A new project by photographer Stella Consonni for ID magazine features “a bunch of strangers kissing and languishing in each other’s embraces and lost in a vortex of infatuation.”

One of the photos features Jordan Bowen and Luca Lucifer who have been in a relationship for seven years.

Consonni’s photo of the pair was removed from Instagram for “violating community guidelines”, Gay Times reported.

On his Instagram, Bowen said his relationship of seven years with Lucifer had been “reduced to a Community Guideline”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkqecq_lBSJ/?taken-by=mrjordanbowen

“Earlier this was removed from @stellaasiaconsonni and flagged as inappropriate,” he told his followers.

“@instagram spoon feeds us with rainbows and hashtags to appear in solidarity but it seems real people in love have no place here. This is discriminatory and archaic and violates our right as a couple.”

Instagram has now issued an apology and said it was removed by mistake.

A spokesperson said: “This post was removed in error and we are sorry. It has since been reinstated.”

Consonni responded on her Instagram story: “Thank you for the amazing support that came from so many of you.

“This is just a very teeny tiny event in the grand scheme of things but seeing all the amazing response certainly restored a little of my faith in humanity.”

On the reinstated post she commented on how there is still a long way to go judging by the hateful comments she was seeing on the post.

She continued: “Instagram briefly apologised. But there is still a long way to go in the fight against homophobia. This goes to all my beautiful friends that have to deal with this BS all the time. Keep fighting.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BknfS5oHGgA/?taken-by=stellaasiaconsonni

Queer Censorship Trend Continues

This isn’t the first time Instagram has removed a photo of LGBT+ couples for apparently “violating community guidelines”. Back in March, a gay couple from Madrid were shocked when a photo of them kissing was removed from Instagram.

He later reuploaded the photo including in the caption, “And do not forget anyone: to love is to love independently of the sexual orientation. Let’s see if you denounce it as inappropriate.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgx8upQDRHo/?taken-by=alvaro_mfigueroa

In December, lesbian couple Jane and Veronica were voicing their disbelief when a photo they shared on social media was flagged and removed from the site.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg1o3jihkT5/?taken-by=oh.mamiblue

The photo (above) depicts the couple with their son Alex, it was shared on several other pages reaching around 200,000 people before it was flagged and removed.

They also reshared the photo including in the caption: “the world is in favour of equality, that it penalizes hatred, and that although some rules delete a photo, there are many hands behind giving visibility to what a few try to hide.”