Well, that didn’t go over too well.
Fashion retailer Abercrombie and Fitch have come under fire for a since-deleted tweet reading, “The Pride community is everybody, not just LGBTQ people — Kayla.”
In the same breathe, the offending tweet also mentions LGBTQ suicide prevention organization the Trevor Project and the hashtag #AnFxTrevor, which highlights Abecrombie & Fitch’s Pride collection.
After deleting the original tweet, A&F wrote a few follow up messages, including “Pride is an important time for the LGBTQ+ community. At A&F we work to ensure that everyone feels included, respected and empowered. #pride”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Another one read: “We are proud to show commitment to the LGBTQ+ community and to bring awareness to the important work the @TrevorProject does.”
Here’s how Twitter reacted to the tweet (spoiler alert: nobody is too pleased):
Pride is about being proud of being LGBTQ. That's why it's called #Pride.
If you respect us, don't co-opt that—especially for profit!
— Danielle Muscato (@DanielleMuscato) June 11, 2017
Love you @TrevorProject, but this is not a productive statement. Pride is for LGBTQ people because of the ways it's forcibly taken from us.
— Camille Beredjick (@cberedjick) June 10, 2017
me looking for the word "sorry" in your tweets pic.twitter.com/4YQOP9ItI6
— Triyoncé (@tribranchvo) June 11, 2017
……. I appreciate the work that the Trevor Project does but this quote is bullshit. Pride is for queer people. that's the whole point.
— Riley J. Dennis (@RileyJayDennis) June 10, 2017
Pride isn't for allies, Pride is for LGBTQ people.
— Gay energy drinks (@LucozadeLesbian) June 10, 2017
Lmaoo Abercrombie and Fitch is like that str8 frat boy who demands a white history month, straight pride and thinks reverse racism exists https://t.co/HbMJiydO37
— Nora Okuogume (@NoraOkuogume) June 10, 2017
Are they "All Lives Matter"-ing #PrideMonth . WTF @Abercrombie !?!? This month is not about cishets!!!
— ????Blake???? (@blainejerrdan) June 10, 2017
Here, I'll fix it for you:
As ally, I support the lgbtqa community during this month of Pride and throughout the year.— dre_wee2la (@dre_wee2la) June 10, 2017
KaiserVonScheiss
Right, only minorities have something to be proud about. Being “marginalised” is the new aristocracy. That’s why all these kiddies want to be non-binary and call themselves trans and whatnot.
And showing a tweet from Riley Dennis, the “non-binary transwoman lesbian.” LOL.
DCguy
Oh Look, one of right winger Mo Bro’s anti-lgbt screenames. Of COURSE you would attack Pride, you all do not want lgbt people to be out. So this fits right in with your attempts to continually attack lgbts on here.
Sorry that didn’t work out for you.
Donston
I definitely have some issues with the LGBTQ “movement” here and there, and I will never engage in one of these over the top parades. But Pride has even less to do with general phobia and hate and more to do with self-hating bastards like Mo Bro.
KaiserVonScheiss
@DCguy
“Attacking pride.” Yeah, that’s totally what I’m doing. If Group A can be proud of their sexual orientation, why not Group B?
Shouldn’t consenting adults have the freedom to be themselves? Maybe that’s just my classical liberalism talking.
And, of course, we have more of the “everyone who disagrees with me is the same person” nonsense. Don’t forget that I’m paid by the Kremlin. I even make six figures going on websites and writing my opinions.
I guess you can’t tell the difference between a classical liberal and a guy (Mo Bro) who refers to everyone on the left as “liberals,” which is a pet peeve of mine.
Juanjo
Oh please, Miss Sock Puppet. That tired refrain has been refuted so many times, even the Family Research Council doesn’t use it any more. You, Miss MobullshiiteBro and the rest of the piccolo burattino need to all go into retirement.
DCguy
Yes, you are attacking Pride because you are advocating that it is somehow for Straight people. But nice try on acting all offended. Should we get your smelling salts?
KaiserVonScheiss
@DCguy
LOL. I’m not the one “acting offended.”
MaxG
LOL yeah aristocracy, that’s why most of us are poor even if we have a great education.
We’re the aristocracy that still can be killed and the excuse, “I panicked” is good in 48 states.
