'Heroes of January 6th' event planned in Massachusetts stirs outrage
AUBURN, Mass. — The "Refounding Fathers Festival" is set to take place this weekend, but groups request its cancellation as it is being advertised as "Heroes of January 6th."
“Heroes of January 6th” refers to those who participated in the United States Capitol attack in Washington, D.C., in which a mob of Trump supporters attempted to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes to formalize then President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
With the accusatory proclamation “SHUT DOWN WHITE SUPREMACISTS,” opposing group Showing Up for Racial Justice Worcester claims that Super Happy Fun America, the organization sponsoring the event, is celebrating the Capitol attack at the fundraiser taking place this Saturday.
On their website, one can donate to the legal fund for Natick Town Meeting member and Super Happy Fun America founding member Sue Ianni and its Vice President Mark Sahady, who were arrested and charged in connection to what occurred Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C.
'A day of darkness': Pelosi announces House select committee to investigate Jan. 6 attack
Capitol building investigation: Kevin McCarthy names 5 Republicans to Jan. 6 select committee, including Jim Jordan
Lydia Proulx, part of the Showing Up for Racial Justice Worcester’s volunteer coordinating team, said Super Happy Fun America has a history of hosting events that are intentionally inflammatory and hateful toward “marginalized folks,” including the Straight Pride Parade in Boston, which, she said, was “a hilarious misnomer for essentially a Trump parade.”
“We believe that Super Happy Fun America is a white supremacist organization because they are known to welcome and collaborate with prominent white nationalists in the United States, including the leader of the Proud Boys, the Nationalist Socialists Front and others,” Proulx said. “They also echo their hateful ideology whether it’s anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, heterosexism, homophobia.”
SURJ is urging Facebook readers to call and email the facility and tell it to cancel the event.
“We called on our membership in Central Massachusetts residents to contact their reps and local policymakers and leadership, as well as the club,” Proulx said. “We asked the leadership to publicly condemn the values that Super Happy Fun America represents, as well as to publicly support our neighbors of color, our immigrant and refugee neighbors, our LBGTQ neighbors, those who are disabled, poor.”
In a statement, Tanya Neslusan, executive director of MassEquality, said the group plans to organize a counterprotest the day of the event.
“While MassEquality supports the right of all Americans to lawfully assemble, we also support the right of counterdemonstrators to gather and peacefully express concern about the motives or message of those assembled,” Neslusan said. “And as an organization that promotes lived equality for all members of our community, we cannot sit by idly and allow hate to go unchecked.”
Protecting the Capitol building: Remainder of US Capitol fencing is removed months after Jan. 6 insurrection
John Hugo, president of Super Happy Fun America, said SHFA is a right-of-center, civil rights group focused on preserving the Constitution, pushing back against the “gender madness movement” and fighting cultural Marxism.
“We’re just bringing a lot of Republicans and conservatives together to form a coalition because we don’t like what’s going on in our country and we need to fight back and there’s more strength in numbers,” Hugo said.
Declaring themselves the largest conservative group in New England, Hugo said the goal of Super Happy Fun America is to bring like-minded conservative groups together. He said he expects a huge crowd of 20 different group to show up this weekend.
“I knew that people on the left would lose their lunch over that,” Hugo said, referring to the “Heroes of January 6th” reference. “But they have been pushing a fake narrative saying that this is the worst thing to happen in our country since the Civil War. I mean, give me a break. On the left, they’re pushing back against all of these efforts to tighten up the election laws just to present fraud and they’re calling it Jim Crow. That’s ridiculous.”
Super Happy Fun America firmly believes that Trump won the election.
Hugo, who ran for Boston mayor and city council and for the state Senate, has been the chair of the Young Republicans and a Town Meeting member.
Related story: Feds find components of pipe bomb at home of former Virginia cop charged in Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection
When asked if he truly believes them to be “heroes,” Hugo said, “I believe it’s heroic to go to the seat of government to challenge a fraudulent election. This is, in my opinion, the biggest scandal in American history, this stolen election. And I’m absolutely outraged as an American, as someone who ran for office, to see what went on.”
Proulx, who said Super Happy Fun America are very much “shapeshifters” that like to rebrand their “alt-right ideology as Second Amendment Rights or free speech,” said she would call those who participated in the Capitol attack “insurrectionists.”
As with Showing Up for Racial Justice Worcester accusing Super Happy Fun America as being “white supremacists,” Hugo shrugged it off and said, “They're just basically Antifa. They show up. They always call us white supremacists."
He continued, "There’s not a racist bone in my body. But, if you Google my name, you’ll get websites that say I’m a prominent white supremacist. Of course, they don’t offer any evidence.”
Auburn Selectman Tristan LaLiberte posted on Facebook that he was “appalled and disappointed” in the facility for allowing such a thing to happen.
“It is an embarrassment to our community that a group that honors those that led an insurrection against this country and that prides itself on being anti-LGBTQ thinks that they will be welcomed in Auburn,” LaLiberte said. “Totally ignorant to their own irony, this group claims to be patriotic while hoisting those who stormed the nation’s Capitol up on a pedestal.”
As for representatives of the facility, who couldn’t be reached for comment, Hugo said they’re not happy with the potential backlash but they plan to stick to their guns and not cancel the event either.
Follow Craig Semon on Twitter: @CraigSemon.