Arts & Entertainment
Bette Midler apologizes for transphobic Caitlyn Jenner tweet
star backtracks after people take offense to comment
(Photo by Julia Kennedy)
Bette Midler is backtracking after her joke about Caitlyn Jenner was called out for being transphobic.
“Now that @IAmCait has been cancelled, will she go back to being Bruce? Will Kris take him back? Do I smell a re-wedding?!” Midler tweeted.
Twitter erupted as users accused Midler of making a transphobic joke towards Jenner.
“Just shows, you can be as gay-friendly all you want, but to some, transphobia comes so easy. How tired and pathetic,” reads one tweet.
“Yes, because being transgender is just a phase? What a vile tweet. Will you go back to being irrelevant?” reads another tweet.
After the backlash, Midler deleted the tweet and apologized for the joke.
“DEAR FRIENDS @HRC, WHOM I HAVE ALWAYS SUPPORTED. SORRY LAST TWEET OFFENDED. AN IDLE MUSING. I SEEM TO HAVE MISREAD THE TEMPER OF THE TIMES,” Midler tweeted her apology.
However, not everyone was willing to accept the wording of her apology and seemed to think Midler still didn’t get the problem with the joke.
“Transphobia was never a ‘temper of the times.’ It’s always been wrong,” one user tweeted in response.
“So Bette, thanks for the edit. But it’s not about ‘temper.’ Trans lives are hard. We’re not soreheads. We deserve love,” Jenny Boylan, Jenner’s friend and cast member on “I Am Cait,” tweeted.
Jenner announced last week that her reality show “I Am Cait” would be ending after two seasons.
Celebrity News
More than 1 million people attend Madonna concert in Rio
Free event took place on Copacabana Beach on Saturday
An estimated 1.6 million people on Saturday attended Madonna’s free concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach.
The concert, which was the last one as part of Madonna’s Celebration Tour, included a tribute to people lost to AIDS.
Bob the Drag Queen introduced Madonna before the concert began. Pabllo Vittar, a Brazilian drag queen and singer, and Anitta, a bisexual pop star who was born in Rio’s Honório Gurgel neighborhood, also joined Madonna on stage.
Congresswoman Erika Hilton, a Black travesti and former sex worker, and Rio Municipal Councilwoman Mônica Benício, the widow of Marielle Franco, a bisexual Rio Municipal Councilwoman who was assassinated in 2018, are among those who attended the concert.
“Madonna showed that we fight important fights for the human rights of Black (people), young (people), women and LGBTQIA+ people, and against all injustice, discrimination, and violence,” said Associaçao Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais (National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals), a Brazilian trans rights group known by the acronym ANTRA, on its X account. “What they call identitarianism’ is our subversion to the retrograde and conservative tackiness that plagues the country.”
The Associated Press reported the concert was Madonna’s biggest ever.
The DC Center for the LGBTQ Community, SMYAL and Rainbow Families sponsored Gay Day at the Zoo on Sunday at the Smithsonian National Zoo. The Smithsonian observed International Family Equality Day with special exhibits and an event space.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Covering Gay Day at the Zoo for @WashBlade . Here at @NationalZooDC pic.twitter.com/LqgGNOOAiM
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) May 5, 2024
Photos
PHOTOS: Taste of Point
Annual fundraiser held for LGBTQ youth scholarship, mentorship organization
The Point Foundation held its annual Taste of Point fundraiser at Room & Board on May 2.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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