London's Pride Festival is in full swing, and it'll culminate with the Pride Parade on July 8. Over a week before the event, controversy has erupted for a disheartening reason, and it provides an important reminder that allies need to check their privilege.
Organizers invited people to submit "messages of love for Pride" that would be turned into artwork for the parade. This seemed like a great idea...until the posters were revealed and turned out to be a bit homophobic themselves.
this is idiotic pic.twitter.com/H3fOxXkdG5
— shon faye (@shonfaye) June 29, 2017
Even as a joke, using "gay" as an insult is unacceptable and posters like this only serve to normalize this type of rhetoric.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Other controversial posters read: "My gay friends make me more attractive by association" and "Befriend a gay person and win a prize — friendship."
People are understandably outraged at the implication that gay friends are trendy fashion accessories and their existence helps straight people appear "more attractive."
Try to befriend me via this poster and you'll win a prize 'oh do fuck off' pic.twitter.com/JzVELFXUu8
— Sophie WilkINson (@sophwilkinson) June 29, 2017
Furthermore, a whole lot of these posters focus on straight people and not the community that Pride is meant to honor.
WHY IS LONDON PRIDE ALL ABOUT STRAIGHT PEOPLE pic.twitter.com/0oKo1wJYsa
— innes mckendrick (@innesmck) June 29, 2017
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
After a social media backlash, four images from the campaign have been removed. Pride in London, the organizers of the event, have apologized for the ill-advised poster campaign.
"It is clear we misjudged the content of some of the messages in this poster series, undermining the individuality, importance, and dignity of the LGBT+ community," a spokesperson for the organization said. "This was never our intention, and we are genuinely sorry to have played any part in something that appears to devalue our own community, and have removed these... images from our campaign."
Although we're glad to see that Pride in London has taken the criticism seriously, these posters serve as a depressing reminder of how much progress still needs to be made in the fight for LGBTQ equality.