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The public first met Jujubee on the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2010, and her light has not stopped shining since.
At 37, the drag performer, singer, songwriter and reading challenge assassin just added actress to her impressive resume. Jujubee is performing the role of Summer Raines in Death Drop, the hilarious drag murder mystery play written by Holly Stars which is currently on its third West End Run. Previously, the role has been played by Monét X Change, Latrice Royale and Ra’Jah O’Hara.
Jujubee’s West End turn comes after she made the final of Drag Race UK vs The World – one of the most controversial editions of the franchise to date. From the comfort of her dressing room in London’s Criterion Theatre, she spilled all the tea on the series, her fledgling acting career, and whether there’s another All Stars run in her future.
PinkNews: Congratulations on this new play! For the first time, you are not performing as Jujubee but as Summer Raines. How was it for you as a drag queen to work with a script?
Jujubee: I’m still pinching myself over it. I can’t believe that the little boy who always wanted to perform on a huge stage is now here. The fact that Holly Stars [who wrote Death Drop] is in the play as a performer is magic to me. Certain words and phrasing from Summer would not be appropriate for an American to say. So I’ll talk to them and they’ll help me with that. Every performance we just keep growing and that’s the magic of theatre.
Will we see a little bit of Jujubee within Summer Raines?
I’m Airline, the creator of Jujubee, but Juju has helped Airline the human evolve, not just as a drag queen but as an artist all around. I feel like Juju and Summer might be one and the same except they just do different jobs. Summer is really bad juju and Jujubee is good juju.
Kitty Scott-Claus and yourself are leading the play, did you know her before?
I was doing a tour last year with Club Kids all around the UK and Kitty was one of the queens who worked with us, before Drag Race UK season three. That’s when I got to know her. Now we sit in the same dressing room and we get ready together.
Kitty is hilarious, gracious and to act with her on stage is such a beautiful momentum of give and take. I say that about all the players in this play actually, we just learned how to give space to each other as performers. Sometimes maybe we’ll forget a cue and they’ll pick it up and it’s really sweet when that happens. It is live theatre, you’ll never get the same exact thing twice.
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We have to say a few words about Drag Race UK vs The World. There’s so much drama to talk about.
The drama was me – but not because of my personality, it was because of my runways (laughs).
Speaking of runways. You set the bar so high on All Stars 5 that it literally looked like you ran out of budget for this season and bought garments off the rack. What happened?
When I go compete I want to be the best version of myself. We have to recognise that I did amazing on All Stars 5, and I went in with such a great head on my shoulders. Prior to that, I was in the best state of mind, I was working on another project called Dragnificent, so I had the funds that I was gonna allow myself to spend.
But this time around, I had come out of just living by myself with my two cats with no contact with humans for a year and a half. As an alcoholic and addict in recovery, the opposite of addiction for us is connection with humans. I did not have that for that long.
I immediately said yes [to Drag Race UK vs The World] because I knew I was gonna see my sisters, but with that said, I only allowed myself a really small amount of money to spend because we were all in a pandemic with no work.
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You also confessed that you were not in the best state of mind before the show started.
My mental health was not the same as it was on AS5. There’s an expectation for us to go in this linear upward. But I want people to understand that as humans, it’s peaks and valleys and those things give us depth and character and make us stronger. I’m really grateful that people got to see me suck, because babe it’s just another facet of my shine. That’s all that it is. I will probably wear my dots look to Drag Con, just saying.
You collaborated with Pangina on your new album, I have to ask, was her elimination that dramatic or did they edit it to make it worse?
If there was any editing done, it was actually edited down. I know seeing on the internet people assumed that they added that crying sound over the main stage but they did not. They actually shortened it. That’s the truth.
But if you’re following Pangina now, she is a superstar. She is so cordial, graceful, just to hear her speak when she talks to people is magic. All she has is love. Pangina heals. That’s exactly what it is, she heals, she brings love. And of course there’s a sisterhood between us because I’m Laotian and she is Thai. We share a very similar language, we can talk shit in the same language and we love in multiple languages.
