June 30th marks the last day of Pride Month, a celebration in several northern hemisphere countries of everything wonderful about queer culture and a salute to queer heroes past and present, but that doesn’t mean we’ve run out of absolutely tone deaf approaches to LGBTIQ themed marketing to take to task.
Pride in London, the organsiational body behind the London Pride March, has had to apologise and retract a series of supposedly “inclusive” posters aimed at straight allies, after being lambasted online for misguidedly taking the focus away from, you know, the actual people that Pride is about.
One of the more painfully stupid posters even uses the word “gay” in its digusting slur form with the phrase “Being homophobic is sooo gay”, which… I can’t even begin to explain how fucking dumb that is.
this is idiotic pic.twitter.com/H3fOxXkdG5
— shon faye (@shonfaye) June 29, 2017
Another poster includes the quote “my gay friends make me more attractive by association”, borrowing from the poisonous and exploitative AF gay-people-as-accessories train of throught, and then there’s this absolute pearler from the perspective of a hetero getting mistaken for being gay:
You’re not gay, though, so once you’ve cleared that up – what was it, your shoes, or your love of disco? – you get to just carry on. pic.twitter.com/2LpuIoVWm1
— The Guyliner (@theguyliner) June 29, 2017
Again I could write for hours on how straight people do not deserve to be congratulated for “being cool” with being mistaken as gay when thousands and thousands of queer people have been, and still are today, attacked, abused and even murdered for simply being their beautiful gay selves.
Oh the LUXURY of having someone call you gay and taking it as a compliment not worrying they’ll kick your head in. YOU LUCKY BASTARD.
— The Guyliner (@theguyliner) June 29, 2017
Hey hetero allies, you’re cool and all but guess what, THIS ISN’T ABOUT YOU. In a world created by and for cisgendered heterosexuals, allowing queer people their own spaces to be celebrated is the least you can fucking do.
Please be an ally and support us, but know your allyship doesnt deserve you your own little moment in the spotlight, especially at the replacement of gay, bi, trans, intersex and other people actually within the glorious rainbow queer umbrella.
Picture: Pride in London.
