PROVIDENCE, RI — A total of 36 people were arrested during a Straight Pride parade in Boston over the weekend. Four of those people were from Rhode Island.

Three of the men are from Providence. Timothy Rego, 19, and Benjamin Boyd, 32, were each charged with assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Meanwhile Benjamin Thompson, 29, was charged with disorderly conduct. The fourth man, Nathan Bartels, 27, is from Newport. He was also charged with disorderly conduct.

A group calling itself Super Happy Fun America organized the parade. Hundreds of marchers walked through downtown Boston and gathered at City Hall, where there were speeches and the raising of the so-called Straight flag, which is blue and purple and features entwined man and woman gender symbols. About 300 marchers participated in the Straight Pride parade, well below the 2,000 projected by John Hugo, president of Super Happy Fun America. The group is campaigning to add S to the LGBTQ acronym and calls straight people an "oppressed majority."

The parade and the group's months-long fight to obtain a permit drew national attention. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the event's organizers, saying they struggle with their masculinity. In a rare move, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins criticized a judge handling the arrests. Rollins asked Judge RIchard Sinnott to dismiss charges against seven people but Sinnott only did so for two individuals.



"The judge punished the exercise of individuals' First Amendment right to protest," Rollins said in a statement. "Make no mistake: some people were appropriately arraigned and will be held accountable for actions that put the safety of the public and law enforcement at risk," Rollins said. "For those people now tangled in the criminal justice system for exercising their right to free speech — many of whom had no prior criminal record — I will use the legal process to remedy the judge's overstepping of his role."

List of 36 people arrested at Straight Pride parade