During the finale, Blu Hydrangea joked that we might see you on All Stars again. Would you say yes if they call you one more time?
If they call me back for another season, I would say yes if I did not have to compete. I would prefer to help the queens with the challenges. I feel like I had so many chances to compete, I’ve been able to show all the different facets of Jujubee and Airline in the same breath.
I would love to see another queen shine and been given the same opportunities that I’ve gotten. That’s not to say I’ll never do it again. If there’s a huge sale at Primark, H&M or Fashion Nova, count me in.
Death Drop is at the Criterion Theatre, London. Jujubee performs as Summer Raines until 10 April, with Latrice Royale taking over the role from 13 April.
The post Drag Race royalty Jujubee is grateful people got ‘to see her suck’ on UK vs The World appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBT+ news.
While the world watches the Oscars to see who’s winning what awards, the rest of us are watching for one reason only: the acceptance speeches.
The Oscars acceptance speech has become an art form all of its own and, each year, there’s bound to be one that sets the internet off.
There’s the messy criers (we won’t point fingers just yet), there’s the ones who accidentally swear on live television, and then there’s the heartfelt, emotional speeches that leave us blubbering in front of our television screens.
Ahead of the 2022 Oscars, we take a look back at 10 of our favourite all-time acceptance speeches, from the campy classics to the icons who’ve defined the genre.
Gwyneth Paltrow has garnered some unfair criticism over the years for her very emotional Oscars speech, but honestly, would any of us manage to hold it together in similar circumstances?
Paltrow gave a lengthy acceptance speech in which she thanked pretty much everybody involved with Shakespeare in Love (miraculously, she wasn’t played off by the orchestra), but it was towards the end of her speech that she really disintegrated when she paid tribute to her family.
“I would not have been able to play this role had I not understood love of a tremendous magnitude and for that I thank my family,” Paltrow said, before promptly bursting into tears. The most emotional part of her speech came when she paid tribute to her father, Bruce Paltrow, saying he had overcome “insurmountable obstacles” over the last year. He had recently been diagnosed with oral cancer, and he tragically died just three years later at the age of 58.
Everyone was rooting for Olivia Colman at the 2019 Oscars, where she picked up the Best Actress gong for The Favourite. When she eventually got up on stage to accept the award, she did not disappoint.
“It’s genuinely quite stressful,” a terrified-looking Colman declared. “This is hilarious. Got an Oscar!”
The best moment in her speech came when she paid tribute to the the other women in the Best Actress category. She started off by commiserating with Glenn Close, who was considered the favourite to win the award.
After getting a signal that it was time to wrap up, Colman simply uttered the words “Lady Gaga” and blew a kiss to the singer, which, honestly, we can all relate to.
Lupita Nyong’o’s win for 12 Years a Slave seemed like a sure thing in 2014, but it was still an extraordinary moment when she was handed the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Nyong’o paid tribute to her co-stars and to her brother, who attended the ceremony with her.
“When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid,” she said.
Moonlight ended up making history in 2017 when the Best Picture prize was accidentally handed to La La Land. That moment has gone down in pop culture history, but it often gets lost just how momentous the film’s victory was.
Earlier in the night, Jenkins and McCraney took home the award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and their speech left audiences in pieces.
In his speech, McCraney paid tribute to “all those Black and Brown boys and girls and non-gender conforming who don’t see themselves”.
Frances McDormand was a worthy winner for her searing performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and she blew us all away for a second time with her history-making Oscars speech.
McDormand used her time on the Oscars stage to deliver a heartfelt plea for gender equality in the film industry.
After asking all the female nominees in the room to stand with her, McDormand said: “Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed… Invite us into your office in a couple of days, or you can come to ours, whichever suits you best, and we’ll tell you all about them. I have two words to leave you with tonight, ladies and gentlemen – inclusion rider.”
That simple conclusion to her speech led to a flurry of people Googling the term inclusion rider, which refers to a clause in a contract that mandates diversity in the cast and crew on a set.
Julia Roberts left the world reeling with her truly hilarious Oscars acceptance speech for Erin Brockovich in 2001.
