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When Julie Fearnley decided to make a rainbow-coloured poppy in 2018, she thought it was an innocent, noble gesture.

“A gay friend of mine asked about producing a rainbow version and immediately I thought about Alan Turing and his struggles with being a gay man in WW2 so I thought it was a good idea,” she wrote in an email, noting she’s made three-dimensional clay poppies for the last decade.

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Inspired by her friend’s request and by Turing, a gay computer scientist whose work decoded Nazi Germany’s secrets, the U.K.-based youth volunteer crafted the coin-sized, glittery, enamel badge with a different colour for each petal.

She sold them on eBay, with proceeds going towards Poppy Appeal, a registered charity under the Royal British Legion.

But, now, Fearnley has removed the listing “because of the nasty comments I was receiving and because I couldn’t get the badges to the buyers in time for remembrance weekend,” she wrote.