We’re the aristocracy that has had to fight for every single right you take for granted.
You’re a damn moron, that is intellectually dishonest with yourself and the world.
man5996853
If there ever comes a day when straight people are condemned for being straight, ostracized for being straight, made to feel inferior for being straight, they are welcome to join the parade.
Raymond
Thank you, kiddie, for your completely ignorant statement. We, the members of the LGBTQI+ community know what we are fighting for and will keep fighting for equality without your approval. Go back to your hole in hole ground, bigot.
msfrost
You can’t turn someone trans, who wasn’t already. Evidence for trans being Congenital.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ravishly/neuroscience-proves-what-_b_6494820.html
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/01/26/scans-show-difference-in-transgender-brains/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20032-transsexual-differences-caught-on-brain-scan
Dave4445
Pride is the opposite of shame, the hetero majority has not been marginalized by shaming and mindless bigotry, it’s not that complicated.
DCguy
Abercrombie and Fitch said “At A&F we work to ensure that everyone feels included, respected and empowered. #pride””
——
Straight people are more than welcome at Pride, however Pride isn’t about them. For a dumb comparison, if I go to a Greek festival and eat some baklava and drink some very strong coffee, that doesn’t mean that festival was FOR me. It occurred, and I was allowed to attend and participate, but it wasn’t about me.
By trying to negate why Pride exists A & F seems to be trying to do the work of people attacking lgbt visibility.
NeighborhoodGreekGirl
Small Point: The Greek Festival is definitely for you and every other non-Greek who wants to spend money. If you didn’t want to come, participate, and ( most importantly) spend money, we wouldn’t bother. Please, enjoy! 🙂
Varika
NeighborhoodGreekGirl, true that the festival may be open to anyone who wants to come spend money, but I think the point is that it’s not CELEBRATING “everybody who wants to come spend money,” it’s celebrating GREEK culture, and sharing that with people who are not Greek. Which is fine, and it’s great, and absolutely it should be happening, but you’d probably be kind of upset if a bunch of, I don’t know, British people showed up and pushed everyone out of the booths and started saying that they knew better about Greek culture than you Greeks did, so get out of the way. And rightly so!
mhoffman953
If it’s not for straight people, what about someone who is transgender but straight?
DCguy
Awwww, cute, the anti-lgbt pro-Trump troll tried to parse words to deflect from the topic. Aren’t you just adorable. But you may want to study a bit more, get your GED and try again.
You negated your own argument. The person is Trans? Hmmm, lets look, lgbtq etc… well gee, it DOES seem like Pride is for Trans people.
You know, kind of like a Greek festival would be for you if you had one Greek parent but not another.
But please, keep on trying to negate pride and tell us it’s all for people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.
Palmer Scott
I can’t believe how mixed up the message about Pride has become.
It’s not about being proud about our sexuality. It’s about being proud of overcoming the shame most of us have grown up with.
It’s about being proud of being ourselves and expressing who we are without reservation. Whether it’s being mainstream, a drag queen, a leather daddy, or a gym bunny.
It’s about being proud of surviving the constant legal attempts to relegate us to a second class citizenship.
It’s about holding our heads up and speaking truth to the religious hypocrites who call us perverted sinners, deviants, pedophiles, and worse.
It’s about claiming our place in the sun, and while allies are welcome to the party, it’s still OUR party, not theirs!
am
Exactly, so let’s also appropriate THEIR logic we were fighting agains for decades, and divide the world into US and THEM.
Well done!
mujerado
arn – Nonsense. Being proud of our accomplishments doesn’t put anyone else down or separate us from them. We love our allies and appreciate them for their help and support, but it doesn’t make them one of us.
MaxG
am:
It’s not THEIR logic. We’re not dividing anybody, we’re having a party, allies are invited and welcome, without them Stonewall would never have succeeded in the way it did.
The bigots, they can stay home. The ones trying to appropriate our culture for financial gain, they can stay home too.
Varika
Sure, am, that’s precisely what’s going on, nothing at ALL like having some jerks come into your yard and take over your basketball hoop and beat you up for saying you don’t mind sharing as long as you’re included in the game when you want to play. Nope, it’s all those nasty kids demanding they get to play, too’s fault for insisting they be recognized. If they had just stayed inside and shut up, they wouldn’t have got beaten up, right?
