The Buzz: Snippets of news

THE BUZZ

LOVING GAYS!

YOU KNOW, I LOVE MY GAYS. I JUST DON’T WANT TO MARRY ONE.

When it comes to EmmyAward winning, Kristin Chenoweth’s latest role it looks like art is imitating life!

The actress is a huge LGBTQI+ ally in real life, but on the set of AppleTV+’s newest musical comedy series, Schmigadoon!, in which she plays Mildred Layton, the homophobic wife of closeted preacher Reverend Howard Layton, hilariously played by Fred Armisen, she revealed in a recent interview that she has dated a gay man.

The 53-year-old actress opened up about her love life, and a whole lot of other topics pertaining to her long-running career.

“In Schmigadoon!, your character, Mildred Layton, is married to Fred Armisen’s closeted Reverend Layton. Did you ever find yourself accidentally dating a gay man?” Kristin was asked by LA Mag’s Andrew Goldman.

“Only once,” she replied. But how did she end up finding out he was gay, you ask? The answer was simple: designer shoes.

“He recognised my Louboutins,” she replied, revealing that the unidentified man’s eye for expensive red bottoms gave her the “insight” she needed about his sexuality. “When you’re dating a man and he knows the brand of your shoes, immediately break up with him and become best friends. You know, I love my gays. I just don’t want to marry one. That’s all.”

ROBIN COMES OUT SOCIAL MEDIA - A VEHICLE FOR HATE

It’s finally happened ... DC comics has outed Robin. In the latest instalment of Batman: Urban Legends, comic book character Tim Drake accepts an invitation to go on a date with a man. After a street-side brawl in which Robin rescues Bernard Dowd, Robin visits his apartment ...

“I’m really glad you got home okay,” stammers Drake, “I was relieved. And I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, about that night. And I - I don;t know what it mean’t to me. But I’d like to figure it out.”

Bernard responds, “I was hoping you would. Tim Drake ... do yiu want to go on a date with me?” Whilst Twitter and Facebook have been hauled over the coals numerous times for allowing their platforms to be used to promote anti-LGBTQI sentiment, TikTok it seems is the latest to be added to the list.

According to a recently released report by the U.K.-based think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue, it’s a place where some users promote anti-LGBTQ+ hatred by praising oppressive regimes, celebrating the suicides of transgender people, and conflating LGBTQ+ identity with paedophilia, said the Advocate Magazine.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, examined 1,030 TikTok videos for various kinds of hatred, including white supremacy, Holocaust denial, terrorism, misogyny, and more, in addition to anti-LGBTQ+ activity. Whilst TikTok does monitor and take down such content, it does it inconsistently, the institute reported.

The researchers’ sample, found 90 with antiLGBTQ+ content where some users “routinely celebrated the persecution of gay people in authoritarian or undemocratic regimes,” the report notes.

“Transgender people were routinely singled out in particular for abuse, harassment and hate,” the document continued. There were claims that LGBTQ+ people make up 40 percent of convicted paedophiles — its “evidence” is a Facebook comment, featured in a screen shot.

The institute recommends that TikTok broaden its definition of extremist and hateful ideologies; better enforce its existing policies against hate speech, including slurs; educate users on potential risks; and prioritise data access for users.

If you see any make a point of reporting it! We need to get these platforms to stop the hate.

Yeah, I think I want that,” Robin replies ... ending the episode.

Fans will have to wait till December to find out how the date goes, but kudos to DC for making his long speculated coming out a reality.

JODIE DOESN’T GIVE A ...

It seems that in line with a more inclusive and diverse world there is a growing movement to reinvent the rainbow flag. The rainbow flag is the most identifiable symbol internationally of LGBTQI+ community has been redesigned to be more inclusive of the transgender community and people of colour.

After all it was transgender activists who first made a stand against discrimination in a little known protest 3 years before the famous Stonewall Riots in 1969. It happened in San Francisco, when a group of trangender women stood up to the police raid on a venue, arresting people who “dressed in clothing of the opposite sex” which was a crime at the time. Known as the Compton Cafeteria riot, it began when the police tried to arrest one of the drag queens who threw coffee in his face. A few hundred people stood uo the police - most were arrested but today it is hailed in the USA as “one of the earliest significant trans/queer resistance movements.”

A growing number of Pride organisations in the United States are adopting the new design and other countries will quickly follow their lead.

The new flag design is “to express solidarity, expand inclusivity, and communicate acceptance”, said a spokesman for New York Pride. Displaying the new flag is “just one of the ways we can visibly acknowledge and celebrate the colourful plurality of our community,” he added.

PRIDE IN CAPE TOWN

With the country’s vaccination programme ramping up, and if the President and political leaders in the Western Cape are to be believed, we are on track to reach herd immunity by the end of the year. This bodes well for the country and particularly Cape Town as the city is reliant on the summer tourist trade which has been devastated over the past 18 months with the lockdowns, restrictions on restaurants, hotels, closure of beaches etc. With the country reaching population immunity, hopefully things will change and restrictions will be lifted.

In light of this positivity the committee are working to get the necessary licences in place to hold an in-person, as opposed to online, Pride in 2022.

Of course at the moment, everything is still up-in-the-air but should the government give the go-ahead it wont be a last minute scramble.

The date will be the 26 February and the Pride Festival & Mardi Gras will, as in the past, be the final event of the Pridemonth calender. Leading up to this date will be a number of community events. These include the ever-popular Mr & Miss Cape Town Pride Pageant, book nights with authors, art nights, the Hero Awards gala dinner and auction which was very successful last year. This year Cape Town Pride will have a new event on the calender which will hopefully become an annual highlight. The Cape Town Pride Proms is scheduled for the 17th February and is planned as a glittering night of music with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and well-known singers doing well-known numbers such as Nessum Dorma and Barcelona. The night will not be limited to classical music. A night of popular classics and pop tunes are featured on the programme. Currently the show, which will be modelled on the world-famous BBC Night at the Proms, is in the planning stages so it is important to keep your eye on the press and social media as to how it is moving forward.

Pride is planned to adhere to any Covid restrictions and in an alliance with the City of Cape Town will be limited to those people who have been vaccinated. To this end an App has been developed where people will be required to upload the proof of vaccination and this will be required on entering any Pride 2022 event. The App, HealthPass ZA, has been developed by Siyamed and can be downloaded on the Apple App store or Play Store on Google.

So don’t miss out on any event. It is important that you get vaccinated, download the App and be ready for an long anticipated opening of events and be a part of Cape Town Pride 2022!