Via Gawker, who rightly categorized this under “Things We Like” but couldn’t help themselves from a subtle “fists up” joke, it’s a poster in support of marriage equality designed by Shepard Fairey, whose red-and-blue Obama poster became such an iconic image in the presidential campaign that it inspired legions of imitators and parodies. I can’t find any mention of it on Fairey’s Obey Giant site, so I hope this isn’t just a really well-done homage to his neo-propaganda style, but either way, it’s pretty cool—as Gawker puts it, it’s “butch,” for once avoiding the same old triangles and rainbows we see on every gay thing ever. On the other hand, it’s a bit, well, vague. Now, I recently complained to the esteemed MoJo editors about gay rights stories being ghettoized under the “Arts and Culture” section, so I’ll try not to get too far into the politics of this here on the Riff, but some gay rights activists have said part of the problem with the (unforgivably disastrous and disorganized) No on 8 campaign was that their ads skirted around depicting actual gays and lesbians. The Obama “Hope” poster had, you know, an actual picture of Obama on it, but this one only reads “gay” if you, like most people I know, are already really pissed off about Prop 8. Maybe there could have been two hands, clasped? Also, maybe people could have done some of this before the election? Grumble. Deep breath. Anyway, nice work as always from Mr. Fairey. Click the “Continues” button to see it embiggened.
Update: Fairey has posted the graphic to his website, saying that “anyone who believes in equality and human dignity should be appalled that Prop. 8 passed.” Right on, although Dave Gilson caught that the fist image was just recycled from an earlier “Obey” poster, with, er, its orientation changed.
PS: I’d also like to point out that I named this file “faireylove.jpg” without even thinking.
