In one of his better-known unhinged rants: the 2015 “gay bomb” speech, Alex Jones famously told the InfoWars audience about chemicals added to water “turning the frickin’ frogs gay.” In the original clip, which, along with the rest of the InfoWars library has been banned from YouTube, Jones mentions the gay frogs as evidence that the United States government has been adding the herbicide Atrazine to tap water as part of a plot to spread homosexuality, emasculating men and reducing population growth. In addition to Pepe (the Matt Furie-created frog co-opted by the alt-right who is absent from most of the LGBTQ+ frog memes I’ve encountered), frogs can be found wearing cowboy hats in TikToks, literally just vibing, and in a wide range of jokes, image macros, and trends without specific connections to LGBTQ+ culture.Īs to possible origins of the rise of frogs as a queer mascot, there are three major recurring themes. It’s worth noting that frogs are big on the internet in general.
In early quarantine, when I got deep into the frog-centric part of TikTok known, predictably, as #FrogTok, however, I realized that the narrative of frog-loving queer people was not just a vague feeling, but an actual sort of LGBTQ+ internet fandom for the amphibian. As a queer person who vaguely loves frogs, I wasn’t particularly surprised to learn that there were other queer people out there who also love frogs. At first, I didn’t think much of this because it just made sense to me - the modern internet is personalized to each user. Examples include tweets about bisexuals loving frogs, frog pride merch sold on Etsy, lesbian frog memes, and a build-a-LGBTQ-frog Tumblr thread. Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed a steady and growing stream of queer-related frog content on the corners of the internet I inhabit. Frogs are a recurring item on these lists.
Plenty of TikTok videos list “things that aren’t gay/queer/LGBTQ+ but have gay/queer/LGBTQ+ energy.” They’re typically presented without explanation, just the statement that inanimate objects, straight celebrities, stores, animals, movie villains, political ideologies, etc., have queer vibes. It now includes the green and brown M&Ms, Miss Piggy, iced coffee, the plant section at Lowe’s, and frogs.
In addition to the inclusion of a more diverse set of people, many of whom are themselves members of the LGBTQ+ community, the cannon of queer iconography on the internet has an even wider scope. While the phrase “gay icon” may connote a diva worshipped by cis gay men, a wide range of celebrities have become objects of affection by LGBTQ+ people.Īs the internet opens up space for queer people to fawn over, stan, and shape their own narratives about their icons, the parameters of what constitutes one are expanding. To this day, the concept of a “gay icon” is still largely represented by (often heterosexual) celebrity women who embody elements of sexuality and selfhood that resonate with at least some LGBTQ+ people.