tax attorneywho spent 20 yearsliving and working in Russia, Kazakhstan andthe Baltic states.She has resided in Sarasota since 2011.

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Sarasota school board candidates must openly condemn the Proud Boys - Sarasota Herald-Tribune