--- title: ACLU Baby Becomes Political Football description: The father of a baby who went viral after the ACLU tweeted out her photo with a controversial message discusses the national discourse. canonical: https://time.com/4915799/aclu-baby-viral-meme/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-25T18:25:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:48.006Z og:title: He Shared a Photo of His Baby. Then She Became a Political Football og:description: "I know there's no handbook for parenting, but this is ridiculous." og:url: https://time.com/4915799/aclu-baby-viral-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: He Shared a Photo of His Baby. Then She Became a Political Football twitter:description: "I know there's no handbook for parenting, but this is ridiculous." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # He Shared a Photo of His Baby. Then She Became a Political Football by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 25, 2017 6:25 PM UTC by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 25, 2017 6:25 PM UTC Frank Eaton set out to make an innocent baby photo. He ended up making the latest meme in the culture wars. The Brooklyn father, who has made video ads for Democrats and LGBT causes for years, decided to take a photo of his 19-month-old daughter, Isla, holding an American flag and wearing an ACLU onesie that said “free speech.” The ACLU tweeted the image out to its 1.3 million followers with the caption: “This is the future that ACLU members want.” > [](https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/900459882989600768) The tweet was a reference to a tongue-in-cheek meme from March, in which people shared images of [“the future that liberals want”](https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/this-is-the-future-liberals-want?utm%5Fterm=.trDGRrVd5j#.brPX4ezOoV) to mock conservative fears. But it unintentionally sparked a whole new controversy, with some on Twitter feeling that the image of a blonde baby felt too similar to white supremacist imagery about the future of America. > [](https://twitter.com/NyashaJunior/status/900469335625486336) The ACLU felt compelled to respond, but by then the controversy had moved from a brief Twitter kerfuffle to a morality tale about political correctness for conservative news sites, with [Fox News](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/24/aclu-backs-down-in-face-twitter-s-wrath-for-pic-white-baby-holding-us-flag.html) and the [Washington Examiner](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/aclus-definition-of-white-supremacy-is-truly-unbelievable/article/2632441) weighing in. > [](https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/900472710354128896) > [](https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/900462232202604546) “My daughter becoming a right wing cause célèbre is horrifying, hilarious, and fascinating all at once,” Eaton, 42, told TIME. “My friends were dragging my baby and my enemies were defending her. I mean, I know there’s no handbook for parenting, but this is ridiculous.” The photos were part of a series on babies in free onesies. Eaton said he thinks the original Twitter caption was “harmless,” adding it was complicated to see learn that “white nationalists” were “saying nice things about my kid.” But he also felt like the reaction from the left was off too. “I’d like to see liberals stop attacking their natural allies,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4915799/aclu-baby-viral-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4915799/aclu-baby-viral-meme/"},"headline":"He Shared a Photo of His Baby. Then She Became a Political Football","datePublished":"2017-08-25T18:25:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:48.006Z","description":"The father of a baby who went viral after the ACLU tweeted out her photo with a controversial message discusses the national discourse.","url":"https://time.com/4915799/aclu-baby-viral-meme/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","viral","Family","ACLU","Charlottesville"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4915799/aclu-baby-viral-meme/","name":"He Shared a Photo of His Baby. Then She Became a Political Football"}}]}] ```