- A Proud Boys “initiation ceremony manual” details the far-right group’s policy on masturbation.
- “A Proud Boy may not ejaculate alone more than once every 30 days,” the manual states.
- Prosecutors are seeking to introduce the manual as evidence in a January 6 sedition trial.
A manual for new recruits to the far-right Proud Boys organization details the extremist group’s peculiar stance on masturbation: while its exclusively male members are encouraged to drink booze and engage in street violence against anti-fascists — ostensibly in self-defense — they are told to follow a strict policy of “No Wanks.”
Federal prosecutors are seeking to introduce the document as evidence in the ongoing seditious conspiracy trial involving five Proud Boys, including former leader Enrique Tarrio, accused of taking part in the January 6 insurrection. All have pleaded not guilty. The manual was seized by federal authorities two years ago and recently made public, according to new court papers released as part of the US District Court trial in Washington, DC.
“A Proud Boy may not ejaculate alone more often than once every thirty days,” states the group’s “initiation ceremony manual,” the document reads.
“That means he must abstain from pornography during that time and if he needs to ejaculate it must be within one yard of a woman with her consent. The woman may not be a prostitute.”
Insider
The Anti-Defamation League considers the Proud Boys a violent, right-wing extremist group whose members commonly engage in misogynistic, Islamaphobic, transphobic, and anti-immigration rhetoric.
The ban on masturbation was imposed by Gavin McInnes, who founded the group in 2016 as a street gang in defense of “Western chauvinism.” As detailed by journalist Andy Campbell in his book, “We Are Proud Boys,” members of the group are expected to adhere to the policy if they wish to advance to the second of its four tiers of membership.
McInnes cut ties with the group in 2018 after several members were arrested for assaulting anti-fascists outside of a talk he gave in Manhattan honoring a far-right Japanese assassin.
Recognizing that the manual and its policies are at best odd, a defense lawyer for Dominic Pezzola — one of the Proud Boys accused of sedition for their part in trying to overturn the 2020 election — is trying to block prosecutors from mentioning it at the trial. Indeed, the defense attorney highlighted the policy on masturbation, among others, suggesting it might influence jurors.
“The document is riddled with politically incorrect remarks and assertions which would cause most or many Americans to recoil in anger, hatred, and disgust,” states the defense motion filed in federal court on Monday.
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