Whitney Chewston is a miniature dachshund with a dedicated following on Instagram. Recently, a meme where Chewston ironically proclaims she’s “not too fond of gay people” went viral online as a reaction image, inspiring countless variations of the Homophobic Dog meme placing equally homophobic sentiments over her images. These soon evolved to include captions that show Whitney’s growing acceptance and tolerance of the LGBTQ+ community as members of the LGBTQ+ started sharing Whitney online, including rapper Lil Nas X.

We spoke with Whitney’s owners, Logan Hickman and Ben Campbell, to get the full story behind the meme.

Q: So for those who might not know you, can you just introduce yourselves?

Ben Campbell: I'm Ben Campbell, I'm not known for anything online. But Whitney here is. She's had quite a presence over the last couple of years.

Logan Hickman My name is Logan Hickman. I, too, am not known for anything online. I have an even smaller online presence than Ben does, but Whitney here has been popular since about 2016, and then a little bit more popular [recently].

Q: When did you get Whitney?

LH: So it was 2016 and we were both living in Columbus, Ohio at the time. We're in Scottsdale, Arizona now. But my sister was always a big miniature dachshund person. She had three, she wanted a fourth, but her then-fiance, her husband now, said that they couldn't get a fourth one. So my sister convinced me to go to a breeder that she had kind of picked out to go look at them. And so, I had just graduated from college, Ben and I were still together, but we weren't living together because he was still in school. Anyways, we went and saw the dog and I was told she was probably under two pounds, just born. When we saw her, her eyes weren't even open. But we knew that we had to bring her home, and she's just been an integral part of our family ever since. She's been fabulous.

Q: What’s Whitney’s personality like?

BC: She's very sassy and has a huge personality and really loves her Dads. She's a little bit stand off-ish sometimes, but when you get to know her, she's the biggest cuddle bug. She loves to cuddle. And then she's growling at people outside the door, outside the window right now.

LH: She definitely has a big personality. She's fiercely loyal. The first time she meets someone, it may take her a moment to warm up to them, but then if they leave and come back for a second visit…

BC: She loves them.

LH: She will be instantly attached. I think she's that way because she's highly protective of Ben and I. She doesn't like being without us or even if we aren't together, all three of us at the same time. So she's very protective. She's also very sassy. Little high maintenance. I think her attribute that stands out the most, or that's the strongest is she's very stubborn. If she knows you want her to do something, she won't do it. But if you don't want her to do that same thing, she'll do it. So that's Whitney in a nutshell.

Q: What’s something people might be surprised to learn about Whitney?

LH: She's not homophobic. Her dads are gay and it's so interesting, almost ironic that her voice on Instagram, which is us, has always been kind of sassy, and a little gay. So it's just very ironic that she is branded as homophobic. But Ben and I were actually talking about it, it's more satire than it is anything. We think that it sheds light on folks who are actually homophobic. And through satire and this meme, we're kind of exposing people who just aren't up with the times and people who are unfair toward gay people.

Q: When did you first become pet influencers?

LH: So originally, I was sharing so many photos of Whitney from my Facebook and to my Instagram where all my close friends and family, they were like, "Logan enough with the dog pictures, like we've seen too many." And I said, "You know what? I'm gonna make her her own Instagram." And at the time, I was still trying to find a job because I just graduated college, Ben was in college. And I'm like, "But what if Whitney could be my job? What if it took off or something like that?"

BC: I was against it. At first I was like, "Don't make a dog Instagram."

LH: I know and at first, we put so much passion into it. We got a professional camera, we're editing all the photos, we had so many photoshoots. And it started really small, but everyone always says, "I've never seen a white one before." That's what everyone says the first time they see her and so, a couple of the really big dachshund accounts…

Sausage Dog Central, Dachshunds of Instagram, they just re-shared her and she kind of gained a cult following of dachshund fans and of dog fans. Her following was dachshund fans, just because she was so unique because she's a really light color, but she's not quite albino. So over the years, her account has just grown. But the original intent was to have a place where we could share Whitney photos with people who actually want to see her. And then also, if you remember, 2016 was a very contentious time for the world on social media. So Ben and I were so sick of seeing all of the betrayals and back and forth and stuff like that with the election, that we wanted to put some positivity on social media. And we thought dogs and cuteness and puppies are a universal language.

