#rainbow louis

When I think of how he was made estranged from the lgbtq community for so long, to see this just makes me cry. Welcome home.

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Louis Tomlinson World Tour : Dallas // 01.02.2022

Honestly let me just actually just take a fucking minute cause Jesus it’s intense this shit you know [Sigh] Here we are, little bit of feedback, here we are. [To a fan] Isn’t it close to be flagging me off innit feels a bit offensive.

No honestly this has been absolutely incredible. I mean I knew that already I knew that before I got on the stage how good it was gonna be. I just wanna say thank you to every single one of you for buying a ticket to this show…it’s not for free. I appreciate you I appreciate you massively. As I said before and listen you tell me otherwise yea? But I don’t know another fanbase thats got this shit and it’s real like I’m not just stood up here trying to say the fucking right things.

"Thanks for the flag, love"

The other day I had an anon complaining - I suspect - about my post on Louis’ contribution to the Rainbow Chain, telling me, among other things, to “come back when [Louis] shows real support”. This really irked me. 

So much, that here is an entire masterpost of its own, with all the LGBTQ+ support we’ve seen from Louis. Because there is loads of it, if you are only willing to see it. No pics, all text and references, this already took me forever because there is lots to collect:

- First put together with One Direction, Louis seemed to be having a pretty good time at the G-A-Y gig so at the very least we can safely assume he was never a homophobe...

- ... in fact, even back then, he actively challenged interviewers’ suggestions that male fans were not appreciated saying “whatever floats your boat”, and, to the question whether he prefers straight or gay fans, has said he loves « all of [his] fans, no matter what or who they are. » 

- But he’s shown active support as well: alongside BlackLivesMatter, mental health, and women’s rights stuff, there were articles on LGBTQ+ rights, marriage equality and gender identity in his Just Like You music video

- And it’s not token support, he showed himself to be very caring and supportive towards LGBTQ+ contestants in TXF

- ... and he casually hung out and had his fotograph taken with a fan in the gay neighborhood while on a trip to Amsterdam, again, you can’t say he’s homophobic 

- During Walls promo, he continued to show this supportive attitude to LGBTQ+ people when he signed the CD of two girls carrying a pride flag with “be proud”, he signed two girls’ pride flags with his smiley (x,x,x), and told a girl who brought her girlfriend to the signing it was “cool, wicked, amazing”. All of them reported that he did so happily, not batting an eyelid, and LGBTQ+ people who met  him stated they felt safe and appreciated (x, x) Years ago already, he signed a rainbow direction tote bag with that smiley so this should have been no surprise. 

- And it’s the same during shows: he pointed out all the pride flags (x, x, x, x, x) during his Poptopia show, with similar reports from CCME Madrid, the Jingle ball Z100 show (see also x,x,x), the Scala show for Warchild UK , and his show in Barcelona ( x, x ). Again, he already did stuff like that years ago ( x, x, x,) so this should not have been a surprise.

I’m not sure how any of this, very consistent support can get dismissed as “not real”. 

In any case, it’s in the above context that we have to understand that when...

- ...Louis wears rainbow themed shirts on days when Rainbow Direction had no signed participants (three times!) and a rainbow apple shirt just after Apple CEO Tim Cook came out and Harry said that gender was “not that important”...

... you can’t just dismiss that as “not a stricly a pride flag” so “not really supportive of LGBTQ+”, particularly not when he has also:

- put rainbow visuals in his music video for “we made it”, (which are also featured in out gay artist Alfi Arcuri’s "If they only knew” music video about two guys first figuring out their feelings for eachother); 

- featured a rainbow river in the mural announcing his setlist; and

- has shown a rainbow coloured smiley at the start of his shows