Gaysper

About

Gaysper is a rainbow colored ghost emoticon named after Casper that has been reclaimed from the Spanish far-right party, Vox, by the LGBTQ community as a symbol of far-right resistance against Vox.

Origin

On April 28th, Spanish far-right group Vox^[1] tweeted a Lord of the Rings battle screenshot photoshopping symbols associated with the far-left as the enemy army (shown below). The tweet gained over 16,900 likes and 8,500 replies in three days (shown below). A rainbow colored emoji ghost represented the LGBTQ community.

Spread

On April 28th, 2019, @JesusOrtex^[2] called on the LGBTQ community to reclaim the symbol from the far-right group as their own (shown below). The tweet gained over 2,700 retweets and 9,400 likes in three days.

Over the next few days, the LGBTQ community reclaimed the emoji by sharing the icon over Twitter using the hashtag #gaysper. Twitter user @modesto_garcia^[3] suggested dressing up as gaysper during pride gatherings (shown below, left). The costume photo gained over 2,000 likes and 300 retweets in two days. That same day Twitter user @manupalmer^[4] praised the communities (shown below, right).

Various Examples

External References