Superstar JoJo Siwa is jumping on a viral TikTok trend and sharing her gay awakening story. For anyone unfamiliar, the trend calls for people to share personal stories from their life, but to do it to music. An instrumental version of Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl,” to be specific. Every story starts with the person saying, “One thing about me…”
In Siwa’s case, her story is about the celebrities that helped her discover her sexuality and her first date with a boy.
“One thing about me is that when I was twelve, Demi Lovato came out with the song ‘Cool for the Summer,” she raps to the beat. “I really really liked it and listened to it all the time.”
Siwa also admitted to not understanding all of the sapphic themes of the song (Got my mind on your body and your body on my mind. Got a taste for the cherry, I just need to take a bite”). However, she clarified that she does understand the song now. The video even caught the attention of Lovato, and she replied with three laughing emojis shortly after the post was shared.
Siwa then shares the next pivotal moment in her journey, Jenna Dewan’s Magic Mike performance on Lip Sync Battle. “I pretty much watched it every day. Little me, she didn’t know she was gay!” she joked.
Nope, it wasn’t until Siwa went out on her first date that she realized she wasn’t attracted to men. According to her story, she was a couple of years older when she went out with a guy. He wanted something more from the date, but she did not.
“And he wanted to have sex with me, and I did not want to, never wanted to, grossed out by the thought of it, immediately knew men are not my thing. Women are my gig. Gotta go.”
The “Boomerang” singer is currently dating TikToker Avery Cyrus. The couple went under the radar for a while and even made jokes about people speculating about their relationship before they went public last month.
“Happiest Girl,” Siwa wrote on TikTok and shared a video of her and Cyrus kissing in a Chuck E. Cheese photo booth.
Siwa came out as LGBTQ in January 2021 through a series of posts made on social media. She later clarified to Peoplethat she identifies as pansexual. “… because that’s how I have always been my whole life is just like, my human is my human.”
The full cast of Netflix’s live-action Legend of Zelda series, featuring Tom Holland, Emma Watson, and Meryl Streep just dropped! Not quite. We’ve been duped again and we’re not even mad about it. Dan Leveille, Director of Product Marketing at Deviant Art and the developer of Equaldex is at it again. Leveille recently used A.I. to generate concept images of Tom Holland as Link in an original Legend of Zelda series by Netflix. The internet had a lot to say about this, especially considering how convincing some of the images were. Leveille followed up on the popularity of the initial post by creating an A.I-generated script in which Link reveals that he’s gay to Ganondorf. We’ve compiled everything here for your convenience, including an inside scoop from Leveille himself.
Leveille was just warming up. In fact, he just created his pièce de résistance. Using a combination of Midjourney, inpainting with DALL-E 2, some facial correction using Tencent ARC, and a bunch of Photoshop, man and machine came to create something incredible. Leveille took to Instagram to share 10 concept images for the imagined series featuring an all-star cast. The 10 near-perfect images include Tom Holland as Link, Emma Watson as Zelda, and Idris Elba as Ganon. Also featured is Maisie Williams as Saria, Jameela Jamil as Urbosa, Sadie Sink as Malon, and Meryl Streep as Twinrova. Choosing Gemma Chan as The Great Fairy, Steve Buscemi as Dampé, and Danny DeVito as Tingle was genius.
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Meet Their Creator
Gayety took this opportunity to ask Leveille some questions about his creation and what it means for the future of art and entertainment.
Gayety: What was your reaction when your concepts started to blow up?
Leveille: I was shocked—it was super exciting to see some major publications pick it up. It also got a lot of hate. I didn’t think much of generating Link as Tom Holland, but the internet was very opinionated: Some people don’t want a live-action Zelda film — they think it would ruin the series. Others think Tom Holland has become too mainstream. And of course, I got a handful of homophobic responses when I generated the gay Zelda script. I was also kicking myself for not making them better. People commented on how Link’s hair is not blonde, how his eyes are off, and how he wasn’t wearing his signature green hat. So I put more effort into it this time and fixed all of those things.
Q: When did you first start using AI to create art? Will AI one day replace creative artists?
A: I started using AI to create art as I got access to Dall-E in July, and I just got hooked. It’s been so fun and so gratifying how you can make such gorgeous and realistic images in just seconds. I don’t think AI could ever fully replace artists. In some ways, it’s making artists even more powerful by letting them quickly concept ideas, make film storyboards, generate textures and backgrounds, and correct parts of photos. I know a lot of artists are already starting to adapt and use AI as part of their workflow. AI art is also making art more accessible to people who want to be creative but don’t have the skillset. For example, I’ve heard of some great examples of writers using AI art to help illustrate their stories.
