The media’s response to the internet’s “#HeterosexualPrideDay” on Wednesday showed it firmly planted in the corner of the gay community.
The hashtag campaign was started on Twitter as a joke, and snowballed into a larger incident as gays took offense to the hashtag. The intent of the hashtag was to celebrate “heterosexual pride,” in the same way that June is devoted to celebrating “gay pride.” (Related: #HeterosexualPrideDay Shows That No One Has Any Idea What Equality Means)
The majority of the media ran headlines denouncing the hashtag. The New York Daily News ran the headline “Happy Heterosexual Pride Day!” while the article went on to call it “aggrieved jacka**day” and a “dumb thing.” It said the hashtag was a “mockery of a community that has faced real violence and oppression.” The Daily Mail described the trend as a “homophobic celebration.”
#HeterosexualPrideDay apparently started with Twitter user Sam. (@_JackNForTweets), who used the hashtag to respond to the question “Why do ‘straight’ men and women go to the gay pride parades?” The hashtag trended on Wednesday, as the gay community expressed outrage over “the willfull ignorance” of the hashtag.
The Huffington Post joined the outrage over the tweet, saying that with Donald Trump running for president and the U.K. leaving the European Union, the trend of #HeterosexualPrideDay on top of those events possibly signals that “the apocalypse is near.” Another Huffington Post article claimed that “#HeterosexualPrideDay Is A Subtle One [Attack].” The article went on to say that “any comment, tweet or remark that promotes difference between homosexuals and heterosexuals is detrimental to LGBT youth.”
In a series of tweets, the twitter user who started the hashtag claimed that he started it last year and it was intended as “satire.” He refused interviews with major media outlets. In one tweet, he declared, “Ya’ll still ain’t figured out how the white media work yet? They’re writing about your oppression to to piss you off. #HeterosexualPrideDay”
Y’all still ain’t figured out how the white media works yet? They’re writing about your oppression to piss you off.
— Sam. (@_JackNForTweets) June 29, 2016
The main news outlets are literally telling gays they should be upset. They know people can’t think for themselves.
— Sam. (@_JackNForTweets) June 29, 2016
The media certainly isn’t oppressing the gay community.
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