Gaysper

Submission 21,879

Part of a series on Emoticons. [View Related Entries]

OMG Y'ALL I NEED TO SHARE SOMETHING SO YESTERDAY WE HAD AN ELECTION IN SPAIN RIGHT WELL THE LEFT WON BY A LOT AND THE FASCISTS ARE SUPER P----- AND THEY HAVE CREATED A MASCOT TO TRY TO REPRESENT HOW "BAD" THE LGBT IS AND IT'S THE CUTEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN

Modesto García amodesto garcia Lo barato que me va a salir el disfraz en el próximo Carnaval. #Gaysper Translate Tweet 5:04 AM - 29 Apr 2019

Jesús y la virgen. JesusOrtex Puede la comunidad lgtbi apropiarse de este icono por favor?? Translated from Spanish by Microsoft Can the LGTBI community appropriate this icon please? 2:29 PM - 28 Apr 2019 from San Cristóbal de la Laguna, Spain

Omowen GLayfiKunikida If they scare you, you become gay #Gaysper 10:37 AM - 30 Apr 2019

Luis VF luisvfdez A star is born #Gaysper 5:38 AM - 29 Apr 2019

FormulaTV @FormulaTV @Buenafuente entrevista al personaje del momento: #Gaysper, el fantasma LGTBI+ usado por VOX frml.tv/v20093 Translate Tweet LATE MOTIV 2:52 AM 1 May 2019

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About

Gaysper is a rainbow colored ghost emoticon named after Casper that has been reclaimed from the Spanish far-right party, Vox, by the LGBTQ community as a symbol of far-right resistance against Vox.

Origin

On April 28th, Spanish far-right group Vox^[1] tweeted a Lord of the Rings battle screenshot photoshopping symbols associated with the far-left as the enemy army (shown below). The tweet gained over 16,900 likes and 8,500 replies in three days (shown below). A rainbow colored emoji ghost represented the LGBTQ community.

tweet by far right Spanish group Vox of a LotR scene with leftist symbols representing the enemy

Spread

On April 28th, 2019, @JesusOrtex^[2] called on the LGBTQ community to reclaim the symbol from the far-right group as their own (shown below). The tweet gained over 2,700 retweets and 9,400 likes in three days.

Spanish tweet asking the lgbt community to reclaim the rainbow colored ghost emoji

Over the next few days, the LGBTQ community reclaimed the emoji by sharing the icon over Twitter using the hashtag #gaysper. Twitter user @modesto_garcia^[3] suggested dressing up as gaysper during pride gatherings (shown below, left). The costume photo gained over 2,000 likes and 300 retweets in two days. That same day Twitter user @manupalmer^[4] praised the communities (shown below, right).