Anticipating that she was going to be played off by the orchestra, Roberts kicked off her speech by telling the conductor: “Sir, you’re doing a great job, but you’re so quick with that stick, so why don’t you sit, because I may never be here again.”
Roberts went on to quite literally thank everyone she had ever met – because why not – before finishing with: “I love the world, I’m so happy, thank you!”
On a number of occasions, stars have used their time on the stage at the Oscars to draw attention to the social and political issues of the day. Few actors did so as successfully as Marlon Brando, who famously turned down his Oscar for The Godfather.
The actor was named Best Actor in 1973, but he famously didn’t turn up, and instead sent actress Sacheen Littlefeather on his behalf to shine a light on the mistreatment of Native American people in Hollywood.
Littlefeather was cruelly booed by the audience when she announced that Brando would not be accepting the award.
Sally Field has been mocked relentlessly and – in our opinion, unfairly – ever since she gave her iconic 1985 Oscars acceptance speech for Places in the Heart.
A visibly emotional Field famously declared: “I haven’t had an orthodox career and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!”
The speech immediately led to raucous laughter from the audience, and it’s gone down in history as one of the most frequently mocked Oscars speeches. Field’s speech has become so ingrained in pop cultural references that a famous misquote is now more well known – “you like me, you really like me!” is, of course, not what Field said at all, but if you asked someone to quote the speech, that’s almost certainly what they’d say.
To all the mockery, all we can say is, have some respect – this is Sally Field we’re talking about.
There are few moments in Oscars history quite as momentous as Halle Berry’s win for Monster’s Ball in 2002. With that win, she became the first Black woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
Her acceptance speech remains one of the most emotional ever given on the Oscars stage – in it, she paid tribute to “every nameless, faceless woman of colour” who could finally have a chance at making it in Hollywood. She knew just how significant her victory was.
Sadly, not everyone else appreciated why she was so emotional – she was mocked afterwards in the press for shedding tears, exposing once more the impossible standards women in the entertainment industry are held to.
Liza Minnelli kept it short and sweet when she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her iconic turn as Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
The first thing she did when she stood up on stage was laugh – which, honestly, we would probably do in the circumstances.
“Thank you for giving me this award, you’ve made me very happy,” she said. The award felt even more significant because her mother, Judy Garland, was never given the same recognition.
The whole thing was only slightly overshadowed by Raquel Welch saying “I hope they haven’t got a cause” when presenting the award, referencing Brando’s decision to turn down the Best Actor award on the same night.
The post 10 iconic Oscars speeches that made us laugh, gag or simply blub into our popcorn appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBT+ news.
Most Brits know Dr Ranj Singh as the man with a million-watt smile and eternally chirpy personality often found sat on daytime TV show couches.
But in the children’s intensive care ward of a London hospital, patients know Singh as one of the countless exhausted but resolute healthcare workers.
While the banana bread days of the first lockdown are a distant memory, not much has changed on the frontline, Singh, 42, told PinkNews.
Chatting Strictly Come Dancing, conversion therapy and long COVID, the This Morning star isn’t taking off his face mask anytime soon – and to Singh, neither should Brits.
PinkNews: With coronavirus restrictions ripped away, Britons are gingerly returning outside – or rushing. As a healthcare worker and expert, how do you feel about Britain’s approach to ‘living with the virus’?
Ranj Singh: I and most healthcare workers agree that we have to still tread quite cautiously. While it’s important for us to get back to a ‘normal life’, we still have to be mindful that coronavirus hasn’t disappeared.
We are seeing patients with coronavirus being admitted to hospitals at an increasing rate, so it’s even more important that people get their boosters.
Long COVID as well is a real thing. A lot of people are suffering from it – myself included – and that’s something we need to be careful about. We still don’t know much about it.
We can’t let the virus run rampant because it will inevitably put people at risk of immediate and long-term problems.
What has your experience of long COVID been like?
I had COVID in July 2021. The initial illness of a couple of weeks wasn’t pleasant, but then I had physical symptoms for several months.
Breathlessness from just walking down the street. Feeling exhausted at the end of the day. I’ve had ongoing brain fog – memory problems, difficulty concentrating. I can’t handle too much because I get overwhelmed.
