The “official” Pride Podcast Twitter account shocked thousands after it posted a very homophobic meme in honour of Pride month.
The official account for a popular Pride podcast with 65,000 followers appears to have been trolled into posting an extremely homophobic meme not fully understanding the horrific meaning behind the meme.
The Pride podcast is hosted by Levi Chambers who claims that it “celebrates every person under the queer umbrella with skilful journalism and engaging interviews.” However, Chambers did not do his due diligence before sharing an extremely offensive homophobic meme on the Pride official Twitter account.
The meaning of the meme went unnoticed by thousands of people before real LGBTQ activists noticed just how untasteful and disrespectful the tweet was.
The tweet is an ASCII copy-paste chain meme that originate as a 4chan troll showing a smiling person throwing a rainbow flag off the roof of a tall building. The tweet caption read, “Sending the beautiful person below this Tweet lots of Pride.” The tweet was shared about a thousand times by the followers of the podcast before they quickly deleted the account.
The meme was designed to trick gay and lesbian people into unknowingly sharing an extremely homophobic message.
The ASCII meme reveals stars and a moon which is a commonly known symbol relating to Islam. The five pointed star reflects the Five Pillars of Islam which are central to the faith, and the crescent moon and stars are symbols relating to the greatness of the creator.
Below the stars and moon is a smiling man throwing a Pride rainbow off a building. This meme depicts the prosecution off gay men in Islam.
In December, ISIS released images of its fighters throwing a man from the roof of a building and then stoned where he fell. It was unclear if the man had died immediately or if he was still alive when the stoning began, according to Flashpoint. His crime was allegedly engaging in a homosexual act.
The podcast hosts who pride themselves with “skilful journalism” posted this offensive meme without knowing the meaning behind it and then deleted when fellow LGBTQ members slammed them for the tweet.
The Pride podcast Twitter account also received backlash from the community when they posted a “re-updated” version of the LGBTQ flag on their Twitter. They sad the flag had to be updated to be more inclusive.
I'm sorry but I have to say it. This is exactly why no one takes us seriously. I understood when the black and brown stripes were added because there has been racism inside the community (which, come on people, really??) But this is too much. The original design is inclusive.
— Rhea💜💜💜💜 (@ProudPanGirl) June 8, 2021
One loyal podcast listener commented: “I’m sorry but I have to say it. This is exactly why no one takes us seriously. I understood when the black and brown stripes were added because there has been racism inside the community (which, come on people, really??) But this is too much. The original design is inclusive.”
The Pride podcast team have since deleted the extremely offensive homophobic meme but have not issued an apology to the community nor made any comments about posting it.