Latest news with #AdoreDelano
The Print
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Print
Is there an Indian way to be gay? Most of us learn about queerness from American TV
An example I always like to use when demonstrating the concept is from Drag Race All Stars 2 , where Alaska said this to Adore Delano: 'Adore Delano, these other girls are going to say you have terrible makeup skills, you have no fashion sense, and you're dumb as a rock. But they're wrong… You don't have terrible makeup skills.' For those yet untouched by the almighty finger of American pop culture, 'reading' refers to insulting someone playfully. It has to be rooted in truth, and funny. The gays are reading. Now, if they were reading Phule or Ambedkar—I'd even welcome a Rushdie short story at this point—it wouldn't be a problem. But they're just reading each other. The practice started, like all good things about American queer culture, in the ballroom scene of the 1980s. So, where's the problem, you ask? After all, reading is seen as a bonding method—the firm handshake of the queer world, if you will. It helps you size up your peers, sharpen your wit. My problem with desi gays trying to read is that they don't recognise how different their world is from that of an American drag queen. When they read, they end up making the young, thin, fair, and obviously upper caste gay man the ideal. He has 13 per cent body fat, clear skin, and is getting a 'sickening' new outfit made for his 21st birthday. Why do we have to rely on American cultural imports and language to define our exchanges in India? We have enough in our own culture to dip into. Therein lies the rub. Drag in India is elite. It plays out in Kitty Su and the Lalit. We're sad about the drag bans in the US, but don't care about horizontal reservations in India. Stonewall remains our frame of reference, and ABVA (AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan) is unheard of. We know all about the inspiring Marsha P Johnson, but ask us about Mona Ahmed and we'll come up empty. To be fair, for many of us, it is American shows and films that teach us what our own queerness is. It is formative for baby queers here. But how are we Indianising it? We can't just slap samosas and mangoes on Black culture and call it desi queerness. It's lazy and exploitative. Worse still, it's cringe. But is there an Indian way of being queer? There are several—hijra, kothi, and the jogti communities. But the only way they can interest a Drag Race queer is if an 'intersectional' seat opens up on a panel of savarna gay men. For city gays to create a culture that is their own, they'll have to first leave the spotlight. Which will hopefully lead to a de-elitising of Indian queerness. After all, culture can't exist where community doesn't. Also read: Indian gay men idolise three kinds of women. They're all missing from this era of Bollywood Back to reading culture When I first came across reading, I was fresh off the Modern Family type of queer narratives, consumed on Star World in the lonely hours of Malegaon nights. So when this edgier, cooler, meaner kind of queerness came along, I was hooked. And being read—allowing other queers to see your insecurities—felt radical. It took away some of the world's power to hurt you. This was when I was doing my master's some centuries ago. I began reading my best friend about the size of his forehead while he read me for my grey-and-blue straight man wardrobe, my small-town pleather loafers, and my belly flaps. One day, my friend shared an article on how a culture of meanness pervaded gay friendships. We realised some reads cut deeper than we had allowed ourselves to see. We were quick to learn our lesson though, and sappy as it sounds, we took care to be kind to each other, keeping the reads to low-level shade. Of course, I still watch Drag Race every Friday and talk about it in a Telegram group of desi gays. Much as I'd like to decolonise my queerness, all I have to show for the effort is liking Reels by trans model and dancer, Khushi Shaikh. So, if someone knows the way out of consumption and into community, I'm all ears. Until then, I'll just have to do my part by marinating in guilt beside my Pakeezah poster. Views are personal. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Axios
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Your NWA Pride Month calendar
June is Pride Month, which commemorates and advocates for the LGBTQ community. Here's how to take part in NWA. 🏳️🌈 Saturday – The Momentary in Bentonville is hosting an all-day celebration with food, music and dance plus showings of musicals. And you can picnic on the Green. It's free to attend but a couple of events require additional $15 tickets. 🏳️⚧️ Sunday — NWA Equality is hosting TRANScends, a community conversation intended "to deepen understanding of the challenges, joy and lived experiences of our transgender neighbors and move Northwest Arkansas from awareness to action." 1-5pm at The Jones Center in Springdale. Free but reserve a spot. 🤣 June 12-15 — Eureka Springs' Pride weekend is complete with live music and drag shows. And comedian Tig Notaro is performing a sold out show. 🎤 June 21 — An LGBTQ resource fair plus a sing-along screening of "Rent" will take place from 1-4pm at the Fayetteville Public Library. 💃 June 27-29 — NWA Pride weekend, the state's largest Pride celebration hosted in Fayetteville by Northwest Arkansas Equality, kicks off Friday evening with a trans march and rally down Dickson Street plus a concert from Adore Delano, who competed on "RuPaul's Drag Race."