Q: What do you think the likelihood is of Netflix making this film? Has Netflix commented on your posts?
A: If they can do it right, I hope they do! They were originally working on a Zelda series back in 2015 but it was allegedly canceled due to leaks. I haven’t heard anything about Netflix seeing my posts, but I doubt they would publicly comment on it. With the attention it’s gotten, I’m really hoping Tom Holland has seen it. He’s apparently taking a break from social media right now, so his social media has been silent for the past few months.
Q: What can we expect from you next?
A: I’ll definitely continue doing nerdy AI art. With Nintendo’s upcoming Mario film, I was considering some more Mario content. I want to play around with GPT-3 some more too, generating more scripts or text-based content that I can tie into the AI art. After getting some homophobic responses to the gay Link AI script, I feel like I should do more of it.
Perhaps the cast of Legend of Zelda won’t be Dan Leveille’s magnum opus after all. We’ll be refreshing our feeds constantly to see what comes next for the talented 34-year-old. We suggest you follow him and do the same.
Today I did something I do not recommend. I searched “Eddy Izzard” on Twitter. There I saw some of the vilest, unabashed transphobia I’ve seen online. Much of it, perhaps unsurprisingly, started with a restroom. It’s no secret that anti-trans sentiment in the UK, like much of the world, is reaching a fever pitch. Amid this transphobic media frenzy, trans people are the ones who are hurting the most. Reports of transphobic violence quadrupled in the U.K. since 2015. One-in-four trans people have been threatened with or experienced transphobic violence according to a 2020 Galop report. One-in-three U.K. employers say they wouldn’t employ a trans person. Almost half of trans folks have attempted suicide in the past.
Despite odds that are stacked against trans people in the U.K., cis folks insist that they are the victims. It seems a trans person cannot simply go to the restroom without having her picture taken and dispersed online. Recently, trans comedian Eddie Izzard was that person.
Who is Eddie Izzard?
Eddie Izzard is a British comedian, actor, and activist who rose to world fame for her role in the Ocean’s films. Izzard is also genderfluid, although she mostly expresses herself in what she calls “girl mode.” She has also expressed that she now prefers that people use she/her pronouns to refer to her. Izzard’s identity has evolved over time in the same way language surrounding gender has evolved. For Eddie, she first came out as trans in 1985 and says she knew she was trans at the age of four. A dedicated Labour Party activist, Izzard recently said she hopes to stand for election as an MP in Sheffield. With all of this in mind, it’s hardly a surprise that Izzard is a prime target of the media frenzy.
Why is Eddie Izzard Trending?
Izzard is no stranger to trending on Twitter, but the most recent situation was all too familiar. Transphobes are mad about restrooms again. Last week, Sheffield Labour Party hosted a fund-raising event featuring Eddie Izzard in Sheffield. During the event, one of the guests noticed two women usher Izzard to the women’s restroom. When Izzard emerged the guest took a picture of her and shared it on Twitter with the caption, “Coming out of the ‘ladies’ loo.”
The writer in question then wrote a 1,073-word piece filled to the brim with a very familiar brand of transphobia. Intentionally using he/him pronouns to antagonize. Referring to Izzard as a man. Fear-mongering and resorting to strawman arguments to justify the mistreatment of trans folks. This was only the beginning. An even more flagrantly transphobic article was published elsewhere on a site that seems to get a kick out of attacking what this writer calls “the transgender delusion.”
You’ve heard it all before, but this kind of overt transphobia is usually resigned to playgrounds and YouTube comment sections. Journalists and media professionals are typically more cunning in their transphobia. Deciding instead to disguise their bigotry as a concern for women and children. They do this because it works. It worked for anti-gay discourse during the Lavender scare, and it’s working now during this wave of anti-trans legislation in the U.S. This particular piece (content warning: extreme transphobia) is more direct.
Don’t Fall For It
The fallout from these and similar articles is playing out on Twitter as you might expect. Users are flocking to their feeds, eager to criticize Izzard, shame her for her appearance, and to accuse trans folks of being predatory deviants. Thankfully, some have come to Izzard’s defense, recognizing this for what it is. A photograph of someone in a moment of privacy and doing something entirely innocuous. A photo that was shared widely in an attempt to manufacture outrage.
Transphobes are currently losing their minds because Eddie Izzard, a trans woman, was photographed coming out of a women’s restroom. Not having DONE anything in there other than, presumably, peeing and washing her hands, just…existing there.
This is a case of moral panic. As with any moral panic they will point to statistical outliers and downright lies to throw trans people under the bus. In the end, it won’t be Eddie Izzard who suffers the most from this. Izzard herself has complex, sometimes controversial, views on the state of transphobia in the U.K. Indeed, the people who will suffer the most are young trans folks who don’t have access to wealth or a support system. It’s the trans folks who live in constant fear of violence. The ones without a safety net, and no one to usher them back to their seat.
