Site MapHenry Is Spinning In His Grave With Ford’s #VeryGayRaptor
Its gay, proud, and very, very powerful
Ford wants you to know that they’re reading your comments, even when they’re not very nice.
When one social media user commented that the “Performance Blue” color on the Ford Ranger Raptor pickup truck was “very gay,” Ford wasted no time making sure that their stance on the matter was clear. They created a flamboyant new version of the Performance Blue Raptor, fully decked out with gold foil and a rainbow paint job. Because why not make an amazing car while also sticking it to a homophobic Internet troll?
It would’ve been pretty easy for Ford to brush this one off – surely no one would blame them for concluding that someone who still uses ‘gay’ as an insult is not worth their time. But this incredibly extra response is actually not that unusual for Ford’s German branch, which also made a rainbow-coated Ka for Cologne, Germany’s Christopher Street Day (CSD) celebration back in 1998. Much like Pride Month in the U.S., the CSD parades across Germany are an important annual event for the LGBTQ+ community, and Ford made it abundantly clear that this Sunday’s parade in Cologne had their full support.
Given the unsavory details of Ford’s early history with diversity, it’s even more important that they show support for marginalized communities wherever they can. Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford was a notorious racist and anti-Semite, so much so that he accepted an award from the Nazis in 1938 and counted Adolf Hitler as one of his biggest fans. So, it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to assume that the original Ford would not be too pleased with the current Ford Motor Company’s support of LGBTQ+ causes. Does this sordid history mean that Ford has a greater obligation towards diverse communities than other car companies? Not necessarily – it’s work that everyone should be doing. But it still feels incredibly satisfying to see Ford making cars that would probably give their intolerant founder a heart attack.
Aside from being an excellent clapback at homophobes and a responsible step away from certain parts of Ford’s past, the #VeryGayRaptor is also just a really, really cool car. The rainbow pattern on the hood gets the point across, but the real focal point is the gold foil detailing on the back half, which adds texture to the design and helps emphasize an adorable pink heart around the Ford logo. And even if a custom paint job isn’t your thing, the Raptor is still more than capable of doing some hard work: this thing is built to tow up to 7500 pounds, so you can bring the whole Pride parade with you.
