Laurence Fox once again compares Pride flag to Nazi Party swastika just days after Twitter ban
Laurence Fox previously changed his Twitter display picture to that of a swastika made of the Progress flag. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Laurence Fox has once again compared the LGBTQ+ Pride flag to the Nazi Party’s swastika – an act that saw him temporarily banned from Twitter only days ago.
On Saturday (2 July), the same day as Pride in London, the actor and right-wing Reclaim Party founder tweeted a collage of a street in Munich, Germany, decorated with the Nazi Party symbol.
Below it, Fox shared a photo from London’s Regent Street decorated with the intersex-inclusive Progress flag ahead of the Pride in London parade. The Crown Estate commissioned hundreds of the flags to hang above shoppers until 19 July.
The high-end shopping street had previously been decked out with Union Jacks for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1543364380145979393
Fox said: “In Nazi Germany (before they massacred the jews) they used to celebrate pride too. Pride in a flag that did not represent the views of the German people.
“If you stand for equality for gay people, i stand beside you.”
Fox then seemed to misleadingly compared gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth to “genital mutilation”, a practice that is recognised internationally as a human rights violation. Reassignment surgeries are not available to minors in Britain – instead, they are offered treatments such as puberty blockers, which researchers say are “life-saving” for trans young people.
“If you stand for child genital mutilation, I’m against you,” he said.
This is not the first time the English actor has compared the lives of trans people to the horrors of the Nazi regime, which saw the deliberate murder of at least six million Jewish people and tens and thousands of LGBTQ+ people.
Laurence Fox was slapped with a brief Twitter ban after changing his display picture to that of a swastika made up of the Progress flag. The chevron of the flag, which represents LGBTQ+ communities of colour as well as trans folk, had been tilted to resemble the emblem.
Twitter confirmed to PinkNews that the tweet does not violate the service’s guidelines.
“The tweet referenced is not in violation of the Twitter Rules,” a spokesperson said.
Twitter users criticised Fox for comparing the LGBTQ+ Pride flag to the swastika.
“I realise you’re incapable of coming up with better tweets, but you’ve done this one already,” tweeted James Felton, an author.
“Feel free to carry on posting the same hateful attention-seeking s**t for diminishing returns though, would be nice to see your Twitter account become as dead as your acting career.”
Another user added: “Imagine thinking that the problem with Nazi Germany was the flags.”
The intersex-inclusive Pride flags hung above Regent Street. (Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
“You don’t actually ‘stand alongside’ me though because you literally associate a symbol of my rights alongside a Nazi flag,” a third user said.
“This is not solidarity. This is just the most aggressive and extreme version of speaking over people.
“And you’re using the spectacle of my rights and my sexuality as a strategy to repress trans people.”
The intersex-inclusive Progress Pride was designed in 2021 by Valentino Vecchietti, an intersex writer who helms Intersex Equality Rights UK.
“I wonder why Laurence Fox didn’t simply ask me about my flag before making such a surprising statement,” she told PinkNews.
“But it is never too late to learn.
“Our intersex-inclusive Pride flag celebrates and supports the equality rights of people who have been marginalised because they have natural diversity in their: sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics.
“The flag also includes and supports black, brown and people of colour in our LGBTIQA+ community, as well as those living with or who have died from HIV/AIDS complications.”
PinkNews has contacted Laurence Fox for comment.