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Adore Delano is outraged over her passport gender marker update denial & we all should be, too
Trans Drag Race icon Adore Delano is furious that she can't get a passport that accurately reflects her female gender amid the Trump administration's anti-trans policy to halt passport applications to Americans whose gender is different than their assigned sex at birth. In a TikTok video posted on Friday morning that is currently going viral, Delano told fans that her name 'is now legally Adore Delano,' but the federal government isn't recognizing her updated gender. 'But it's true you guys, they're not changing my gender federally so my passport will remain male,' Delano said in her TikTok video that has already amassed nearly a million views at the time of publication. 'F—king wild because I travel outside the country for a living. I'm filming my first movie outside of the country this week. So all of my documentation that are federal will remain male,' she said. legally Adore Delano BUT Trans and nonbinary Americans are currently fighting back against President Trump's executive order that directed the State Department to only issue passports that "accurately reflect the holder's sex,' Reuters reports. It was only two months ago that Delano happily posted on Instagram about turning in paperwork to legally change her name and gender after coming out as trans in 2023 and being open about undergoing facial feminization surgery. 'GENDER & NAME PAPERWORK TURNED IN! ……now we wait,' she wrote on Instagram. Delano said she tried everything she could think of to get a new passport with a female gender marker but was told 'that we're like a month-and-a-half to two months too late' and that the option to change your gender marker has already been removed from the Social Security website. 'They're really out here calling us men, girls!' Delano isn't the only trans celebrity who has struggled with getting a passport with the correct gender marker. Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer also made a TikTok video to share her "harsh reality check" that her new passport had a male gender marker. "It's not just talk," Schafer said in the since-deleted video. "This is real. And it's happening. No one, no matter their circumstance, no matter how wealthy or white or pretty or whatever, is excluded. This is real.' Schafer expressed her anger at the Trump administration's new pocky but told fans that it doesn't change her 'transness.' "I don't give a f*ck that they put an 'M' on my passport. It doesn't change really anything about me or my transness,' she explained. 'However, it does make life a little harder. I'm pretty sure it's gonna come along with having to out myself to border patrol agents and that whole gig much more often than I would like to or is really necessary."
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Adore Delano is outraged over her passport gender marker update denial & we all should be, too
Trans Drag Race icon Adore Delano is furious that she can't get a passport that accurately reflects her female gender amid the Trump administration's anti-trans policy to halt passport applications to Americans whose gender is different than their assigned sex at birth. In a TikTok video posted on Friday morning that is currently going viral, Delano told fans that her name 'is now legally Adore Delano,' but the federal government isn't recognizing her updated gender. 'But it's true you guys, they're not changing my gender federally so my passport will remain male,' Delano said in her TikTok video that has already amassed nearly a million views at the time of publication. 'F—king wild because I travel outside the country for a living. I'm filming my first movie outside of the country this week. So all of my documentation that are federal will remain male,' she said. legally Adore Delano BUT Trans and nonbinary Americans are currently fighting back against President Trump's executive order that directed the State Department to only issue passports that "accurately reflect the holder's sex,' Reuters reports. It was only two months ago that Delano happily posted on Instagram about turning in paperwork to legally change her name and gender after coming out as trans in 2023 and being open about undergoing facial feminization surgery. 'GENDER & NAME PAPERWORK TURNED IN! ……now we wait,' she wrote on Instagram. Delano said she tried everything she could think of to get a new passport with a female gender marker but was told 'that we're like a month-and-a-half to two months too late' and that the option to change your gender marker has already been removed from the Social Security website. 'They're really out here calling us men, girls!' Delano isn't the only trans celebrity who has struggled with getting a passport with the correct gender marker. Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer also made a TikTok video to share her "harsh reality check" that her new passport had a male gender marker. — (@) "It's not just talk," Schafer said in the since-deleted video. "This is real. And it's happening. No one, no matter their circumstance, no matter how wealthy or white or pretty or whatever, is excluded. This is real.' Schafer expressed her anger at the Trump administration's new pocky but told fans that it doesn't change her 'transness.' "I don't give a f*ck that they put an 'M' on my passport. It doesn't change really anything about me or my transness,' she explained. 'However, it does make life a little harder. I'm pretty sure it's gonna come along with having to out myself to border patrol agents and that whole gig much more often than I would like to or is really necessary."
