Canada is constructing the world’s first “national 2SLGBTQI+ monument,” and the proposed design is blurring the lines between real life and parody.
Construction began in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday, with activists, politicians, and “Indigenous elders” attending a ground-breaking ceremony to commemorate the structure, CBC reported.
The project will cost $13 million (CAD) from the LGBT Purge Fund, a nonprofit entrusted with nearly $24 million won from the Canadian government in a class action discrimination lawsuit.
Despite costing an enormous amount of money, the design shared by Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan Jr. fell short, according to many social media users.
“Canada will be home to the first national 2SLGBTQI+ monument in the world,” O’Regan wrote on X and included a picture of a … cylinder with gaping holes.
“No, we won’t go back,” the MP added:
“The design of the monument centers around a sculpture shaped similar to a thunderhead cloud, meant to ’embody the strength, activism and hope’ of 2SLGBTQ+ communities,” the outlet noted.
The structure received plenty of backlash for its confusing design, with writer Eva Kurilova of Calgary, Alberta commenting, “You are making people hate us”:
“And that makes us the laughing stock of the world. Why do we need a monument celebrating sexuality? You people are really pushing this for a reason. … I don’t want my tax dollars funding this crap,” wrote another concerned X user named Michelle:
“Virtue signaling aside, could it be any uglier? I thought gay people were supposed to be good with aesthetics,” British Columbia content creator Amazing Zoltan added:
The design was so poorly received, it was featured on “Not the Bee” due to its almost satirical nature.