Tumblr users have taken a tired homophobic post and given it a futuristic twist, making it funny and inclusive instead of intolerant.
While Tumblr can be known for its user battles over everything from social justice issues to fandom minutiae, the beauty of this reblog chain is its tongue-in-cheek positivity—and hilarity. Without anyone directly attacking the OP for their “being gay is unnatural” post, they instead run with the original idea of a “gay island” and a “straight island,” building from there with contributions like “Speaking up from the pansexual archipelago: I too have these question.”
This quickly escalates with “Checking in from bisexual bay: The boats are nearly complete and are equipped with a special invisibility function. We attack at dawn,” which sets the tone for subsequent reblogs to take on a cheeky genre tone. By the end, the posts have compiled into quite the action-adventure.
Beyond the fun of playfully skewering the OP’s intolerant first post, the reblog system means that this story never really dies. At nearly 300,000 notes and counting, the post continues to circulate on Tumblr, with new posters continuing to build on it daily, adding tales of their own sexualities set in a dystopian landscape. Can a YA novelization be far away?
Top image from Tumblr. Full disclosure: I worked there! Send me an Ask about it