I have to give myself brain breaks, slow down and say no to more things as I can’t do everything. It’s given me so much anxiety and I’ve been learning to manage that.
Queer immunocompromised people have told PinkNews they are similarly fearful about having to live with a virus that could be deadly to them. Do you have any advice for managing health anxiety?
Take each day at a time. One thing you don’t want to do when it comes to health anxiety is to avoid the situations that cause those feelings – that can make it worse.
Try to gradually expose yourself to those situations that cause you anxiety but learn to manage those feelings. Remind yourself that anxiety is a temporary feeling and you can and will feel better again.
Each day, push yourself that little bit more. Maybe one day, make it to the front door. After that, the garden, then the end of the street.
During the throes of the pandemic, you worked as a paediatric emergency medicine specialist. Are there any particular moments that stayed with you?
It was very, very real. I work with children and young people in intensive care and half of the department was converted for adults. While fewer children were less seriously affected, there was a significant number of adults that were quite badly impacted.
So we increased our capacity. We started looking for adult patients. That’s harrowing. That’s quite difficult to see that. Seeing the elderly and sometimes younger people on ventilators in intensive care in our children’s intensive care – that’s not something we’re going to forget.
The pandemic has had a really big impact on frontline staff. A lot of them worked at capacity for several years. They’re exhausted. We need to look after people on the frontline like they’re looking after us.
We had protests outside our hospital of COVID-deniers, some claiming the pandemic was a hoax. I can categorically say that’s not true. The reality couldn’t be more different – you just didn’t see it.
If there’s one thing medical experts agree on, it’s that conversion therapy doesn’t work. Could you share your thoughts on the debunked and dangerous practice and the British government’s approach to banning it?
As a healthcare professional and as a member of the LGBT+ community, there is no debate. I’m not just speaking as an individual here. Lots of internationally renowned healthcare bodies, organisations and professionals have said this.
It is an abusive and ineffective practice. It causes pain and suffering and, sadly, some have taken their life because of ‘failed’ conversion therapy.
If you cannot fundamentally change who you are, if we start debating conversion therapy we are coming at a position of saying that it might work.
We need to come out and say this is incorrect. I don’t understand why we need to debate something this harmful and has been outlawed in other countries. We need to have a quick, serious and decisive decision on this.
You took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2018, paired with Janette Manara. Years later, the BBC show would see its first same-sex partners: Nicola Adams and Katya Jones in 2020 and then John Whaite and Johannes Radebe the following year.
In terms of the public’s response, both the good and the bad, were you surprised at all?
I wasn’t! I was glad. I felt like saying: ‘Told you so.’ I’m glad they gave it a chance. They saw exactly what all of us have been saying for a long time, that same-sex dancers have been part of dance for a very long time. This is nothing new.
It’s so powerful for people at home who may be struggling with their identity or who have never seen themselves on the screen. It was a wonderful thing.
Even though I had such an incredible partner and wouldn’t have changed it for the world – Jannette is one of our most outspoken allies and I’m so proud of her for that – if I could do Strictly again, I would dance with a guy regardless of their sexuality.
It would have to be someone short because I’m tiny. So I’d probably end up with Giovanni Pernice or Gorka Márquez.
You’re one of dozens of celebrities taking part in the Ideal Home Show, an exhibition featuring hundreds of interior design experts. What are you up to there?
It’s just such a great vibe here, everyone’s happy and the sun is shining. There’s a huge amount on offer here – there’s something for everybody, from mattresses to these amazing conker pod rooms.
My session is all about eating better, cheaper. A quick, healthier lunch recipe that is cheap. That’s the thing that surprises them – ‘oh, it looks expensive, well, it’s not! It was just £1.80.
You can find Dr Ranj Singh at the Ideal Home Show, in partnership with NatWest, the world’s longest-running home and interiors exhibition, at Olympia London until Sunday (27 March).
For more information and tickets, please visit idealhomeshow.co.uk.
The post Dr Ranj Singh shares advice on living with COVID and banning ‘abusive’ conversion therapy appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBT+ news.
