Pride Month Demon

Submission 23,218

Part of a series on LGBTQ+ Pride Month. [View Related Entries]

About

Pride Month Demon, also known as Pride Demon or Pride Month Demon Shirt, is a word-art graphic that repeats the phrase "Pride Month" five times, narrowing down the letters to the word "Demon" written in rainbow colors. The design was originally created by Sword-In-Hand Publishing in 2021, perceivably anti-LGBTQ+. Soon after in 2021, queer Redbubble artist Art by Veya (artbyveya) created the rainbow-colored iteration for pro-LGBTQ+ usage. In late May 2023, just before Pride Month 2023, Art by Veya's graphic went viral on Twitter when GOP politician Lauren Witzke tweeted it. Thereafter, many parodied the graphic or humorously imagined what a "Pride Month Demon" was in memes.

Origin

Sometime before June 24th, 2021, the since-deleted Facebook^[1] page of Sword-In-Hand Publishing posted an infographic that narrowed down the phrase "Pride Month" to "Demon" written in red (shown below, left). On June 24th, 2021, the currently first discovered sharing of a Facebook screenshot was posted to Reddit^[2] (shown below, right).

On June 26th, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @thedabqueenS tweeted the infographic, writing, "Love how this was posted unironically 🙃😂," gaining over 160 likes in two years (shown below, left). A month later, on July 18th, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @binej_yeah captioned it, "this image is so fucking funny," gaining roughly 17,000 likes in two years (shown below, right).

Around the same time in 2021, Redbubble^[5] artist artbyveya started their shop, which mostly included LGBTQ+ Pride Month merch that showed a variant of the "Pride Month" to "Demon" graphic using the colors of the Pride flag and Transgender flag (examples shown below). Redbubble's artbyveya proclaimed in their profile^[6] that they were "a queer, non-binary artist" with a "passion for human rights, the LGBTQIA+ community and all things snarky." Their identity as a queer artist is also confirmed by their Instagram,^[7] ultimately likening the shirt's design to a parody of Sword-In-Hand Publishing's design. The design would then become the subject of memes two years later on Twitter in 2023.

Spread

Going into late 2021, Sword-In-Hand Publishing's design continued to generate memes and viral discourse online. For instance, on July 19th, 2021, Twitter^[8] user @boowu_ tweeted a re-edited version that narrowed down to "pony," earning over 80 likes in two years (shown below, left). On September 24th, 2021, Twitter^[9] user @EFFYlives captioned the image "JE(SUS)," gaining roughly 1,700 likes in two years (shown below, right).

On April 11th, 2022, the graphic gained memes once again when Twitter^[10] user @HedgeMom tweeted, "Dear homo/transphobes: Stop giving us the best ammo ever This fuckin *rips* I would have this on a shirt in a second," gaining roughly 152,200 likes in one year (shown below, left). The tweet inspired many memes, including fan art. For instance, on April 22nd, 2022, Twitter^[11] user @rayleearts tweeted their, "gay oc in the demon shirt," gaining roughly 20,100 likes in the same timeframe (shown below, right).

Also in 2022, artbyveya's design was shared by anti-LGBTQ+ users on the site Gab.^[12] Around the same time, it was also shared on Tumblr.^[13] However, the graphic didn't go viral until May 2023, starting on May 26th, 2023, when Twitter^[14] user and GOP Nominee for U.S. Senate Lauren Witzke tweeted the graphic, gaining roughly 21,400 likes in four days (shown below).

Due to Witzke's tweet,^[14] the graphic became the subject of parodies and ridicule in the replies. For instance, on May 27th, 2023, Twitter^[15] user @nieltown tweeted a graphic that narrowed the phrase "Christmas Spirit" down to "Ass," earning roughly 36,000 likes in three days (shown below, left). Later on May 27th, Twitter^[16] user @IantosWolf tweeted a parody showing "Jesus Christ" turn into the word "Sus," gaining roughly 39,800 likes in three days (shown below, right).

More memes and tweets^[17]^[18] surfaced in the days that followed