Dear Internet, Stop Saying Pennywise Is Gay

In case you missed it, this month It—the blockbuster movie remake of a 1986 Stephen King novel—hit the big screen, raking in millions and rekindling everyone’s childhood fear of red balloons. But it was only a matter of time before the internet did what the internet does best: making things weird.

According to speculation on Twitter and Tumblr, Pennywise the Dancing Clown—the shape-shifting, child-torturing monster from It—is gay. Not only is he gay, but he is dating the Babadook.

The Babadook is the central ghoul from the critically-acclaimed 2014 cult classic of the same name, and another unwitting member of the LGBT community. You may recognize him from this year’s Pride parades, where posters and drag queens paid homage to the dog-strangling demon.

The "gay Babadook" meme began when Netflix incorrectly placed the film in its LGBT section. But when you think about it, the boot fits. If his vintage hat and sleek black overcoat don’t set off your gaydar, then his sheer love of drama should. For a while the internet had a grand old time queering the Babadook. But like all good memes, this, too, had to come to an end.

Then It happened. As soon as the movie came out, the internet handed the monster a rainbow flag and decided he’s dating the Babadook. This makes sense on the surface, since Pennywise has all the trappings of a queer-coded villain: he sports pink ruffles, speaks in a highly affected lisp, collects mountains of costumes and props, and knows his way around a quick-change. Not to mention that Pennywise, as an ageless embodiment of fear, is, technically, genderless. As far as villains go, he’s a very likely candidate for the closet.

But the more some people insisted on their love affair, the more others resisted it. Despite the clothing and the lisp, it’s worth exploring why so many people refuse to add Pennywise to the LGBT pantheon, whereas the reception for the Babadook was so warm.

Let’s start with the canon. Fans of the original It novel have pointed out that, early on in the book, Pennywise is responsible for an anti-LGBT hate crime that results in the death of a gay man. Not to mention that Pennywise teams up with the racist and homophobic Henry Bowers to help hunt down the protagonists. Other readers have reminded us that Pennywise is, at base, a child predator—an association that continues to have real-life consequences for LGBT people.

In other words, Pennywise is not exactly the type you’d want to run into in the sewers—let alone a Pride Parade.

But is the Babadook really that much better? He certainly isn’t the ideal LGBT ally, what with the murder and all. But keep in mind what the Babadook actually is: the physical manifestation of grief—a grief that refuses to be repressed.

The Babadook is not evil in his own right. He is the by-product of the refusal to get help. The only way to defeat him is to open up to other people—to family, to neighbors, and to workmates—and own the trauma that caused him. At the end of the day, the Babadook forces people to come to terms with the parts of themselves that are painful, and to engage with a supportive community. To say the Babadook is gay is to acknowledge that this struggle is an essential part of the LGBT experience. There is no lesson more important for LGBT people than this: scary as things might seem, you are not alone.

Pennywise tortures and murders children. That’s...it. That’s literally all he does.

So, internet: stop saying Pennywise and the Babadook are dating. Pennywise is not gay, nor should we try to make him so.

And honestly? The Babadook is out of Pennywise's league.

Drew Kiser is an American writer and critic living in France. Follow him on Twitter, @DrewKiser666.