You really want to advocate that? Really?
Daniel-Reader
Of course, pride is for straight people as well. The naysayers must all be really young and don’t remember the allies showing up to march in the early days – moms, dads, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, grandparents, kids, neices, nephews, and friends who showed they love their LGBT loved ones and neighbors just as they are. Pride has never been about celebrating being LGBT – it has always been about not being persecuted for being born. Pride is about loving your authentic self, and straight allies have been there marching from the start.
mujerado
Interesting point of view, but I disagree completely. It’s about taking pride in being who we are, and who we are isn’t who our allies are. As I said above, we love our allies and appreciate their help and support, but it doesn’t make them one of us. And no, I’m not “really young and don’t remember.” I’m 70 and have been an activist for 50 years. I not only remember–I was there. When I join African American people in a Black Lives Matter demonstration it doesn’t make me one of them. We all have our differences, and THAT is what Pride is about.
Daniel-Reader
@mujerado – you don’t sound like an activist who has ever attended pride. You are clearly confusing pride with the concept of diversity. Two different things. Regardless of your race, you also apparently have no black family members when attending a Black Lives Matter demonstration or else you wouldn’t feel like you aren’t part of the group impacted when black relatives are disrespected. Perhaps you just never got along with your family at all – it seems some LGBT people hate their families when not accepted, and other LGBT people get along perfectly with their accepting bio-families.
Raymond
I think your argument is what Abercrombie and Fitch meant, especially when one considers the retraction and the modification of its statements to proclaim its support for the LGBTQI+ community. Having lived through the gay lib movement and its transformation into the LGBTQI+ movement, I can relate to that. But I also understand the negative reaction considering that fact that there have been people who organized “massive” support (according to Rumpists) for the straight pride march last year of some 20 people. This is noting but a blip in our ever-evolving fight for equal rights.
msfrost
Like the KKK?
OzJosh
Abercrombie and Fitch – celebrating two decades of tone-deafness on the world’s most sensitive social issues. From racial exclusion to body-shaming to gay rights, A&F is always there to show you how it’s NOT done.
DavidIntl
This kind of hysteria makes me a bit embarrassed to be part of the LGBT community. Just chill, everyone. I am reasonably certain that no offense was intended, and no apology necessary. I am all for having all kinds of people celebrate with us, as we work towards a society in which our sexual orientation is neither remarkable nor relevant.
christienyc
As an out and proud lesbian of well over 2 decades who’s fought for some of the rights we all currently have today I applaud any company who’s an ally of not only the LGBTQ community but openly employs and empowers their lesbian employee by giving her an open microphone to say what the Pride Community means to her. And frankly, the community IS made up of more than solely LGBTQ – what about groups such as PFLAG, for example, and other straight allies who support us?
No one is looking to take anything from you yet stand beside you and I am so proud that I have always had a family that was open and accepting of my sexuality.
How about focus on the positive message and awareness the company is trying to raise for the Trevor project, a non profit that provides crisis and suicide prevention for LGBTQ Youth rather than be so focused on misinterpreting what the young lady (who is an out lesbian, posed with her girlfriend that you so conveniently cropped out) was trying to convey in 140 characters?
THAT is what’s crucial and worth giving a voice to.
ShowMeGuy
A and F is still in business?
Trick
Add me to the “I don’t get the fuss” crowd.
Is Pride about straight people? No. Is it for them? Sure.
I’ve always thought a big part of Pride was the whole “We’re here, we’re queer” aspect. It’s the time when we gather en masse to show the rest of the world that we’re out there and we’re not going anywhere.
In that sense, Pride is very much for the non-LGBTQ.
Not that A&F doesn’t deserve a good kick in the ass once in a while, but in this case I think their worst crime (ignoring the fact that they are, at the root of it all, advertising) was a quote that maybe could have been worded slightly better. As far as the sentiment goes, I have no problem with it at all.
kent25
Well it’s like straight people are already in it. The bi girls want to bring boyfriends and bi guys want to bring girl friends, Hell you might as well let the straight people march to. Nothing is gay anymore not even the gay bars, they are full of straight women