Velma from 'Scooby-Doo' Just Came Out and Google Is Celebrating
Google is throwing a coming out party for Velma from "Scooby-Doo" with confetti and Pride flags in honor of her confirmation as a lesbian. Enter her name into the search engine and see what happens!
"In a new Easter egg that appeared Wednesday, Google Search queries for 'Velma,' 'Velma Scooby-Doo,' 'Velma Dinkley' (the character's full name) and even 'Dinkley' yield a regular search-results page — along with a cascade of multicolored confetti and various LGBTQ flags," Variety reported.
The fun doesn't stop there.
"The Google Search page then pops up two buttons at the bottom of the page: one to replay the animation, and another to share the search result via Facebook, Twitter or email (along with a trio of gay pride flag icons)," the Variety article added.
As previously reported, the fan-favorite "Scooby-Doo" character has long been seen as queer, but only with the Oct. 4 release of a new movie — titled "Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!" — has her LGBTQ+ status been made official.
A clip circulated on Twitter shows the moment in the new film when Velma catches sight of a new character, Coco Diablo, and is instantly smitten.
This is not the first time Google has shown some Pride for the LGBTQ+ community. In June of 2021, Google marked Pride and honored Dr. Frank Kameny, an astronomer and gay rights pioneer who fell victim to the federal government's "Lavender Scare" of the 1950s — a purge of government workers known or suspected of being LGBTQ+. Kameny sued the government, taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court, though the court refused to hear the case.
Undaunted, Kameny kept up his lifelong campaign for full legal equality for LGBTQ+ Americans. In 1973, Kameny and fellow LGBTQ+ equality champion Barbara Gittings persuaded the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), thereby de-pathologizing gay people. Two years after that victory, the U.S. government finally ended its ban on LGBTQ+ civil servants.