'Straight pride' group removes Brad Pitt as mascot after backlash

A small group of men with ties to far-right groups who have applied for a license to hold a “Straight Pride March” in the US have taken down a photograph of Brad Pitt from their website after the actor complained.

Three men, who call their campaign Super Happy Fun America, had adopted the actor as an unofficial mascot for the “movement”, which “advocates on behalf of the straight community” and describes straight people as an oppressed majority.

The move follows a complaint by Pitt’s representatives, who confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter on Thursday that they had officially requested the group stop using his name and likeness.

The three men aiming to organize the event in Boston, planned for 31 August, include Mark Sahady, who has ties to the Proud Boys, which has been classified by the FBI as a rightwing extremist group. The men have not been granted a permit yet.

Boston’s pride march takes place this weekend. The city’s mayor, Marty Walsh, tweeted that permits for events were granted on the basis of “operational feasibility”, adding: “The City of Boston cannot deny a permit based on an organization’s values.

“Whatever outside groups may try do, our values won’t change,” he tweeted. “I invite each and every person to stand with us, and show that love will always prevail. Join us in celebration this Saturday for the @bostonpride Parade and in the fight for progress and equality for all.”

Chasten Buttigieg, whose husband is 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, highlighted the dangers faced by LGBTQ people in the US and across the world in a series of tweets.

The New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocked the concept of “straight pride”.

The Super Happy Fun America website had previously featured two pictures of Pitt, and declared: “Congratulations to Mr Pitt for being the face of this important civil rights movement.”

The site’s homepage now prominently displays an amended version of its previous announcement, redacting the actor’s name and declaring the images “censored”, while another post, published on Friday, said its new mascot was the controversial author and far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos.

Yiannopoulos will act as both mascot and grand marshal of a proposed parade to be staged by the group in Boston, mirroring the route taken by the city’s annual Pride parade.

Sahady said the proposed march was a response to the Massachusetts administration turning down the group’s request that a “straight pride flag” be raised at city hall.

“We will fight for the right of straights everywhere to express pride in themselves without fear of judgment and hate,” said John Hugo, president of the group.

On Wednesday, the actor Chris Evans took issue with the group’s proposed march on Twitter, describing it as the work of closeted toddlers.

Pitt, who has won praise for his role as an ageing stuntman in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, said in 2006 that he would only marry his then girlfriend, Angelina Jolie, when people of all sexual orientations could do so in the US.

Pitt’s activism to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 legislation that temporarily made same-sex marriage illegal again California, has involved substantial financial donations to the cause, as well as taking part in a staged reading of Dustin Lance Black’s play about the legislation.