A year ago, who could have predicted that Charli XCX would leverage Vice President Kamala Harris and the general election as an album rollout marketing tactic — and that it would work?

But after bullets barely grazed the ear of Republican nominee Donald Trump and current president Joe Biden withdrew his reelection bid within nearly a week, one thing was clear: nothing about U.S. politics is predictable. And the queers jumped in to respond.

After the June 27 debate, which now feels like a lifetime ago, there was an immediate call for a Democratic ticket contingency plan. For many, there was only one clear choice for Biden’s replacement:

The queer community and Gen Z immediately caught on to Harris’s potential as a meme queen. Pop culture, however, is ephemeral — there’s no recipe for virality, no social media buzz secret sauce.

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It’s hard to claim exactly why Kamala Harris is ruling the queer internet. But, as a chronically online generation, we can make a couple of inferences. Perhaps it’s that Harris is a more diverse, younger presidential candidate than we’ve seen in several election cycles. Perhaps she just oozes an authenticity that we’ve been craving from politicians, a public presence full of slice-of-life anecdotes, quotable quips, and a memorable laugh that’s been leveraged into a campaign issue. 

For 24-year-old social media influencer Noa Bourne (@thenoasletter), it’s about the way Harris carries herself. “She takes herself less seriously than other political candidates,” Bourne tells INTO. 

With other politicians, memes feel at odds with their public personas or simply inorganic. But for Harris, Bourne feels like, “We’re allowed to have fun with her.”

‘You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’

In 2023, When Kamala Harris said, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” the queer community instantly adopted the phrase into their vernacular. When she unleashed the quip “What can be, unburdened by what has been” so many times that there are several-minute-long supercuts on YouTube, the gays had no choice but to brand it on bumper stickers, bedazzle it onto clothing and apply it to their own lives.

And when one of the sanctified mothers of 20-something queerdom —millenial pop icon Charli XCX— posted an infamous three-word tweet, it was official. The Kamala Harris meme campaign was upon us. In some strange, twisted way, a former district attorney was now a queer icon.

At first, the memes were a way to lighten the mood. In a time of chaotic, high-stakes political conflict, making jokes on the internet becomes a way to let off some collective steam. And memes, in theory, are a low-stakes way of reflecting the chaos around us. 

Quickly, though, the Kamala Harris meme train kicked into high speed, finding their way to every corner of the online queer community in some way or another. And this was no one-day wonder of social media fun. Even Kerry Washington—Olivia Pope herself!—logged in to endorse Harris while doing the Charli XCX “Apple” dance.

But the queer community isn’t a monolith, and Harris’s meme status didn’t come without its controversy.

This kind of discourse is nothing new for the queer community. A few years ago, debate roared over the efficacy of surrounding politicians with fandom, and whether this practice muddled the nuance and importance of political activism. Still, though, it kept happening. And now memes has become a grassroots campaign strategy. 

Admittedly, politicians and pop culture make a tricky pair. When a Kamala Harris meme avalanche shows up on our timelines, where does the irony stop and the activism start? 

Despite the criticism, though, Harris’s support of the LGBTQ+ community has deep roots.

As district attorney of San Francisco, she spent her Valentine’s Day in 2004 officiating same-sex weddings, long before many beloved Democrats issued so much as a peep on LGBTQ+ rights on the public stage. She’s had some missteps in the past, but recently appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race to encourage voter engagement. 

So what does all of this mean?

Although the architecture of any social media moment is almost impossible to plot, there’s a sense of collective understanding around the Kamala Harris meme campaign. It is unlikely that each individual poster has the goal of activism in their heart, but the spirit of the moment is undeniable. 

“Memes and viral content supporting Kamala Harris’ historic candidacy are winning the internet,” Drew Daniels, Vice President of Digital Communications at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), told INTO.

While this is observably true, what does that mean for Kamala Harris’ candidacy and Gen Z’s role in it?

For Gen Z, social media is a tool for activism. By utilizing it, we’ve achieved real progress and moved the dial toward tangible change. In a very real way, making memes is sometimes the only way we know how to make a difference. 

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“It is incredible to see Gen Z use social media as a way to politically engage and increase the Vice President’s visibility as groups like HRC aim to build unprecedented voter turnout,” Daniels said. 

The stakes are higher than ever for the queer community. By way of using the internet we know best, we’re generating conversations that could play a part in ballot box results.

The “cultural shift” that these conversations achieve can reach and empower young voters “who are going to laugh and organize their way to the ballot box, building more political power behind the fight for LGBTQ+ equality,” Daniels said.

There’s a sense of understood importance around Kamala Harris’ presidential bid: our safety, our livelihoods, our freedom may depend on it. And if the queers can get Kamala Harris into the White House with a meme campaign, we’ll do just that.

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