Queer soccer fans attending a local match in Portland, Oregon commemorated the last days of Pride month in an incredible way, holding up a giant image of a cat from the somewhat queer video game A Night in the Woods as the crowd sang. The cat was accompanied by two signs which read, “From Stonewall a brick, and Portland an axe, respect our pride or expect our wrath.”
The display occurred at the May 29 Portland Timbers match against the Houston Dynamo. At the game, a group of fans known as the Timbers Army held up tifo, large images or banners commonly displayed at sports events, showing the aforementioned cat and slogan. Other fans held up signs with anti-LGBTQ legislation for the cat to “axe,” Waypoint reported.
The cat was Mae Borowski, a bat-wielding, pansexual character from the visual-novel style game A Night in the Woods. In the game, Borowski returns to her fictional Rust Belt hometown of Possum Springs, only to find that a mysterious cult is kidnapping locals and sacrificing them to a cthonic entity known as the Black Goat in order to revive the town’s economy.
Borowski is known as a tomboy and a troublemaker who has a habit of smashing things when she’s angry. She is also has an anti-fascist, transgender pal named Jackie who kicks some jerks out of a local Halloween party. As such, Borowski is kind of the perfect icon for LGBTQ revolt.
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Scott Benson, one of the lead developers on Night in the Woods, told Waypoint, “Really pleased that Mae keeps popping up in cool places and for cool reasons. Seeing a giant bootleg version of a character you drew in your apartment years back used as a giant representation of resistance and survival during a time of reactionary violence and increased danger is really something.”
Considering the over 300 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced by Republicans nationwide, Benson added, “We support the message and the implied threat of axe violence.”
— Anne M. Peterson (@AnnieMPeterson) June 30, 2022
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mastik8
Do what we say and no one gets hurt? Pyrrhic Victory time. Republicans will run on that clip and win.
boblrice
Wow! You certainly get kudos for the esoteric reference.
But perhaps a bit of a dramatic comparison.
mastik8
@boblrice – Perhaps. I’d certainly rather be wrong. Let’s see what happens in the Mid Terms and 2024.
SDR94103
INCREDIBLE. SO GLAD YOU POSTED THIS.