Rapper Kidd Creole is on trial for murder after he was accused of murdering a homeless man he thought was hitting on him.
Creole is a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, which was the first rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. The group is best known for their 1982 hit “The Message”, which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said “exposed the dirty underside of a landscape known for partying”.
Creole, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, is accused of fatally stabbing John Jolly, 55, just before midnight in midtown Manhattan on 1 August 2017. Jolly allegedly asked him “What’s up?” before the confrontation, authorities said.
The rapper has claimed self-defence. His lawyer Scottie Celestin told the jury on Friday (25 March) that Creole thought at the time that Jolly might have tried to harm him, the Associated Press reported.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is New York City. It’s 12 o’clock at night. Who’s saying ‘What’s up?’ to you with good intentions?” Celestin argued. “His fear for his life was reasonable.”
The lawyer also claimed that Jolly did not die from the stab wounds but from a dose of the sedative benzodiazepine that was given to him while at the hospital.
However, assistant district attorney Mark Dahl told the court that Creole confessed when he spoke to police after Jolly had died. He said the rapper told authorities he didn’t stab the other man in self-defence but in anger because he thought Jolly was gay and was hitting on him.
“The defendant confessed to pulling out a kitchen knife and repeatedly thrusting it into the body of a stranger on the street, killing him,” Dahl said. “Was there anything that would prevent him from simply running away from Mr Jolly? No.”
The criminal complaint of the incident, which was obtained by ABC News in 2017, said Creole and Jolly got into an argument. The rapper allegedly “pulled out a knife that he had attached to his forearm with rubber bands and stabbed [Jolly] in the chest”.
Court records showed Kidd Creole voluntarily gave a videotaped statement to authorities after the police arrived at his home in the Bronx. The arresting officer said the rapper gave a statement to police, identified himself and Jolly in images taken from nearby surveillance video and showed police where he discarded the weapon.
Authorities said at the time that Creole thought Jolly was either preparing to rob him or was hitting on him, ABC News reported. The criminal complaint showed that Creole said he was afraid of Jolly.
The trial resumes on Monday (28 March).
The post Rapper Kidd Creole accused of murdering man that he thought was ‘hitting on him’ appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBT+ news.
At the 78th Academy Awards in 2005, Brokeback Mountain made history when it garnered three Oscars from eight nominations.
It was a seismic moment for LGBT+ cinema at the Oscars, Hollywood’s most glitzy, glamorous night of the year. Up until that point, films that celebrated the beauty and complexity of the queer experience had largely been ignored, bar a few notable exceptions. Brokeback Mountain thrust queer cinema into the mainstream in a spectacular fashion.
Another watershed moment came in 2017 when Moonlight won Best Picture, becoming both the first LGBT+ film and the first with an all-Black main cast to win.
But aside from those two notable exceptions – which were both directed and acted by straight, cis men – queer films and the LGBT+ people who create them are underrepresented at the Oscars, if not outright overlooked.
There’s a certain kind of film the Academy loves – forbidden love between cis, gay men comes up time and time again, but more diverse offerings are still largely shut out. Ahead of the 2022 Oscars, we take a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly history of the Academy Awards’ approach to LGBT+ cinema and actors.
Over the last two decades, straight actors have been routinely awarded by the Academy for taking on LGBT+ roles. Sadly, queer actors have often found themselves on the outside looking in.
There are a number of actors who either came out in later life, or who posthumously have been labelled queer, who have won Oscars.
Marlon Brando, who is generally considered to have been bisexual, won two Best Actor Oscars throughout his career – his first was in 1954 for On the Waterfront and his second was for The Godfather in 1972 (although he famously turned down that prize due to Hollywood’s mistreatment of Native Americans). Several years after his second big win, he told a French journalist that he had had “homosexual experiences”.
In the 1990s, another queer actor won two Oscars – one for leading actor and one in the supporting category – but his sexuality was a closely guarded secret at the time. That actor was Kevin Spacey. He eventually came out as gay after actor Anthony Rapp and a number of other men accused him of sexual assault.
