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29 June 2017 1:25 PM

London Pride organisers apologise after uproar over Love Happens Here posters

By Joshua Haigh

People are not happy with posters for this year’s London Pride.

The celebrations are set to kick off next weekend, and in the run-up to the big event organisers have unveiled a range of new posters.

Artwork made specially for the event stirred up controversy online today (June 29), with many people suggesting the images appear to make London Pride “all about straight people”.

One tag line reads: “I’m a straight man with gay pride,” while another poster says: “Homophobia is SO gay”.

Numerous commentators on social media slammed the designs, with many hitting back at Pride organisers for approving the tag lines that were used.

“The London pride’s catastrophic marketing campaign has me f*****d all the way up so I’m just gonna go back to bed until it’s fixed,” said one tweeter.

Following the backlash, organisers released a statement apologising for the posters, saying that a number of the slogans were “misjudged”.

“As part of our theme to celebrate Love Happens Here we asked people, whether LGBT+ or straight, to send their messages of love for Pride. We then asked some wonderful artists to turn some of these messages into a series of posters,” said the statement.

“It is clear we misjudged the content of some of the messages in this poster series, undermining the individuality, importance, and dignity of the LGBT+ community. This was never our intention, and we are genuinely sorry to have played any part in something that appears to devalue our own community, and have removed these four images from our campaign.

“London’s LGBT+ community is vibrant, diverse and strong, with incredible activists at its heart. Our ambition is, and always will be to promote and celebrate the visibility and diversity of London’s LGBT+ community, to stand up against hate, and campaign for true equality at home and abroad.

“This year has seen our largest ever LGBT+ campaign, taking our messages of love around the world, breaking new ground in the UK, launching new services to tackle hate crime and raising awareness of the persecution of LGBT+ people around the world.”

They continued: “We hope the breadth of our campaign, that celebrates the wonderful spectrum of LGBT+ life in London, is a more truthful reflection of our community.”

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