If you spend just the right amount of time online, you’ve probably seen the meme “sad ant with bindle” or “how it feels ant” floating around the internet. However, it might come as a surprise that the weepy insect’s memeification actually has LGBTQ+ roots. This isn’t about queer kids getting kicked out of home—it’s not that depressing. Promise.

The meme depicts an artist’s impression of a sad looking ant with a bag on a stick (a bindle) thrown over his shoulder. The artwork actually comes from a pest control company: Zap Pest Control and includes a sketch of a house that the ant has presumably been evicted from.

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Sharp eyed readers might think they recognize the ant from somewhere else. Indeed, the sad ant with bindle meme does bare a striking resemblance to Flik from Pixar’s 1998 movie A Bug’s Life. Disney’s lawyers must not have got around to the Virginia pest control scene just yet.

Why any one image is chosen for a meme is always hard to say, and in this case it remains a mystery. But we do know the first time the image was used as a meme and how it evolved into what it is today.

It would seem that Roxy found someone’s About Me carrd a bit intense. Admittedly, telling homophobes “do not interact” does seem to fail to understand the nature of a homophobe. Might as well show a dog a sign telling it not to bark. But in that moment the sad ant with bindle meme was born.

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Over time, people used it to show feelings of rejection through meme form both ironic and sincere. This was exacerbated by the morph into “how it feels ant.” But it all started with trying to tell homophobes where to get off.

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