Notably, Ian McKellen is the only gay actor to be nominated for an acting Oscar after he had come out. He was out as gay when he received both of his nominations. Speaking in 2016, he wondered whether the lack of openly gay men getting Oscar nominations in the acting categories was down to “prejudice or chance”.
Things haven’t been much better in the Best Actress category. To this day, Jodie Foster remains the only queer woman to have won for a leading role – she won twice, once for The Accused in 1988 and again for The Silence of the Lambs in 1991. Once again, she wasn’t out at the time. Lady Gaga was nominated for the same gong in 2019, but lost.
Queer actors have fared a little better in the supporting categories. Joel Grey won for Cabaret in 1972, although he wasn’t out publicly at the time. John Gielgud won for Arthur in 1981 despite the fact that he had been arrested and outed for having sex with another man in the 1950s. Kevin Spacey also won in this category for The Usual Suspects in 1995.
Over in the Best Supporting Actress category, Tatum O’Neal won for Paper Moon in 1973, Linda Hunt won for The Year of Living Dangerously, and Anna Paquin took home the award in 1993 for The Piano. Again, none of them were out when they received their awards. Angelina Jolie’s bisexuality wasn’t exactly a closely guarded secret when she won for Girl, Interrupted in 2000 – but by the time she was nominated again for Changeling, in 2008, she had gone on the record about her queerness.
Queer people have fared better in other categories at the Oscars. Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, Stephen Sondheim and Howard Ashman have all won in the Best Original Song category. There was a minor controversy in 2016 when Sam Smith won and claimed in their speech that they were the first openly gay person to win an Oscar – that led to something of a public bust up with Dustin Lance Black, who won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Milk in 2008.
Other queer people to have taken home Oscars outside of the acting categories include Bill Condon, who won Best Adapted Screenplay for Gods and Monsters, Alan Ball, who won Best Original Screenplay for American Beauty, and John Schlesinger, who won Best Director for Midnight Cowboy.
Queer actors might not have a great track record at the Oscars, but that doesn’t mean queer films have gone unnoticed. In fact, over the last few decades, the Academy has shown that it loves LGBT+ films – as long as their queer characters are being played by straight and cis actors.
That trend started in 1985 when William Hurt won an Oscar for Kiss of the Spider Woman. In 1993, Tom Hanks instantly became the frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Philadelphia, a film that tackles the AIDS epidemic through one gay man’s anti-discrimination battle. His win was seen as an historic moment for queer representation in Hollywood, but some LGBT+ activists were unhappy with its approach and were dissatisfied with the idea of a straight man winning awards for playing gay.
Despite the success of Philadelphia, it would be another decade before queer films would become firmly entrenched within the mainstream at the Oscars. Nicole Kidman won the Best Actress Oscar for her take on Virginia Woolf in The Hours in 2003. Two years later, Brokeback Mountain was snubbed for Best Picture in favour of Crash. But its box office success, critical acclaim, and the fact that it was nominated for eight Oscars (winning Best Director for Ang Lee), made an impact in Hollywood.
Things started to change and major studios finally started making queer films with greater regularity, presumably with the hope of cashing in on the Oscars’ newfound love of a certain kind of queer film. Sean Penn won the Oscar for his performance as Harvey Milk in Milk in 2008, while its writer Dustin Lance Black took home the award for Best Original Screenplay.
Since then, numerous straight actors have been nominated and won Oscars for playing queer characters. Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman and Olivia Colman have all scooped the Best Actress prize for playing queer characters, while Rami Malek won in 2018 for Bohemian Rhapsody.
In 2017, Moonlight won Best Picture – one of three awards it won on the night.
Like Brokeback Mountain before it, Moonlight’s impact can be felt across the industry, prompting studios to back Black-led films that aren’t rooted in trauma. It remains the only LGBT+ film to win the top gong, though The Power of the Dog could change that at the 2022 Oscars.
One of the most troubling trends has been the Academy’s tendency to reward cis actors for playing trans characters. Eddie Redmayne, Hilary Swank and Jared Leto have all picked up nominations for taking on trans roles – the impact of those casting decisions has been explored in-depth in the acclaimed Netflix documentary Disclosure.
