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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Martin Belam

#HeterosexualPrideDay backfires as LGBT users subvert it on Twitter

A rainbow flag on display during the gay pride march in Managua, Nicaragua.
A rainbow flag on display during the gay pride march in Managua, Nicaragua. Photograph: Jorge Torres/EPA

An attempt to mock and belittle the LGBT pride movement on social media has backfired spectacularly. The #HeterosexualPrideDay hashtag ended up trending, but not for the reasons those initially posting it had hoped.

The hashtag started as a homophobic attempt to troll the LGBT community, and those offering support to it.

But the intention was brilliantly subverted by the LGBT community, who hijacked it, and used it to contrast the discrimination and abuse they continue to face compared with the social acceptance of heterosexuality. Only last week a gay pride protest was broken up by police in Istanbul.

A post about #HeterosexualPrideDay on Facebook
A post about #HeterosexualPrideDay on Facebook. Photograph: Facebook

Comparisons were drawn between the straight and gay experience.

Those using the hashtag in earnest were mocked for wanting everything to be about them.

And called “broflakes”.

The LGBT community had some brilliantly funny personal ripostes to those using the hashtag.

Some people did take the opportunity to poke fun at some of the more, shall we say, boring examples of heterosexual stereotypes.

And others just mocked the whole idea of heterosexuality needing a special celebration day.

Not everybody took the jokes very well. The creator of Minecraft, Markus Persson, known as Notch, in a now deleted tweet said that anybody opposing the idea of a #HeterosexualPrideDay deserves to be shot.

But these tweets hit the nail on the head.

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