Culture

This amazing rainbow tweet about Hurricane Harvey has gone viral

Sep 01 2017
Written by Josh Jackman

(Twitter/Fox News & jamilmadison)

Hurricane Harvey has brought death, destruction and suffering to thousands of families.

At least 44 people have so far been killed by the hurricane and flooding, which has devastated vast swathes of America’s fourth largest city, Houston.

And LGBT people have been blamed for the natural disaster, because of course they have.

(Getty)

A pastor with ties to GOP Senator Ted Cruz has claimed that Hurricane Harvey was a “punishment” from God for Texas rejecting an anti-trans law, because of course he has.

And he’s far from alone.

Ann Coulter recently wondered about whether Hurricane Harvey was “God’s punishment” for Houston electing a lesbian mayor.

Even though former Mayor of Houston Annise Parker left office in 2016, she wrote: “I don’t believe Hurricane Harvey is God’s punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor.

“But that is more credible than ‘climate change’.”

Because of this predictable yet still somehow surprising bigotry, it’s always good to see someone stand up for the LGBT community.

(Twitter/jamilmadison)

That’s exactly what web designer Jamil Madison did when he took a tweet from Fox News – whose relationship with the LGBT community is…complicated, let’s say – and twisted it brilliantly.

The right-wing channel’s Twitter account posted a picture of a rainbow appearing over the destroyed sign of Houston fast food restaurant Whataburger.

Fox News’ accompanying message was pretty benign. Jamil’s was fabulous.

“Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there,” he wrote, referencing the US’s national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.

(Twitter/jamilmadison)

And he was right: the rainbow flag was standing guard over Houston at its worst moment.

Jamil’s simple yet brilliant defence of the LGBT community’s place in the US quickly went viral, attracting more than 126,000 retweets and favourites.

And the responses show how much people are loving his tweet.