A trans actor has never won an Oscar – or even been nominated – for playing a trans role.
Much has been made of the fact that until recently, Ian McKellen, Angelina Jolie and Lady Gaga were the only openly queer actors ever nominated for an acting Academy Award. When you compare that to the extraordinary success straight and cis actors have had playing LGBT+ characters over the last two decades, it’s hard not to wonder where all the queer actors are and why they’re not getting the parts.
That appalling track record is all part of Hollywood’s “intolerance and bigotry”, Jeremy Blacklow, director of entertainment media at GLAAD, told Vanity Fair in January. “LGBTQ+ actors have long faced blatant employment discrimination and have felt forced to hide their sexual orientation and/or gender identity if they hoped to work at all.”
That doesn’t mean it’s all been bad. The Academy has a problem with fawning over films with straight actors playing gay, but it’s also recognised some truly great queer films over the years. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that the Oscars is still reluctant to award queer actors for playing queer roles – or even to let them play those characters in the first place.
Things might finally be starting to change. At the 2022 Oscars, queer women are nominated in both the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories – Kristen Stewart is up for her performance as Princess Diana in Spencer and Ariana DeBose is expected to make history as the first queer woman of colour to win an Oscar when she almost undoubtedly wins the Academy Award for her turn in West Side Story.
Neither of those women’s characters are queer, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing – but it’s becoming increasingly clear that LGBT+ people are desperate to see authentic queer characters played by queer actors on screen.
We’re not there yet, but the journey is certainly underway.
The post The Oscars’ long, potted history with LGBT+ Hollywood – and how it’s slowly changing for the better appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBT+ news.
Republicans in Arizona have passed a bill to restrict access to gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in the state.
The state’s Republican-led House approved Senate Bill 1138 (SB 1138) on Thursday (24 March) by a 31-26 vote. The bill passed through the Arizona GOP-controlled Senate with a 16-12 vote in February.
The proposed legislation now heads to governor Doug Ducey’s desk alongside an anti-trans sports ban, which was also passed on Thursday. The Republican governor has not signalled whether he would veto or sign the bills.
SB 1138 originally would have banned a wide range of gender-affirming medical care including puberty blockers and hormone treatments for trans youth.
But it was scaled back to restrict only “irreversible” gender-affirming surgeries on any individual who is under the age of 18. The bill reportedly does make an exception for young intersex people in Arizona, according to CNN.
Democrat representative Melody Hernandez said during the hearing that she was “so sad to see members voting for this legislation”, especially after the “courageous” testimony of a young trans girl.
Hernandez said she was “blown away” by Skyler Morrison’s “courage” as the young girl testified against an anti-trans sports ban also considered by the state’s House.
She described how Morrison was “so excited” to be able to speak with Republican lawmakers and hopefully be able to “change a mind”.
“This young woman knows exactly who she is, and she’s a woman,” Hernandez told legislators. “She’s going to grow up to be a wonderful young woman who continues to exhibit courage in all aspects of her life.”
Hernandez shared that she thinks about the “gravity of the decisions that we’re making” on the lives of people in Arizona. She also thanked Morrison for “giving all of us the courage to keep fighting for you” and “against this horrible, offensive legislation”.
Voting no on anti-transgender #SB1138 Rep. @hernandezforaz raises up 13-year-old @TheSkylerMorr whose stirring testimony blew away everyone who saw it in committee, but sadly did not convince Republicans to show her and family respect and basic human dignity. Please watch: pic.twitter.com/TWsaD9Q2Jj
— Arizona House Democrats (@AZHouseDems) March 24, 2022
The proposed legislation has also faced widespread condemnation from LGBT+ rights advocates, who also called on Ducey to veto the reviled bill.
Bridget Sharpe, Arizona state director for the Human Rights Campaign, said it is “simply not the job of legislators to make healthcare decisions” for trans youth and their families.
“We have been coordinating closely with medical professionals, athletic administrators, and, most importantly, the children and their families who will be directly impacted by this legislation and all are confused, hurt, and scared as to why their legislators have decided to single them out when their lives are already extremely difficult,” Sharpe said.
