What is PrideSOS?
5 Seconds of Summer have become incredible advocates of people being themselves and have really encouraged fans on embracing who they are. The campaign for their second album, Sounds Good Feels Good, was called “The New Broken Scene” which was kind of like a place for people who may be considered “outcasts” or “rejects” or “different” to join together and celebrate that. We have seen many fans online being out and proud but finding out in reality when logged off, they were in fact dealing with being closeted or living in a homophobic area. Being online and on a fan account is like a real “Hannah Montana” scenario but there’s no best of both worlds. In reality, these fans may be quite reserved and quiet but online, in a community full of fans, they can be their true selves.
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"Back last year, the day before Pride month, I was reading some tweets from a friend of mine. She’s very well known by the band 5 Seconds of Summer and their fans. She was talking about how she was out and proud online and within the fandom but in real life she was living with very homophobic parents and that her reality was a lot different to how she portrays herself online,” says creator Jazz.
“It made me realize how many other fans were in similar situations and how this online community that the band had created was like an escape from it all. Another friend of mine was also struggling with their identity but I knew how they came alive and how content they were when they saw the band in concert. I originally just started a Twitter account called @WeAreQueerSOS which was just going to produce content for queer LGBTQA+ fans but as we gained more interest, there was a demand for a project during the tour.”
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We started organising one or two thinking that would be it, but Ashton Irwin - the drummer of 5SOS - saw us organising one and was really enthusiastic about it. Their lead guitarist, Michael Clifford, then tweeted out #PrideSOS which got us global attention! Within less than a month, we had fans all around the world volunteering to host a project. It was incredible!
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The projects were like a celebration for the ​LGBTIQA+​ fans within the fandom. They were a way of giving ​LGBTIQA+​ fans a place of acceptance in a safe space such as a concert and celebrating with the band and fans alike.
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Now that that tour is over, we are working on fundraising for multiple LGBTIQA+ Organizations and on making meetups for fans to attend for their own little pride events. It can be hard for some people to attend a pride event (still closeted, some are actually expensive or not actually the greatest, such as my local pride) so this is like a little alternative where fans can get together with online friends or make new ones and bond over being in the community and also being a fan of the band! We do plan on a possible tour project when the band next do a headline tour.
We also have our own little “hub” on an app called Amino which is kind of like our own little safe space social media account where people can just be who they are, chat and make friends and post whatever they want - 5SOS related, relation to being queer or anything at all!