TGIF—thank gay it’s Friday (that’s how it goes, right?). Before you try and slip out of work a little early, since it’s basically already the weekend, we’ve got a roundup of five queer and trans stories that’ll ensure you’re in the know at happy hour. In this round-up:
1. Everything Everywhere All at Once wins our hearts—again
2. It’s raining gays
3. Tennessee bans drag performances
4. Meta makes money off of anti-LGBTQ2S+ messaging
5. Do we stan Ariana DeDose’s BAFTA rap?
1. Everything Everywhere All at Once wins our hearts—again
Everything Everywhere All at Once has been giving queer masterpiece since its release last year. Not only does it have a nuanced plotline about the relationship between a mother and her queer daughter, it also has sci-fi, unbridled chaos and the campiest costumes you’ve ever seen. It’s got Michelle Yeoh, for god’s sake, and has put her in the running for a much-deserved Oscar win. It seemed impossible that the film could get any more queer, especially after cleaning up at the LGBTQ Entertainment Critics awards this week.
But yes, readers, to all of our delight, it does indeed get more queer. A24, the indie studio behind the film, has announced that it will be auctioning off a number of the movie’s most iconic props, with proceeds being split between the Transgender Law Center, the Laundry Workers Center and the Asian Mental Health Project. Okay, Daniels, we see you!
The award for the gayest item up for sale has to go to the butt-plug-shaped Auditor of the Year Trophy, which belonged to Jamie Lee Curtis’s character, but the hot dog hands and Jobu Tupaki’s Elvis jumpsuit get honourable mentions. (If you want to participate, it runs from Feb. 23 until 3 p.m. EST on March 2.)
2. It’s raining gays
Okay, not literally, but apparently there are more of us than ever! In a new poll, analytics company Gallup found that the percentage of adults in the U.S. who identify as LGBTQ2S+ has doubled over the last decade. Gallup found that in 2022, 7.2 percent of Americans identified as LGBTQ2S+, up from 3.5 percent in 2012. The study attributed much of this growth to adult members of Gen Z, who were the most likely to identify as LGBTQ2S+ with 19.7 percent of them doing so.
“Gen Z has grown up at a time when stigma around LGBTQ identities is on the decline and rights are expanding,” Sharita Gruberg, vice president of the LGBTQI+ Research and Communications Project, told CNN. Gurberg said that greater awareness of diversity in sexual orientation and gender makes people more likely to self-identify as LGBTQ2S+.
And, according to Gallup, these figures are likely to continue growing. Welcome, new queers! We’re thrilled to have you, at any age.
3. Tennessee bans drag performances
Yesterday, Tennessee earned the grisly distinction of becoming the first U.S. state to pass a ban on drag performances. A new state bill criminalizes what it calls “adult cabaret entertainment” that occurs in public or in any place where children could see it. This includes restricting “male or female impersonators,” a designation activists point out could be potentially used to target trans people as well as drag performers. And the punishment for breaking this new law is steep—a first offence would be a misdemeanour, with subsequent offences counting as felonies punishable by one to six years in prison.
Peppermint, of Drag Race fame, told Reuters that the idea that drag performances could harm children is “a boogey monster.” “It’s not really a real thing, so they make up stories,” she said. “The first thing they do is target us, dehumanize us, villainize us, and then they pass legislation against us.” She also expressed fear that this new law could be applied to trans people, as the term “male or female impersonators” is ill-defined.
Add into the mix Indiana’s newly passed “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” legislation, and you have another bleak week for legislation in the U.S.
4. Meta makes money off of anti-LGBTQ2S+ messaging
Meta, the company behind Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp, is preparing its float for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Australia this weekend. But, according to a new analysis by The Guardian, they haven’t put their money where their mouth is (shocker). The Guardian found that the company has accepted thousands of dollars from Australian groups that use the platform to promote anti-LGBTQ2S+ messages, including ads that peddle familiar and frankly boring myths about drag shows being too “sexualized” for kids.
Meta’s track record for platforming homophobia and transphobia was already pretty dismal. Media Matters, an American non-profit, confirmed that Meta had profited from over 200 ads that use the word “groomer” to describe LGBTQ2S+ people, even though that use of the term violates the company’s own hate speech policies. Since the first Media Matters report on the issue, Meta has allowed another 63 ads with this kind of language, which garnered them at least $6,400.
In the era of Elon Musk’s Twitter, we’re not surprised, but we’re definitely disappointed.
5. Do we stan Ariana DeDose’s BAFTA rap?
Last weekend, queer icon and Oscar winner Ariana DeBose broke the internet with her opening number at the 76th BAFTA Awards. The performance, now unofficially titled “Angela Bassett Did the Thing” in reference to its most viral lyric, was a tribute to the women nominated that night. It included covers of “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” and “We Are Family” and, most importantly, it contained the most off-the-hinges “Vogue”-meets-Hamilton style rap you’ve ever seen. Debose called out women in the audience one by one with lines that cannot be adequately described and therefore must be quoted. “Blanchett, Cate, you’re a genius/ And Jamie Lee, you are all of us” is our personal fave.
So, do we like it? While at first many described it as cringe or just plain bad, the reigning reaction now is that it’s camp and we’re obsessed with it. Was it intentionally camp? Maybe, probably not. Have we been watching it on repeat all week long? Um yeah, duh. So yes, yes we do stan—and we’re waiting with baited breath for any hint of BAFTA rap merch.
Credit: Getty Images; Elham Numan/Xtra
Baby bonus: We just published the first four stories in Xtra’s ambitious nine-part series called Queering Family. Guest editor Stéphanie Verge kicks it off with an introduction to her very gay family. Then Tobin Ng profiles three families raising their kids in a gender-open way. Followed by the Robins, mother Tudor and daughter Evan, who share their experiences of Evan coming out as trans as a teen, in the hope of helping other families through the process. And lastly, Xtra’s health editor Ziya Jones talks with midwife and fertility expert Kristin Liam Kali to address the most pressing questions around queers and conception. Check it out. There’s more to come over the next two weeks.
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