Trump and Putin ‘gay’ cartoon published by The Toronto Star
The Toronto Star has released a cartoon depicting Donald Trump being attracted to Vladimir Putin just days after similar controversy in the New York Times.
Cartoonist Theo Moudakis tweeted the image which shows a young Trump staring at topless posters of Putin.
One reader told PinkNews they thought the cartoon was a direct “homophobic” attack and claimed Moudakis had drawn the image to stir controversy.
Here's today's #TrumpPutin cartoon in @TorontoStar pic.twitter.com/YfX0mBikxd
— Theo Moudakis (@TheoMoudakis) July 20, 2018
While others shared their discontent at the image on Twitter: “Can you please stop implying Trump is gay? Just think about what the messaging is on that for two minutes,” wrote @CaseyExplosion.
But Moudakis told PinkNews “the last thing I want is any controversy”, and that the above claims were not true. The illustrator added that he “didn’t have any comment other than [his] tweets,” regarding critics labelling his cartoons ‘homophobic.’
“You’ll find some people were very offended of me using the hammer-and-sickle symbol. Some, not all, of today’s criticism stems from that,” he added.
Josh Matthews, a 30-year-old student from Florida who criticised the cartoon online, told PinkNews: “I’m gay, my boyfriend is gay and a trans man. To be used as a joke to jab at Trump, who is also attacking us, feels doubly degrading.”
The controversy of the cartoon comes just days after a New York Times animation caused controversy after portraying Trump and Putin as a gay couple.
The two leaders eye each other (nytopinion/twitter)
The cartoon, which was released on July 16, was published ahead of a meeting of the world leaders in Finland.
The summit attracted protests from LGBT rights activists who want the leaders to address the anti-gay purge in Chechnya.
Readers hit out at the image on social media. “Aside from the blatant homophobia, you should be seriously f**king embarrassed if the best you can do is the same hacky as s**t joke about how Trump and Putin are gay for each other,” one user wrote.
Another wrote, simply, that “jokes about Trump and Putin being gay together are homophobic.”
Last year, last night talk show host Stephen Colbert attracted criticism for joking that Trump and Putin engaged in gay sex.
The presenter of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert avoided censure after telling Trump that “the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s cock holster.”
And he told his audience he didn’t regret making the remark, saying: “I have jokes; he has the launch codes. So, it’s a fair fight.”