Sharpe added that Arizonans deserve “better than legislators” who are trying to “bully transgender youth with politically motivated bills for the sake of discrimination itself”.
ACLU of Arizona policy director Darrell Hill said Arizona has now “unfortunately joined the long list of states that have made bullying and discriminating” against trans kids a “priority this legislative session”.
“These unabated attacks on trans kids attempt to solve problems that do not exist and singles out people for simply being transgender,” Hill said.
Carla Thomas, a mother of trans daughter who lives in Arizona, told Xtra that she is “still in shock that this is happening”.
She explained that she is “in denial” that Arizonans “have to depend” on Ducey to “veto these vicious, dehumanising, discriminatory bills”, which she said is “invading my parental rights and my child’s privacy”.
“Transgender children have a right to feel protected in their own homes, schools and doctor’s offices,” Thomas added.
If Ducey signs SB 1138 into law, Arizona would be the latest state to enact legislation restricting the ability for trans youth to access gender-affirming medical care.
Last year, Republicans in Arkansas overrode a veto from governor Asa Hutchinson to enact a ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans minors. Tennessee passed a similar ban a little over a month later.
However, Republican lawmakers in Idaho killed a similar bill earlier this month and argued the legislation would allow the “government to interfere in parents’ medical decision-making authority for their children”.
The Idaho Senate Republicans believed the “best decisions regarding medical treatment options for children are made by parents” with the advice from their physicians. The GOP leaders also cited the bill ran counter to current medical advice by the Idaho Medical Association (IMA).
The Idaho Senate Republicans’ statement said the bill would have outlawed gender-affirming surgery for trans minors, and the IMA had confirmed this is “already outside the generally accepted standard of care and is not being done by physicians in Idaho”.
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An Australian man has been sentenced over an insurance scam that made him over $120,000 to fund his lifestyle on the “gay scene”.
Victoria’s Country Court sentenced Dwayne Antojado to time served after he pleaded guilty to obtaining property by deception, NCA NewsWire reported. The court deferred his sentence last year in order to show he had been rehabilitated.
The now 26-year-old already served 609 days, and judge Kellie Blair described Antojado’s turnaround in that time as “exceptional”.
Blair added that Antojado had “demonstrated ongoing rehabilitative achievements”, and the man was “free to continue your life as a law-abiding citizen who has a significant contribution to make to this community”.
Antojado pleaded guilty to using 109 fake identities to open accounts with insurance company Medibank between October 2018 and December 2019, Star Observer reported.
He then used these accounts to lodge multiple fake claims to exploit a loophole in an online claim system that didn’t require receipts.
Police discovered the fraud after arresting Antojado on unrelated charges in 2019, and Antojado had managed to swindle $120,901 in total.
The court heard that Antojado used the money to buy drugs, flashy clothes and to visit clubs in Melbourne.
Antojado’s lawyer Matt Cookson said his client experienced “one crushing defeat after another” after graduating from Adelaide’s Norwood Morialta High School, where he was a “high-achieving” student.
He argued that Antojado felt pressure to fit in with the South Australian gay scene which he described as “heavily based on going out, clubbing, being fit, healthy and well-dressed”.
Antojado said this was “everything he wasn’t”.
Cookson added that Antojado’s “offending” was how he got the money to “keep up with the lifestyle he had adopted”, and it was “through that money that he acquired the lifestyle”.
In her ruling, judge Blair noted that Antojado’s “prior offending” was motivated by him seeking “acceptance from the gay community in Adelaide” and “adopting a lifestyle you could not afford”. But now, she believed he had turned his life around given what he had done since being incarcerated.
The court heard that Antojado enrolled in university, was employed and regularly appeared on panels to share his experience in custody. He also co-authored an academic article, which is due to be published.
“You have demonstrated a commitment and ability to make a difference to other individuals who are and have been incarcerated and who are struggling with a myriad of issues that prevent them achieving sustained and positive change,” Blair said.
The court also ordered Antojado to pay back the money that he stole from Medibank through his scams.
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