Brad Pitt threatens to sue ‘straight pride parade’ group using his image

Brad Pitt has lashed out at the organisers of a “straight pride” movement for using him as their mascot and threatened to sue the group.

A small group of anti gay-pride activists based in the US have been strong-armed by actor Brad Pitt after they designated him as their mascot and used his image for promotional material.

The group, who call themselves Super Happy Fun America and have slogans like “It’s great to be straight” and “Don’t hate the straight”, previously announced on their website they’d selected Pitt as their mascot.

“Congratulations to Mr. Pitt for being the face of this important civil rights movement,” the site previously read. “Straight Rights are Human Rights!”

But Pitt is not associated with the Boston-based group who aim to “spread awareness of issues impacting straights in Greater Boston and beyond”.

Pitt’s team has reached out to the group to tell them to remove all references to him, and his photo, from their site, according to TMZ. Pitt’s team reportedly told Super Happy Fun America if they didn’t remove his likeness, further action would be pursued.

The Pitt references have now been redacted.

The site formerly used images of Pitt and linked him to the 'straight rights' movement.

Super Happy Fun America has now redacted the references to Pitt.

The group is now claiming to have adopted Milo Yiannopoulos as their mascot. They say he is “more handsome and more in tune with heroic masculine virtues”. The group also wrote Yiannopoulos had accepted the role and will act as mascot and grand marshall of their parade.

Yiannopoulos is a disgraced former far-right publisher who was booted from his role as an editor for alt-news site Breitbart after he editorialised on a podcast about the role of victims of sexual abuse as “whingeing selfish brats”. The disgraced publisher had his attempt to enter Australia for a speaking tour blocked in March when the Immigration Department refused him a visa on character grounds.

The Boston group recently attracted attention in the US when organising the “Boston Straight Pride Parade”, which is tentatively scheduled to take place at the end of August. Writing on Facebook, one of the organisers accused the city of “discrimination” during the planning stages as they sought approval for the parade.

Boston will celebrate its own Gay Pride Parade this Saturday.

The group previously tried to have a straight pride flag erected around the city of Boston — a request formally rejected by the local mayor in April.

When asked about the parade, which is still pending approval, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh didn’t specifically address Super Happy Fun America’s plans. He encouraged locals to join the city in celebrating the upcoming Gay Pride Parade.

“Every year, Boston hosts our annual Pride Week, where our city comes together to celebrate the diversity, strength and acceptance of our LGBTQ community,” Mr Walsh told the Washington Post.

“This is a special week that represents Boston’s values of love and inclusion, which are unwavering. I encourage everyone to join us in celebration this Saturday for the Pride Parade and in the fight for progress and equality for all.”

Actor Chris Evans, who was born in Boston, lashed the Super Happy Fun America group on Twitter.

Wow! Cool initiative, fellas!! Just a thought, instead of ‘Straight Pride’ parade, how about this: The ‘desperately trying to bury our own gay thoughts by being homophobic because no one taught us how to access our emotions as children’ parade? Whatta ya think? Too on the nose?? https://t.co/gaBWtq2PaL

— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) June 5, 2019