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This year’s unexpected symbol of Pride Month is none other than the Babadook, the monster at the centre of a 2014 Australian horror movie that has become an image of LGBT rights everywhere after a Tumblr post jokingly questioned the sexuality of the character.

It may seem a little unusual, but that’s kind of the internet’s job. The top-hatted ghoul has been spun into a gleeful meme of joy and love, decorating signs and floats throughout Pride Parades this past weekend.

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In the movie, “Mister Babadook” torments a family after they become aware of and acknowledge his existence. He enters their lives through a gothic children’s book, but is not overtly gay within the narrative of the film. Newsweek’s Claire Shaffer put it best, explaining that the character serves as “an allegory for how normative heterosexual culture reacts to a confrontation with anormal queer culture, particularly one that is unabashedly campy and theatrical.”