There are few better ways to kick off Pride Month than with an LGBTQ history lesson —and also, by burying homophobic comments under a mountain of receipts.
TikTok creator Julie Unhinged (@plantbasedbirdgirl) went viral at the beginning of the month with a video that responds to one such comment with an affecting, fast-paced montage of struggles faced over the years by LGBTQ people.
@plantbasedbirdgirl Replying to @ender sans their* #pride #birdgirl ♬ Little Girl Gone – CHINCHILLA
As of this writing, the video has more than 181,000 likes and 693,000 views.
It all started with a comment (since deleted) on one of Julie’s previous videos: “at least they died for there flags y’all didn’t fight for sh*t.”
In a recent series of videos, Julie can be seen in front of several different pride flags representing different members of the LGBTQ community, including lesbians, pansexuals and more.
Julie’s video response cycles quickly through several tragic milestones in recent LGBTQ history: the uprising at Stonewall Inn in New York City, the 1973 arson attack at UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans, the murder of Harvey Milk (the first openly gay elected official in the U.S.), the murders of queer people like Brandon Teena and Matthew Shepard, the mass shootings at Pulse in Florida and Club Q in Colorado, among other events.
“Some soldiers choose to fight for their rights, others are forced to,” reads a message at the end of the video. “Their fight won’t be erased by your ignorance.”
A number of viewers were touched by the video and expressed their support for the LGBTQ community and Pride Month in the comments.
One person wrote, “I got chills and teared up seeing the part about pulse and club q.”
“Dealing with homophobic parents of my students today,” another person wrote. “Thank you for the reminder of the history of this fight. And the reason.”
Julie responded to this comment, saying, “Im sorry you have to go through that, you’re fighting the good fight.”
“I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until it was over… how can they be so oblivious?” another viewer wrote.
“Got me over here tearing up in pride and rage,” shared one person. “They’ll never be forgotten for their fight.”
Julie wrote to her viewers, “Happy Pride my loves let’s fight for trans kids now.”
When contacted for comment, Julie told the Daily Dot why promoting LGBTQ pride through such content is important.
“Time and again in my comment sections I see people promoting the idea that queerness, gender-queerness especially, has only become ‘real’ in the last century,” she said. “The fact is all of us- gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, agender, gender-fluid – all representatives of the so-called ‘alphabet mafia’ have existed for as long as human beings have.”
The creator added about the importance of LGBTQ pride, “I want to see a world that can do better for this community but we wont get there if the great majority continues to think our existence is simply a made up phase of humanity.”
She also laid out her objectives for posting videos like this: “So while my goal as a creator was to make comedy videos, I find myself more and more turning to history and science in my content in the hopes of aiding the desperate need for the awareness of queer people’s long held existence. I aim to make queer people feel seen, heard, and loved with my content and also give anyone who happens across my videos a second chance at the education they may have missed.”
Those looking to take Julie’s lead this Pride Month can brush up on their LGBTQ history. The Smithsonian Institute and GLSEN are good places to start. And while you’re at it, read about this Pride Month’s first great meme.