BC: And we have a lot of fun with it too. It's bonding. Whitney's gotten good at posing too, so she knows. I think she knows she's kind of famous on Instagram. [chuckle]

Q: What’s the story behind the “homophobic dog” meme and the photo of Whitney with the wine glass that’s become famous in that meme?

LH: So it's interesting. The photo that was used for the original meme, the “not too fond of gay people,” where she's sitting on the island of a former apartment of ours and she has the glass of red wine in front of her, that's like, her most-liked photo on her entire Instagram feed. I thought it was just kind of [a photo of] a dog on a blanket on the counter with a glass of wine. But it's the one that did the best.

We didn't even know it was a meme until my cousin who lives in Columbus sent me a picture. We were with some friends, I think, at a bar ordering a drink. I put up my phone and I'm like, "Oh, why is my cousin from Columbus texting me, something must have happened.” He shared that meme. He goes, "Look this is all over Twitter." And I'm like, "Oh, that's kind of funny. It probably won't become anything just because there's so much on Twitter.” Then, just over the next week and a half, it's just grown. Everyone has been sending us stuff.

Q: Do you know who made the original meme?

LH: Somebody did reach out to us on Instagram and said, "Hey, you know, I'm the original creator of that meme. I'm so sorry that your comments on Instagram have been flooded and talking about gay people and not too fond of them, and let's research."

BC: And then people found out that her dads were gay. They lost it.

LH: Then it started this theory again, and now the big joke is Whitney is trying to escape. And people have even developed their own storylines behind it where Whitney was homophobic, and then she had a change of heart, and then she liked gay people, and then she went back…Then she was gay, but then she went back to not liking gay people. So it's been quite an evolution for Whitney's stands on the topic over the last couple of weeks.

Q: What were your initial reactions to the memes?

LH: Well, my initial reaction was, I thought it was funny because we're both gay. And so, I feel like we're kind of up on the online gay culture, whether it's Instagram or Twitter. Every platform seems to have kind of a different sense of humor and a different vibe. So, we're here for it. We didn't question it. And we knew that it's like mainly LGBT people who were creating it. We knew that it was satire and it was comedy and we were fully supportive of it. Obviously, we know that Whitney doesn't hate gay people.

Q: Do you think the meme was made with the knowledge that you’re both gay or was it just a coincidence?

LH: It's just a coincidence. This is the story. I'm not gonna get it perfect 'cause I'm not looking at the message. But basically, [the meme’s creator] said they identify as LGBTQ themselves. They made the meme through the old Whisper app. They made it just to share amongst their friends. Somehow it just kind of ended up on Twitter. Then over the last year and a half, it just picked up speed. So, he's like, “That was never my intention. I just made it for my friends to be kind of a joke.” An inside joke.

BC: Yeah. That's how I think everybody's using it too. It's just inside jokes and it's meant to be light and humorous and make light of the situation.

LH: Make light of people who are actually homophobic with a dog who kind of portrays this Karen-type figure with her blonde hair and her side-eye and her attitude and her privilege almost as being a designer dog. So that's really the origins of it. From what we've been told.

Q: What do you think it is about Whitney that makes her so memeable?

BC: It's her facial expressions. She just is silly all the time, then I just think she has an attitude. Like, it just comes out and you just see it.

LH: Yeah. Honestly, we never really realized her facial expressions because we live with her and we see them every day. But I guess going back through the photos and kind of matching the photos with the captions and how spot-on they are, we've realized that when we try to get Whitney to pose and take pictures, she gives us those looks like, "What in the heck are you guys doing?" Like, the side-eye. She naturally has, like, really dark liner kind of around her eyes. It kind of looks like eyeliner. And so when she moves her pupils to the side, the white and the eyeliner type feature on her eye.

