About

#AskTheGays is a satirical hashtag launched by members and advocates of the LGBT community on Twitter in response to a gaffe uttered by the-then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump while discussing the Orlando nightclub shooting at a campaign rally in June 2016.

Origin

On June 15th, 2016, Trump delivered a speech at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, during which he criticized the treatment of women and homosexuals overseas, particularly in Muslim countries in the Middle East, by telling the audience to “ask the people of Saudi Arabia what they think of women” and to “ask the gays” about homophobic attitudes in other countries.

"And for the women out there, ask the people of Saudi Arabia what they think of women. For the gays out there… ask the gays and ask the people, ask the gays what they think and what they do in, not only in Saudi Arabia, in many of these countries with the gay community, just ask, and then you tell me who is your friend: Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?"

That afternoon, Twitter user @gaywonk^[2] posted a mock dialogue between Trump and "The Gays" followed by a reaction GIF of actress Whoopi Goldberg in the 1990 romantic thriller film Ghost (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 450 likes and 300 retweets.

Spread

Shortly after, Twitter user @ethanharv^[1] posted a reaction GIF featuring a scene from the 1995 comedy film Clueless as a response to Trump saying "ask the gays," gaining over 700 likes and 500 retweets that day.

Over the next several hours, other Twitter users posted variations of the "ask the gays" template, along with hostile, confused and annoyed reaction images directed toward Trump (shown below).

Meanwhile, Trump supporters began posting criticisms of LGBT treatment in Middle Eastern and Muslim countries along with the #AskTheGays^[4] hashtag (shown below).

That day, "The Gays"^[3] became a trending topic, receiving over 50,000 Twitter mentions (shown below). In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the hashtag, including BuzzFeed,^[5] RawStory,^[6] The Telegraph,^[7] the BBC^[8] and Metro.^[9]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References