Spain elected a new parliament a few days ago and while the socialists won by a big margin there is also reason for concern: Vox, a (very) far-right party made it into the parliament for the first time with more than 10% of the vote, gaining 24 of the 350 seats.
Among many other shitty opinions Vox is, of course, extremely anti-queer. In an attempt to rally their supporters to “defend Spain” they posted a hastily put-together image showing a Lord of the Rings character representing Spain in the fight against evil.
⚔🇪🇸 ¡Qué comience la batalla! #PorEspaña pic.twitter.com/TVgdcP1Kw5
— VOX 🇪🇸 (@vox_es) April 28, 2019
None of these bogeymen were a surprise but the way they decided to represent queer people stood out because whichever intern was tasked with finding a symbol to show how scary The Gays™ are did a terrible job and picked the most adorable little ghost (probably from this artist).
Queer folks in Spain promptly adopted and reclaimed the lil spook. They named him Gaysper (personally I would have voted for Rainboo) and it didn’t take long until the memes started flooding social media. He even got his own Twitter account.
Ya tengo mi chapa de #Gaysper el nuevo icono #lgtbi gracias a #vox 😊 pic.twitter.com/M6f394J3Cl
— Dani Molinero (@dlmolinero) May 1, 2019
🏳️🌈🌈✨
If they scare you, you become gay ✨#Gaysper pic.twitter.com/jC7vIbhBAb— ⚝ ｍｏｗｅｎ ⚝ (@LayfriKunikida) April 30, 2019
#Gaysper Buenos días ⛅💕☀ @vox_es pic.twitter.com/zofyV6wbBM
— al_lu_lo 🇪🇺 (@Alvaroenlamente) April 30, 2019
Gaysper: They’re afraid of me because I’m a ghost. Right, mom?
Mom-sper: No, my darling.
Mom-sper: They’re afraid of you because you’re free.
Gaysper: ✨