London Pride Faces Twitter Backlash After Booking Controversial Gay YouTuber
London Pride organizers are facing a Twitter backlash after it was revealed they booked gay YouTuber Calum McSwiggan, who was accused of faking a hate crime against him last year, for an event.
A quick refresher for those who forgot about the McSwiggan drama:
While visiting Los Angeles for VidCon in June 2016, the U.K. vlogger said he was attacked by three men when he was leaving the popular gay club the Abbey. He later took to social media to show his injuries, saying be suffered broken teeth and received stitches.
Police from West Hollywood, however, disputed McSwiggan's claims, saying he had no visible injuries when they arrived at the scene. He was taken into custody and that's when the YouTuber allegedly inflicted injuries on himself.
Despite the authorities account of the incident, McSwiggan maintains that he was attacked but pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car during the incident. He was sentenced to three years supervised probation, a $7,000 fine and 52 anger management classes.
Since the incident, McSwiggan has kept himself out of the headlines and recently teamed up with London Pride for its "Love Happens Here" campaign, New Now Next reports.
But Twitter users took issue with the collaboration when a meet-and-greet with the YouTuber, who has more than 750,000 subscribers, was announced.
McSwiggan marched in London Pride and did not address the backlash. However, at one point the vlogger wrote: "I wish gay men would stop trying to tear one another down. We should treat each other with the love & acceptance we preach to others about."