Worrying news out of Italy indicates that Giorgia Meloni is set to become the next prime minister. As the leader of the right-wing party Fratelli d’Italia, Meloni’s presumptive win is cause for concern for many Italians, notably LGBTQ+ people. Her party, Italian for Brothers of Italy, is forming a coalition government with two conservative parties, League and Forza Italia. Exit polls indicate they have won a majority of seats in Parliament which would make Meloni Italy’s next prime minister. Given her troubling history with LGBTQ+ issues and association with pro-fascist ideology, all eyes are on what happens next.
Giorgia Meloni is an Italian politician who got her start in government when she joined the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement. Also known as MSI, the Italian Social Movement was a far-right political party founded in 1946 by Giorgio Almirante. Notably, Almirante was chief of staff in Benito Mussolini’s last government, meaning this party has direct roots in neo-fascism. Almirante also wrote for La Difesa della Razza (The Defence of Race), a fascist biweekly magazine that published articles about biological racism and more. Meloni herself was once quoted calling Mussolini “a good politician, in that everything he did, he did for Italy.” Although she has since attempted to distance herself from her overtly fascist past, she was quoted praising Giorgio Almirante as recently as 2020. In a tweet marking the anniversary of his death, Meloni called him a “great man” and a “patriot.”
Ci lasciava 32 anni fa Giorgio Almirante. Politico e Patriota d’altri tempi stimato da amici e avversari. Amore per l’Italia, onestà, coerenza e coraggio sono valori che ha trasmesso alla Destra italiana e che portiamo avanti ogni giorno. Un grande uomo che non dimenticheremo mai pic.twitter.com/bdzAxcMcPc
— Giorgia Meloni ???????? ن (@GiorgiaMeloni) May 22, 2020
Though MSI was dissolved in 1995, Meloni’s ties to neo-fascism run deep. Her every attempt to distance herself from this is thinly veiled, going so far as to adopt the “tricolor flame” to Fratelli d’Italia‘s flag. The symbol was associated with MSI, the neo-fascist party where Meloni got her start.
A Grim History With LGBTQ+ Issues
Still, for many Meloni has managed to minimize this association, which allowed her some room for plausible deniability. Despite this, her anti-LGBTQ+ statements leave very little to the imagination. “Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby,” said Meloni in June. “Yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology, yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death.” Among her more specific anti-LGBTQ+ views, Meloni came out in opposition to the Zan bill, an anti-homophobia bill ultimately blocked by the Italian senate. Meloni denied that gay people in Italy are “discriminated” against in a statement made to journalists.
Currently, Italy only permits civil unions for same-sex couples—a decision that Meloni says is “good enough.” Moreover, she is also opposed to same-sex parenting. Meloni takes direct issue with both adoption and surrogacy as a means for queer couples to become parents. “I believe a child has the right to grow up with a father and a mother,” Meloni wrote on Facebook. She also once said she would “rather not” have a gay child.
Antonello Marangi / Shutterstock
An Uncertain Future
The association with anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment doesn’t end there. Other members of Meloni’s party have also publicly spoken out against LGBTQ+ right. Federico Mollicone, one of the founders of Fratelli d’Italia, recently said that “in Italy homosexual couples are not legal, are not allowed.” This, of course, isn’t true but speaks to the flagrant homophobia at the core of the party. It’s worth mentioning that civil unions would not even be legal in Italy if Fratelli d’Italia had its way. The party opposed the move, even though it would ultimately afford fewer rights to same-sex couples than marriage.
Although Meloni said she wouldn’t try to roll back LGBTQ+ rights, many Italians are justifiably suspicious. “Even if she doesn’t introduce any anti-LGBT laws, she will not speed up what we’re trying to do to improve the current situation,” said Roberto Muzzetta. As a board member of the LGBTQ+ group Arcigay, Muzzetta is concerned that she may slow progress down. “We’re already lagging behind our neighbors,” he continued. Italy is currently the only western European country without marriage equality.
Meloni’s far-right views don’t end with LGBTQ+ rights. Most notably her position on immigration, particularly from Muslim countries, shares many similarities with the far-right approach in the United States. The same goes for her views on vaccines, COVID-19, and abortion. These similarities might explain why she has received praise from Republican politicians such as Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon have also expressed their support for Meloni.
If Meloni’s presumptive rise to Italian prime minister is any indication of the rise of far-right sentiment in Europe, LGBTQ+ folks should be watching Italy very very closely.
