Arts & Entertainment
INTO apologizes for publishing ‘anti-queer’ Ariana Grande critique
The publication says it has cut ties with the writer
Ariana Grande in ‘thank u, next’ music video. (Screenshot via YouTube)
LGBT website INTO, which is owned by the app Grindr, has apologized for publishing a think-piece on Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” music video which deemed the video “surprisingly anti-queer.”
“thank u, next” became a viral sensation with the biggest debut ever on YouTube. People were clicking to see the references to Grande’s exes and to watch nostalgic recreations of the popular rom-com flicks “13 Going on 30,” “Bring It On,” “Legally Blonde” and “Mean Girls.”
Writer and transgender activist Eli Erlick wasn’t impressed by the video. In an op-ed penned for INTO, Erlick claims that the story is ultimately an “anti-queer/transmisogynistic video.”
“Her music video failed to support the basic dignity of queer and trans people,” the story reads. “Laden with transmisogyny, anti-queer jokes, and blackface, the video follows Ariana’s white feminist awakening through a celebrity-laden nod to several cult classics.”
Erlick cites moments from the video to validate these points. In one scene, Erlick says that a man in drag was meant to mock transgender women. In another scene singer Troye Sivan says of Grande “I heard she’s a lesbian now and dating some chick called Aubrey. It’s fucking sick.” The quote is a homage to a similar scene from “Mean Girls.” Erlick believed that the line was homophobic.
The end scene with Kris Jenner yelling “Thank you, next, bitch” was also criticized as a call out to Caitlyn Jenner.
“She simply shouts ‘Thank you, next, bitch!’ while holding a camera — the final line of the music video. As ‘bitch’ is generally directed at women and ‘thank you, next’ is in reference to relationships, this is likely aimed at Caitlyn Jenner… Perhaps this is in reference to Caitlyn’s far-right politics. Perhaps it’s a jab at her trans identity. We can’t be sure unless Kris Jenner speaks out about the line,” Erlick writes.
The take was confusing for many people including Sivan.
This literally can’t be real I’m scream
— troye (@troyesivan) December 3, 2018
I’m sorry but this is the farthest reaching article I’ve read in my whole entire life. Like realllllly trying to make something from absolutely nothing. Wild ?
— TATIANNA (@TATIANNANOW) December 4, 2018
I’m sorry but claiming that Kris Jenner was referring to Caitlin Jenner when she said thank u, next is the biggggggest reach.
— CAnnedy Cane HOHOHO’Hara ??? (@annelizaohara) December 4, 2018
This article is completely absurd… and should be removed immediately… ???? @ArianaGrande is nothing but respectful to the LGBT community. And to try to save this writer’s take is awful.
— La Princesa de Chapultepec (@Ricardo_Peralta) December 4, 2018
After the negative backlash, INTO removed the author’s name from the op-ed saying that the author had received “numerous death threats.”
“While I could go into the HOW/WHY of why the piece missed the mark and should not have been published as is, what I am going to focus on is this: We as editors failed the writer by not working with her to ensure the piece met our standards,” INTO Editor-in-Chief Zach Stafford wrote in a post.“We have decided to remove the author’s name from this piece after the editorial team was alerted that a high number of death threats were being made against the writer as a result of the opinions presented in this piece,” reads the editor’s note.“These opinions never warrant violence, and when a writer’s own life could potentially be at stake, we must take necessary steps to ensure their safety.”
On Tuesday, Stafford posted another update that the publication had cut ties with the writer over “concerning allegations.”
“Given the seriousness of these allegations, I personally spoke with the writer and immediately launched an internal investigation,” Stafford writes. “INTO was not aware of these until Monday after publishing. And the writer will not be contributing to INTO for the time being.
Stafford did not specify what the allegations are.
The Ariana Grande story is still currently published on INTO’s website.
The 2026 Capital Pride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 20.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key, Robert Rapanut and Landon Shackelford)
Theater
‘Feeling Afraid’ explores life of a neurotic stand-up comic
Navigating sex, work, and possibly love in London
‘Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen’
Through July 12
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St., N.W.
$55-$102
Studiotheatre.org
Wordily yet rightly titled, solo show “Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen” dives deeply into the world of a neurotic stand-up comic as he navigates sex, work, and possibly love in London.
Busy arranging hookups and dates on “The App,” the 36-year-old gay funnyman juggles a full dance card; still he’s never been in a romantic relationship. While he’s willing to give love a shot, he’s not pressed about it. As he says, he harbors no fear of dying alone.
Currently making its American premiere at Studio Theatre, this darkly humorous Edinburgh Fringe import features terrific out English actor Steven Webb as The Comedian who’s about to explore what it means to spend all his time with one man.
At Studio’s intimate Mead Theatre, Kat Heath’s minimal set says standard comedy club (fluorescent tube lighting, the mic with a long cord, a single stool backed by a rose-colored curtain), but gay playwright Marcelo Dos Santos has conjured something much more than a live comedy set.
Yes, The Comedian bounces onstage in his red Converse high tops, jeans, and pink shirt with a huge mouth emblazoned on the back, but he delivers more than jokes. At times hilariously self-deprecating, then dark, and occasionally a lesson on what makes standup work, this is a layered, well-acted piece.
With Webb (a keen caricaturist of types and voices) playing all the parts while conducting The Comedian’s hilariously frenetic interior monologue, “Feeling Afraid” takes us through a summer of love. It seems after six chaste dates with The American, our nervous hero has found Mr. Right. The American is earnest, smart, hesitant to initiate sex. He’s also well built with a beautiful smile. And strangely, he’s been medically advised not to laugh aloud.
The Comedian delights in the joys of new love: dates, first kisses, sex, and then suddenly spending all of his time with the adored. Visits to art galleries become fun. Eating home cooked meals followed by grim documentaries is a thing. The Comedian is beguiled as his own boyish figure fills out, but something isn’t right. He can’t entirely relax.
Along the way we meet the Aussie doctor, our protagonist’s longtime hookup; a young runner with some exceptional body parts; the random third in a failed threesome; grumpy working comics, male and female; and an ineffectual counselor.
Webb gives a lightning-fast performance that boggles the mind (in terms velocity and virtuosity). He can be impish, very impish. He’s nervous energy incarnate, flashing jazz hands, grimacing but handsome when still. He’s likeable, a necessity when delivering a hilariously rude joke just feet away from two stone-faced audience members. (Perhaps they were laughing on the inside? At any rate, they stayed through the end the show.)
Produced by the team behind Fringe hits “Fleabag” and “Baby Reindeer,” small stage works that were developed into major TV screen successes, “Feeling Afraid” is funny for sure, and it’s also highly confessional, sexually explicit, and raw.
Written by Dos Santos during COVID lockdown, the piece was a smash hit in the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe before finding further success in London. Its depiction of a youngish queer guy navigating the big city rings entirely true. Like so much Fringe stuff, the one-man show is delightfully lewd and standup inspired.
One little moan: the show closes cleverly but too abruptly with its star dashing offstage without sufficiently basking in the admiration and applause of his thoroughly chuffed audience.
They say third time’s a charm, and regarding “Feeling Afraid,” I’d agree. After two performance cancellations (first for laryngitis and the second involving faulty air conditioning on an especially muggy June evening), I made my third trek to Studio where I found both the actor and AC in very fine fettle. And truly, Webb’s work was more than worth the wait.
The 2026 Baltimore Pride Festival, “Pride in the Park,” was held at Druid Hill Park on Sunday, June 14.
(Washington Blade photos by Linus Berggren)
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