What caused a pro-gay Broadway play to post homophobic messages on Twitter?
Broadway play Mothers and Sons raised eyebrows this week, when homophobic messages mysteriously began to appear on its Twitter account.
Fans of the Tony-nominated Terrence McNally play – which tackles homophobia, and the relationships between mothers and gay sons – were left confused when the official account of the play abruptly began to tweet hateful messages.
It started out posting “No homo”, before asking: “Should homosexual ‘Pride marches’ be banned?”
*No homo
— Mothers and Sons (@MothersSonsBway) May 21, 2014
Should homosexual ‘Pride marches’ be banned? Do we want perverts parading their private business in public places dressed like weirdos?
— Mothers and Sons (@MothersSonsBway) May 21, 2014
With summer fast approaching in America please be grateful you don’t live in #FudgePacker state! HaHaHaHaHaHa — Mothers and Sons (@MothersSonsBway) May 21, 2014
Fans of the play were perplexed by the sudden change, theorising that the account had “definitely been hacked”, or was “taken over by some assholes”.
Oh man. The broadway show @MothersSonsBway has been taken over by some assholes. That’s a shame, the show works for #marriagequality too — Nathan Tovornik (@Ntovorni) May 21, 2014
I’m not…exactly sure what’s happening with the @MothersSonsBway account… — Andrew Greenberg (@amgreenberg) May 21, 2014
Yeah, @MothersSonsBway twitter has definitely been hacked. :/ #rude — Tara (@taradise) May 21, 2014
But the account continued sending out homophobic messages, for a whole hour.
I cant believe gay marriage has been legalized in Pennsylvania, whoevers making these decisions must be a fag — Mothers and Sons (@MothersSonsBway) May 21, 2014
Why do people like gay marriage so much it’s weird and gross and gay — Mothers and Sons (@MothersSonsBway) May 21, 2014
i have nothing against gay people but flaunting your sexuality in everyone’s face and using it as an excuse is ridiculous man, pipe down
— Mothers and Sons (@MothersSonsBway) May 21, 2014
And then, finally, they explained everything:
A message from Mothers and Sons: pic.twitter.com/CXYISwsZsP — Mothers and Sons (@MothersSonsBway) May 21, 2014
the Tony Award for best marketing/social media campaign goes to @MothersSonsBway — Tyler Siems (@tyler_siems) May 21, 2014