About rainbow direction: queer erasure and silencing is my primary concern, what motivates me. I think that 1DHQ has done a lot to create a homophobic atmosphere in the fandom, and to make the 1D fandom a highly unwelcoming place for queer fans, out of a desire to keep their brand free of ‘the taint of the gay’. I think that an initiative like rainbow direction is a powerful thing we can do to fight against that.
I think there has been some series of coincidences—the very lgbt-friendly rainbow bondage bear has focused more attention on rainbow direction and inadvertently publicized it. At the same time as rainbow bondage bear became a thing, there have been fans who have brought Harry and Louis specific signs, and they have received positive reactions from Harry and Louis for them. Those signs are NOT about rainbow direction, and are not associated with rainbow direction. Rainbow direction has a strict no-shipping rule. Harry and Louis-specific signs are not what rainbow direction is about. But because of their association in time, some people are associating them as belonging to the same movement. I myself don’t have a problem with subtle larry signs like these, I think Harry and Louis acknowledge them for the same reason they follow larry fans on twitter, to fight the perception that they are homophobes who hate gay rumors and hate larry fans. But I understand why some queer fans are uncomfortable with these signs—they make other fans uncomfortable for valid reasons.
Even less appropriate are sexually explicit signs, whether straight or gay. Can you imagine the difference in tone between a crowd full of rainbow signs with the message that everyone is supported just as they are, vs. a crowd of signs telling the boys what they do in bed?!
A crowd full of rainbow signs makes a far more powerful statement than a crowd full of larry signs, and a crowd full of rainbow signs is what should be encouraged.
Collective initiatives are tricky, because on the one hand you want to be open to criticism and valid concerns, especially if you want more people to participate to help you reach your desired goal. On the other hand, there is a point at which criticism works to paralyze people into passivity. Nothing gets done, nothing gets accomplished, we are still stuck in the status quo. I tend to always look for the logical outcome of criticisms—such as, action is completely shut down and we are stuck in the status quo. I have gotten messages from people that have said that all the homophobia they see here makes them want to never come out of the closet, because they very much receive the message that they are not welcome—which is why I am pushing for rainbow direction so hard.
I think that in addition to fans mixing up larry signs with rainbow signs, there is a fear in the fandom that rainbow signs will force Harry and Louis out of the closet—which is not a valid concern in any way, that will just simply not happen, even if one of the boys is ‘tricked’ by a rainbow into saying something revealing that they do not want to say (an idea I’m extremely skeptical of), people will cover it up and deny and forget it, just like they with every other ‘larry moment’, from ‘I don’t eat pussy’ to ‘good with his hands’. I think that people are not aware just how strong the pressure to ‘in’ people really is—which is why any queer person has the experience of needing to come out over and over again, sometimes even to the same person. Rainbow direction will not, I repeat will not, ‘trick’ the boys into outing themselves. What it DOES do is create a more welcoming and less homophobic atmosphere in which many people feel more freedom to come out if they so choose—if they so choose. If they make that choice, nobody forced or tricked them into anything. They are the ones with the freedom and the power to exercise their own agency. But if you are confronted with a homophobic atmosphere—that does the very opposite of empowering you.
I also think that not every person criticizing is doing so in good faith—there really is an agenda to shut down queer voices altogether.