Less than 24 hours after Vice President Kamala Harris announced she would run for president following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, queer people flooded the internet with zany videos and memes about her candidacy.
A supercut of Harris laughing to songs from Charli XCX’s album “Brat” quickly went viral, garnering more than 1.3 million views. Within hours of the announcement, photos and videos circulated of a group of men at Fire Island Pines, a queer-friendly beach on New York’s Long Island, wearing cropped “Brat” T-shirts in the color of Charli XCX’s album, lime green, with “Kamala” emblazoned across the front in the same typeface used on the album.
“BRAT Kamala shirts are already on Fire Island. Gays move too fast,” one user wrote.
Some LGBTQ people expressed their support through memes and videos, as well as hyperbolic, queer-inspired posts calling Harris a “mother.”
“Biden is out!” one person wrote to X. “Mother Kamala… it’s your turn.”
Another user used lyrics from queer pop icon Chappelle Lawn’s song “Casual,” writing, “Biden falls out knee-deep in the passenger seat. Now Kamala?”
I need to vote for Kamala Harris in the VP election in November with H-🥥-🌴 🌴-🥥 G-🥥! She’ll be the one to stop Project 2025 and protect queer rights. pic.twitter.com/r2byVHZQg5
— VAYD LGBTQIA+ Caucus (@equalityVAYD) July 22, 2024
TikTok users resurrected a photo comparing Harris to “The L Word” character Bette Porter (played by Jennifer Beals, the ultimate power lesbian with an enviable pantsuit collection).
“Because Bette Porter walked, President Kamala Harris could run,” the TikTok post reads.
Some people linked Harris’ speech, in which she mentioned coconuts, to the song “Coconuts” by transgender pop artist Kim Petras.
If her first campaign song isn’t “Coconuts” by Kim Petras I will riot.
— Nori Reed (@realnorireed) July 21, 2024
Coconuts and coconut emojis have become a show of support for Harris online.
“Let’s ride the Coconut Express!!!” one person wrote to X, alongside a video of Harris singing RuPaul’s song “Call Me Mother.”
Support for Harris’ candidacy has also extended offline to LGBTQ rights groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S. The group praised her work as California attorney general to end the so-called gay/trans panic defense, which allows those charged with murder to reduce their sentences by pleading that they panicked after learning the sexual orientation or gender identity of their victim.
She has also been endorsed by 10 of the 12 openly LGBTQ members of Congress, including Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Sen. LaFonza Butler of California, Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont and Rep. Mark Takano of California.
But the praise hasn’t been uniform across the LGBTQ community, and Harris faced criticism for her support of the Biden administration’s policies regarding Israel’s war with Hamas.
“Kamala, we will vote for you if you end US support for the genocide in Gaza. That’s it,” drag performer and activist Patty Gonia wrote on Instagram on Monday.
Others pointed out that while she was California’s attorney general, Harris tried in 2015 to block transgender women from receiving gender reassignment surgery in prison.
When a reporter asked Harris about the 2015 incident at the LGBTQ Presidential Forum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2019, she said she had secretly lobbied the California Department of Corrections to change its policy of refusing to care for transgender inmates, according to The Advocate.
“I can assure you that in these systems, there will always be things that these agencies do, and I am committed to addressing those issues, as I have in the past,” Harris said at the forum.
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This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
