Pride posters slated for focusing on straight people
Posters promoting London's Pride Festival have been heavily criticised for using "gay" in a pejorative sense and for "ignoring" sections of the LGBTQ+ community. Some people also found the posters too focused on straight people.
The series posters (by the organisaton Pride in London) are supposed to promote the capital's Pride Festival, which takes place between 24 June and 9 July.
The images feature "messages of love" from LGBTQ people, in addition to quotes from straight allies. "I'm a straight man with gay pride," read one of the posters. "My sister is gay, I'm straight, together we're g-raight," read another. One read: "My gay friends make me more attractive by association."
The focus of the posters has resulted in a lot of disappointment:
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
"Being homophobic is sooo gay," read one of the posters. While another read: "People think I'm gay which I think is cool".
One poster was criticised for using the word gay as a slur. "The real shame is the posters are beautifully designed, some with great messages, but you cannot use gay as a pejorative on LGBT material," wrote gay blogger The Guyliner.
The Guyliner added that the posters seemed to congratulate heterosexual allies and appeared to be from the perspective of a straight person:
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
"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," tweeted The Guyliner.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Others noted the absence of any mention transgender, asexual or bisexual people.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Pride in London has since apologised for the posters.
"It is clear we misjudged the content of some of the messages in this poster series, undermining the individuality, importance, and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community," read a statement posted on the organisation's website. "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 four images from our campaign."
Topics Activism LGBTQ Social Good
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