BC: I think it's 'cause she's also kind of sleepy all the time, too. So she looks like she's just kind of giving dirty looks. Because she loves to sleep.

Q: What are your favorite versions of the meme?

LH: My favorite use of them is when people aren't even reacting to the different threads of new ones that are put out but they're using them as reaction memes and just internal conversations on Twitter. Maybe they don't even know that Whitney is a viral meme or they're not keeping up with it and they've just seen it and they've saved it and they're using it as a reaction to something that one of their friends tweets.

BC: Yeah, like a famous drag queen just shared, "I know who you are," or "I know what you are," or something like that and it's so vague that if you don't know what it is, it's hilarious regardless of if you know. I don't think they'll ever understand. I haven't told my parents yet 'cause I don't think they would get it.

LH: I feel like to get it, you have to be on Twitter, number one and you'll get it even more so if you are a member of the LGBTQ community. But definitely, all of our gay friends have all texted us saying, "Why do I keep seeing your dog everywhere? Have you seen this? Do you know what's going on?"

Q: What kind of effect did the meme have on Whitney’s social media presence and following?

LH: Definitely a lot more engagement. It's interesting, 'cause then you have her legacy followers who are commenting their things and compared to the migrators from Twitter and so it's like you have these people who are just doting over Whitney for being Whitney and then you have these people who are bringing kind of meme culture into it and there's kind of like this weird dynamic going on between the two sets of followers.

BC: I think they're confused too, like they have no idea. A lot of people don't know this is going on who aren't in the Twitterverse.

LH: Or they're not gay or they're older. So, we've had a lot of people comment like, "Why are people saying that [Whitney is homophobic]? “Whitney's homophobic? She's the sweetest dog ever!" So, what we did, instead of just addressing it because we didn't want people to actually think that she was homophobic, we just put something in her bio that said, "Recent Twitter meme" with a rainbow next to it so people know.

Q: Has the response mostly been positive?

BC: Majority have always been positive 'cause people get that it's satire and it's supposed to be making light of the situation so I just think, yeah, the last thing we wanna do is offend anyone.

LH: They're aligned with us. Folks in the queer community, I feel like, get it and that's why they're so supportive of it. Again, it's because what it's ultimately doing is shining a light on folks who actually are homophobic and making fun of them.

Q: Are people still sending you the memes?

LH: A friend messaged us today and they're like, "Are you aware of this?" I'm like, "Oh my gosh, yes." Because we haven't been really talking about it on our own personal accounts just because we're letting people do their thing and being creative, that's the beauty of the internet. People can take what you put out there and make it their own. So we're not really trying to, I guess, make it a moment for ourselves but just let people enjoy Whitney for the cute dog that she is.

Q: When do you think the meme shifted from homophobic captions to more tolerant captions and why?

BC: I think I shifted just because people wanted to twist up the story a little bit and keep it going. They're like, "Okay, what else can we do with Whitney to keep the story going and shift it back and forth and just kind of get the conversation going?" 'Cause I think people were either on one side of the fence, like they were supportive of her changing our story and others were like, "No, I liked her the way she was," or, "She's not fun anymore with that."

LH: There's definitely a debate online about if she's gay or if she should be gay, but I think ultimately the reason it shifted was it shifted naturally because the meme's intent was again to expose people who are homophobic. As we know, sometimes the most homophobic people are actually gay themselves and it's internalized homophobia. So Whitney, I feel like, naturally followed that storyline that, unfortunately, a lot of people in society face themselves.

BC: I think that when the gay dads came out to shoot, they were like, "Oh no! Oh wait, they actually are gay." Then I thought it was funny, they were like, "Okay. Well, of course her name's Whitney Chewston, of course they're gay." [laughter] That was funny.

LH: I know. There was someone who said, "The dog's name is Whitney Chewston. Was there ever a doubt in your mind that her owners were gay?"

