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Awkward Abercrombie tweet on Pride Month has LGBTQ activists furious

After saying Pride isn’t just for LGBTQ citizens, Abercrombie and Fitch didn’t apologize for their deleted tweet.

Photo of Ana Valens

Ana Valens

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Pride Month isn’t just for LGBTQ Americans—at least, that’s what Abercrombie and Fitch said in a tweet intended to support the Trevor Project. And LGBTQ activists are outraged by the clothing line’s statement.

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“The Pride community is everybody, not just LGBTQ people,” Abercrombie and Fitch tweeted, quoting a merchandiser with the brand called Kayla. Intended to promote Abercrombie’s partnership with the Trevor Project, the tweet essentially implies that Pride isn’t by and for LGBTQ people.

https://twitter.com/StraterZac/status/873701967964590081

But Pride is fundamentally centered around the queer community. Created as a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots on June 28, 1969, LGBTQ activists feel that taking Pride away from LGBTQ people is essentially depoliticizing the month. And advocates took to Twitter in protest, mocking the tweet and calling on Abercrombie to do better.

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Others made fun of the original tweet’s delivery, noting how its accompanying picture is awkward. The photo looks like a lesbian couple spending time together, except the two women aren’t actually embracing each other. And the original tweet links directly to Abercrombie merchandise, suggesting that the brand just wants people to buy their clothes.

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Abercrombie later removed the tweet and issued an apology, clarifying their relationship with the LGBTQ community. But many activists argued that Abercrombie did not own up to their statement, and instead simply tried to write off the tweet as a misunderstanding.

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https://twitter.com/TheOGCameron/status/873853989464547328

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Abercrombie’s slip up represents a larger problem haunting the LGBTQ community, “marketplace queerness,” where brands latch onto activists for financial gain without actually doing any hard work to aid queer or trans people. In some cases, brands actively hurt the community, and many felt that’s what Abercrombie did by pulling Pride away from LGBTQ Americans.

H/T BBC News

 
The Daily Dot