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US YouTuber buys town, renames it ‘Gay Hell’ to protest Trump’s pride flag ban

A grand celebration for International Pride Month.

Gays & Guns

Mass shootings have become tragically routine in the US and gun violence is at it's worst. Now the LGBTQ community says they're bearing the brunt of that. Gay hate crimes, many involving guns are killing queer Americans like never before. And while the debate around gun control continues in the halls of power, on the streets LGBTQ people are taking matters into their own hands. In this special half-hour documentary, SBS investigative journalist and presenter Patrick Abboud gains unprecedented access to the Pink Pistols’ largest chapter. Allowing television cameras inside their national operation for the first time Patrick travels across the US to meet the civilian legion fighting homophobia with firepower.

Above video: Gays & Guns - fighting homophobia with bullets

US YouTube personality Elijah Daniel has returned to Hell, this time to buy the tiny Michigan town and rename it ‘Gay Hell’ in protest of President Donald Trump.

Daniel announced his new purchase on Twitter as a response to the Trump administration’s ban on US embassies flying rainbow pride flags during International Pride Month.

According to Daniel’s tweet, his first act as owner after renaming the town was to decree that “only flags that are allowed to fly are pride.”

The town of Gay Hell, Michigan is a five acre commercial property and is believed to be home to a popultion of 70.

Although Daniel has declined to report how much he paid former owner John Colone for the town, the Detroit Free Press reports it was last listed in 2016 at a value of $900,000.

Daniel is no stranger to Hell, paying Colone $100 back in 2017 to become Mayor for a day as part of a YouTube video. His first decree was to ban heterosexuality in what he called "a copy-and-paste of Trump's Muslim ban".

The Trump administration moved to ban pride flags at US embassies at the beginning of the month, with US Vice President Mike Pence citing it as “the right decision.”

"When it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies," Pence said last week.

This is not Daniel’s first tongue in cheek protest aimed towards Trump. In 2016, he wrote and self-published an erotic e-book called Trump Temptations: The Billionaire & The Bellboy staring Trump.

Trump Temptations became the number one best seller on Amazon.com in three categories: humorous erotica, LGBT erotica, and gay erotica. It also attracted over 900,000 readers on online publishing platform Wattpad.

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2 min read

Published

Updated

By Velvet Winter


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