Q: Is there a story behind her name?

BC: Yes, there is. [Logan] was obsessed with Whitney Houston for the longest time and it just came to him. He's always really creative about coming up with names and he was like, "Whitney Chewston, that's it." It just was the first thing he came up with and it's stuck. We call her like Chewy, Chewchew. But I have to admit, her real name is just Whitney.

LH: [Whtiney Chewston is] her stage name. So I was always a huge Whitney Houston fan but when we created her account, we were looking up other Instagram famous pets and a lot of them had names that were spinoffs of celebrities. Dolly Pawton, Kim Kardogian…So I'm like, "What could we make Whitney?" And not to be cheesy but she is the greatest of them all.

Q: What’s the story behind her unique color?

BC: She's a cream breed, so she has a little bit of yellow in her ears and down her back. In person she's a little bit more yellow, but the reasoning for such a colour is she is an EE cream. So her dad and mom were both creams and they threw it entire cream litter. So a lot of people, at first we were hesitant to share a lot of it because there is a breed of dog that is white, but that's from a certain type of breed that's almost like there's something wrong with them. They’re albino. So people sometimes are like, "Oh no, she's one of the albino breed." I'm like, "No, no, no. She's just a cream." So that's part of the reasoning too, like if sometimes people say that is they don't understand that she's more yellow than she is white.

LH: So a lot of times the albino dog sends a result of trying to breed dapple dogs in which are the ones that are spotted. They look like they’re in camouflage. And so sometimes, I guess, a consequence of trying to breed those are albino dachshunds, they have the blue eyes that go back and forth really quickly, they have lot of health problems and they're generally white, sometimes with spots. But I forget exactly how the breeder described it, but she said that both of Whitney's parents were missing a certain type of [gene]. That's the reason why their entire litter was this color. Honestly, we didn't even know this was the color the litter was going to be when the breeder invited us 'cause she breeds all colors, she was just like, "Oh, I have this new litter, I won't have another one for a year, you'll have to come see this one, and they were all this color, so that's what we got."

Q: What’s your goal with Whitney’s social media presence?

BC: Everybody's like, "Oh, Whitney has to be making money,” andhonestly, we don't do anything with it, we just didn't feel right about it at first trying to push products and things like that. We've had a couple of partnerships and things, but we just wanted to share her content and make people happy that way, we didn't wanna make money off of it. I think collaborations would be cool, but I'm not sure that the future of the meme.

LH: I think if people wanna keep making memes, we'll keep embracing them as long as they are not hurtful or offensive. If anyone wants to partner or work with Whitney we're absolutely open to it, but we're just gonna keep on letting Whitney be Whitney on Instagram and we don't really have an agenda behind it.

Q: What’s something you want people to know about Whitney?

BC: Just that she's not really homophobic. She loves her Dads.

LH: She loves gay people.

BC: She's safe, people are like "Help her, save her." She's safe and very cared for here.

LH: Yeah. She's not trying to escape right now, she's very content. And she's just as sassy and fierce as people think she is. But she does love gay people. If anything, she's sometimes barks and growls more at straight people. Because most of our friends are gay and so it's like we bring straight people around, so then she's a little more hesitant. That's what I would share about her.

Q: What’s something you learned about Whitney from her becoming a meme?

BC: That she is full of expressions and I think her face says a lot that we didn't really realize, and that she's multi-faceted. She's not just an actress, [chuckle] she's a model too, I guess.

LH: It's just been a ton of fun for us and it's kinda changed up our week to week because I feel like for everyone toward the end of first quarter, it's just like everyone is kind of tired and ready for something new. I feel like Whitney and all of her new fans have given us that. And the memes have made us laugh so hard. Anytime we see a new one, we'll send it, or a friend will send it to us and it just makes our day. It really makes our day so, it's been a really positive experience for us.

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If you want to see more of Whitney Chewston, follow her on Instagram at Whitney_Chewston.