Netflix thinks the Straight Pride Parade “is about hate — not pride.”
The company had a strong and swift response after organizers of a Straight Pride Parade included a logo of Netflix on their website about potential corporate sponsors.
“You should know that we’re unafraid of bullies,” Netflix wrote in an email to the group Tuesday. “Our legal department is here, it’s queer, and it’s telling you to steer clear.”
The organizers are planning a controversial Straight Pride Parade in Boston for August. The group, called Super Happy Fun America, says it is a civil rights movement defending the rights of straight people. But critics have called the Straight Pride Parade offensive.
Netflix called the inclusion of the Netflix logo on the organizers’ site “gross and deeply hurtful,” as well as “deceptive misinformation.” The company said it would consider further legal action if the organizers did not immediately remove the company’s name and logo within 24 hours. Netflix’s logo is still on the organizers’ website, but it’s now crossed out.
“Netflix has nothing to do with your organization or event. Indeed, it’s telling that you feel the need to lie to gain legitimacy,” Netflix’s IP department wrote in the email.
One of the organizers, John Hugo, a former Republican Congressional candidate for Massachusetts, told CNN Business, “We are appalled at the hateful and bigoted email issued by Netflix. By their highly irresponsible statements they effectively demonstrate the serious need for our civil rights movement.”
“We believed that they would jump at the opportunity to become involved…it appears that their legal department is staffed by gay supremacists,” the organizers wrote on their site.
According to the organizers’ website, five companies — Netflix, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Tumblr and Gillette — have already turned down their offer.
Netflix is the latest company to come out against the Straight Pride Parade. A few months ago, Axe body spray passionately defended gay rights and said it wouldn’t be at the Straight Pride Parade. “We’ll be at the parade that matters and this one isn’t it,” Axe tweeted.
The Straight Pride Parade has been criticized for parodying the gay pride parade.
Actor George Takei tweeted in June, “They’re planning a ‘straight pride’ parade in Boston, presumably to commemorate that historic moment when courageous heterosexual frat bros finally stood up to the gay cops who had been harassing and arresting them for decades.” Others responded that the gay pride parade was born to honor the queer community’s right to exist without persecution and that straight people should be thankful they don’t face such challenges.
