Dillinger Escape Plan Respond To Homophobic Fans By Releasing 'Gayest Shirt Of All Time'

2 July 2015 | 12:02 pm | Mitch Knox

Think of the gayest thing you can, and go gayer

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New Jersey-bred prog-hardcore veterans The Dillinger Escape Plan have found themselves thrust into the middle of a debate on creative integrity and, bizarrely, equal marriage rights, eventually taking action against those in their fanbase who revealed themselves as vocal homophobes in the process by releasing what they have deemed "the gayest shirt of all time by any band".

This one's a bit of a winding tale, so to reward you early for your faith, you can see the shirt below in all the majesty of its rainbow-coloured, cock-headed Pegasus design — the explanation for its existence is to follow.

(Click pic to enlarge.)

To understand the impetus for the fabulous new merchandise — we promise, it's worth it — we have to go back a couple of days to the original incident. In wanting to show their support for the US Supreme Court's recent decision to legalise same-sex marriage in all 50 states, the band released a special T-shirt to commemorate the change, promising 50% of its profits to The Trevor Project, which is focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQI youth — a noble cause in itself.

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However, their problems began when they took a badge image they had posted to Facebook in support of the decision — of two muscular arms clasped in a bro-shake, emblazoned with the words You Son Of A Bitch (the whole thing is a reference to Predator) — that had been created by a third party who goes by the name of FutureZine, "altered the image enough to make it legally non-infringing to parody law" and slapped a Pride flag and their logo on it and put it up for sale.

From there, people started to point out their "plagiarism" of the patch — which the band vehemently denied — leading to the band posting a follow-up response in defense of the shirt, pointing out that the majority of FutureZine's designs — the Predator arms included — are trading on other people's intellectual property.

"We of all people obviously have no interest in stealing art," the band explained. "We brought attention to him, we linked to his store, etc. We thought the two people clasping hands was a powerful image. We didn't think that the outline of those arms would be a big deal to someone making money off of selling predator and rambo themed badges, and an actual drawing of Bart Simpson. Not a caracature [sic], not an interpretation, actual Bart Simpson artwork from the show (season four, episode one, exactly two minutes in)."

"We will continue to send fifty percent of the proceeds of this shirt to The Trevor Project, and the other fifty will now go to Matt Groening as a settlement to keep him from suing FutureZine," they continued. "Irony is truly still a really dead scene."

However, amid all the hooplah over the so-called plagiarism of FutureZine's Predator arms, The Dillinger Escape Plan noticed an uglier trend emerging — open expressions of disappointment for their support of the same-sex marriage law among their fans.

Which brings us to the "gayest shirt of all time".

"So after everything yesterday, the thing that still stuck out the most were the random comments we had to delete, and some we didn't, of people who were somehow disappointed in our stance on gay marriage," the band posted to Facebook this morning (AEST).

"Not many, but still, even one is shocking. So now, to violently weed those people out of our fanbase for good, we proudly give you the "gayest" shirt of all time by any band: a Pegasus, with a cock for a horn, ejaculating a giant rainbow, on a tie-dye...shit I mean rainbow soaked...tank top. For twenty four hours. Again, fifty percent of proceeds go to The Trevor Project."

 

So after everything yesterday, the thing that still stuck out the most were the random comments we had to delete, and...

Posted by The Dillinger Escape Plan on Wednesday, July 1, 2015

As you can see, the post was made at 3.41am this morning, which means you have until that time tomorrow morning to go buy the hell out of this shirt.

Bravo, DEP. Bravo.

See the saga unfolding with the original T-shirt and patch below.

 

The ruling on same-sex marriage the other day was a major step for the LGBTQ community, and for humanity in general, but...

Posted by The Dillinger Escape Plan on Tuesday, June 30, 2015
 

Everyone. What started as us thinking someone's badge was rad and being stoked on the gay marriage ruling, has just...

Posted by The Dillinger Escape Plan on Tuesday, June 30, 2015