“We’re into MEN not sissies!”: This flag for “masculine gays” has everyone rolling their eyes

A tweet featuring an image of a black and white US flag with a thin rainbow stripe running across the middle went viral over the weekend. It was reminiscent of the flag created to celebrate law enforcement which features a thin blue line across the center.

The person (@TennesseeTwunk) who posted it said, “Made this flag in support of the masculine gays like me who are ostracized by the community… We’re into MEN not sissies! #thinrainbowline”

We have pixelated the image of the account holder as we’re unsure if it shows the person behind the account or not.

Posted on Friday, by yesterday evening the image has gained 3.2K likes and hundreds of comments.

Justice Horn

Many of those who commented were unimpressed.

Justice Horn, Chair of the Kansas City LGBTQ Commission, reshared the tweet with a message criticizing it.

“When I was younger, I quit choir because playing football and being masculine presenting helped me survive high school. I have two state rings, but walked away from something I enjoyed. As adults, we shouldn’t continue to uphold homophobia within our own community as gay men,” he said.

In a follow-up tweet, Horn added, “Our community can uphold homophobia that harms our very own community and those coming up in it. I have two state rings, wrestled in college, and play rugby, but none of that makes me more than a man than anyone else—It takes a real man to live unapologetically.”

Others suggested the poster try harder to find a community of like-minded guys. Or find a counselor to talk to.

I think it’s too late for him to find a community. He’s not allowed in any gay communities and hasn’t realized that the straight conservatives will never accept him for being anti-gay. His life is basically over at this point. There’s no real purpose for him anymore.— Ponyboy (@p0nyboyyy) April 14, 2024

You don’t get to preach empowerment and in the same breath put down other people within your “community”.
Go be divisive somewhere else . pic.twitter.com/jhPXUD9uKK— J (@viewordaa) April 14, 2024

I love posts like this cuz it’s an easy guide to who to block— DiscoPup (hey/you) (@richdupler) April 12, 2024

But being masc or fem doesn’t make someone any better or lesser than any other gay man out there. Masculine gays aren’t ostracized by the gay community. Unless they think that makes them more of a “man” than those that aren’t masculine.— Bryan A. Daniel (@bdaniel) April 13, 2024

A few people welcomed the message.

Thank you TennesseeTwunk. Great to know there are other real gay “men” out there. The LGB has been hijacked by “alphabet soup”. pic.twitter.com/BrGwxYCc1O— GW (@GW61048508) April 13, 2024

I agree and i want to join too!#thinrainbowline https://t.co/xoFAMOrCNu— STEVEN (@ImBoredUnKnown) April 13, 2024

Some were unsure whether the poster (@tennesseetwunk) was joking.

yeah like i hope youre joking but incase you aren't, laters.— Jack D (@JackDunc1) April 12, 2024

Please tell me this is a joke because this is cringe as fuck— Matt and Brad (@HancckPrkPwrCpl) April 12, 2024

Queerty reached out to @TennesseeTwunk to ask them what he’d meant by the post and what he thought of the reaction. A few hours later, he deleted the post and appeared to delete his account.

An account with the same name on TikTok, which has 26k followers, has also turned private.

Blue Lives Matter

The original “thin blue line” flag emerged in tandem with the “Blue Lives Matter” movement, which evolved as a rebuttal to the Black Lives Matter movement. In recent years, the flag has gained traction with extremists and critics of racial justice. Several people were observed waving it at the January 6 insurrection. This led to some police chiefs banning officers from wearing similar “thin blue lines” pins or other associated merchandise while on duty.

UPDATE 04.17.24

The account holder replied to Queerty to say of their original tweet about the flag, “This is a joke. It’s obviously exploded out of proportion and people are very reactionary but if you look at my account you can tell it’s meant to be satire.

He added that he temporarily deleted his account “Because I was getting too much interaction from far right accounts and didn’t want that.”