demon days

This anti-LGBTQ+ bigot just inadvertently gave us our first great meme of Pride Month 2023

A muscled shirtless man wears red devil horns and stands in front of a black background
Image Credit: Getty Images

If you were on Twitter at all the past few days (and, by the way, more power to you if you weren’t—it was a long holiday weekend, so hopefully everyone got out and touched some grass), chances are you saw this silly image floating around:

In this kerning stickler’s nightmare, “PRIDE” and “MONTH” are smushed together for some reason as if they were one word. The eye-sore “PRIDEMONTH” is then repeated, line after line, the white “PRI” and “TH” letters fading out as the central letters “DEMON” gradually colorize with a rainbow gradient.

Honestly? It’s so ridiculous that it’s brilliant.

At first blush, this would appear to be the handiwork of yet another too-online queer, playing in the same space as the LGBTQ+ community’s leading troll, Lil Nas X, by leaning into the satanic aspersions often lobbed at us by Christian right-wingers.

UPDATE: After publication, it was brought to our attention that said art was originally created over a year ago by queer artist Art By Veya, who is selling the design in various styles and colors of t-shirts on their website.

But the recent meme-ification of the art begn with none other than Lauren Witzke. “Who?,” you might ask? Exactly!

Witzke is an anti-LGBTQ+ conservative bigot media “personality” (or lack thereof), proud Christian, former host for designated hate group web show TruNews (which, by the way, is neither “tru[e]” nor “news”), and, as her Twitter bio tells us, the GOP’s Delaware nominee for US Senate in 2020 (in other words… she lost.)

Of course, as much as she hates the gays—and, trust us, the feeling is mutual—even we have to admit that Witzke did a bit of a slay when she dropped the “PRIDEMONTH” meme on Twitter this past Friday.

Almost immediately, queer folks began retweeting the graphic ironically, embracing its absolute absurdity and reclaiming the rainbow-fied demon label for themselves. By the end of the weekend, it became a full-blown meme, inspiring jokes, reinterpretations, and art. And just in time for Pride season!

Yes, the unwitting Witzke has accidentally given us the first great meme of Pride Month 2023. We’re almost inclined to say, “thank you,” but…. no thanks!

In a follow-up tweet, she claims, “Christians are DONE taking crap from the LGBTQ Mafia,” warning that they’re “cancelling Pride Month, pouring out your Bud Light, shutting down your Targets, and we’re taking back the rainbow.”

First of all, *eyeroll* and, secondly: If you’re taking back rainbows, where are you using those colors for the “demon” in your post? The logic’s all wrong. But when it comes to bigots, is the logic ever right? (Hint: No.)

Anyway! Enough about Witzke. The brilliant, twisted minds of Gay Twitter™ have taken PRIDEMONTH” and run with it. Scroll town below for a few of our favorite spins on the demonic meme that we’ll surely have us laughing all the way through June.

Many are having fun the wonky wordplay of the original post—some even using Witzke’s own formula to throw it back in her face:

Similarly, one pop music aficionado used the meme to fashion a tribute to what’s shaping up to be the 2023 Pride anthem: Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam”:

Others have a few ideas what this so-called Pride Demon might look like. No one can seem to come to a consensus, though we all can agree that she’s serving, of course:

And, frankly, it’s just getting some of us even more hyped for June!

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