After being jilted at the altar, lovelorn Ollie embarks on the planned honeymoon with his friends, arriving at Hotel Club Tropicana. However, unbeknown to him, his bride-to-be also had the same idea and arrives with her bridal party. Meanwhile, overly camp entertainments manager, Gary, (X-Factor’s Joe McElderry) and hotel managers Robert and Serena have entered the hotel into a competition, and are in the midst of trying to butter up the hotel inspector, Christine, by any means necessary.
Like many jukebox musicals, the wafer-thin story is used solely to wrap around the string of the Eighties hits, which are perhaps the show’s strengths, comprising primarily of upbeat classic pop which you can’t help but clap along to; whilst a bit of forced audience participation and a manic energy throughout the show resonated with the audience and created a party atmosphere in the theatre.
The show sits somewhere between dated sit-com and pantomime, but with an added abundance of crass innuendo, stereotyped characters which belong firmly in the Eighties and plenty of jokes about bodily functions. Written with every cliché in the book, from the characters to the story and from the jokes to the borderline offensive stereotypes, there is nothing here by way of originality.
But the show is silly enough to just about get away with it, and there are a handful of genuinely funny moments and some decent one-liners. Kate Robbins steals the laughs as Spanish maid, Consuela (yes, it really is that clichéd), McElderry camps it up whilst the ensemble cast dance their neon Day-Glo socks off. With plenty of nods to the decade that fashion forgot, and songs which you know all the words to, Club Tropicana is crowd-pleasing nonsense, provided you take it on face value and enjoy it for what it is.
Club Tropicana is at Sheffield Theatres until 9th March 2019 before continuing its national tour.
Interracial couples are now going to get the inclusion they deserve.
This autumn, interracial couples will be included in an emoji update which sees all different types of races of couples included, and will be available on all smartphones. The new emojis feature same-sex couples as well as opposite couples and has 12 different permutations.
Behind this great news is one of the world’s biggest dating apps, Tinder, which told THEGAYUK, “Tinder advocates for the freedom of people to live how they want to live and love who they want to love,” said Jenny Campbell, CMO, Tinder.
“The success of our Interracial Couple Emoji campaign shows how powerful the voices are of the more than 50,000 people who joined our cause by signing our petition; together, we effected change and ensured visual representation for interracial couples around the world. I couldn’t be more proud of this incredibly positive outcome.”
Parkfield Community school in Birmingham, which has been at the centre of a row over its LGBT+ equality lessons says that headlines about it stopping lessons is “misleading”.
The school, which was faced with the removal of hundreds of children over plans to introduce LGBT+ relationship and equality lessons, called No Outsider, has said that headlines suggesting it had stopped the lessons was “misleading”. It quoted a headline from The Guardian newspaper.
In a single Tweet, the school, wrote, “We are concerned this headline is misleading. Parent meetings/ workshops are soon to begin and our no outsiders work continue”.
The tweet echoed a letter sent to the parents of children at the school which said,
“Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE).
“Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.
The school has now confirmed that they have put the lessons on hold and will, according to The Guardian, “resume only after a full consultation with every parent”.
The letter continued,
“The discussions were a helpful first step and identified the key issues that are concerning parents, including the ethos, the books, the age appropriateness, the lessons and the assemblies. The agreed outcome of the meeting was the need to have a discussion with the school community about the No Outsiders curriculum and how it should be delivered.
According to The Guardian, around 600 children from predominately Muslim families were removed by their parents from a school in Birmingham on Friday in protest.
THEGAYUK has reached out for comment from the school, but has not heard back.
Thirty-years-ago Madonna released one of her most controversial songs ever…
(C) BIGSTOCK
Madonna has taken to Instagram to celebrate the 30th release birthday of ‘Like A Prayer’, one of her most, the singer admits, controversial songs ever.
Speaking about the song which was released in 1989, the icon said, “30 years ago today I released Like a Prayer and made a video that caused so much controversy because I kissed a black saint and danced in front of burning crosses!
“I also made a commercial with PEPSI that was banned because my video was seen as inappropriate.”
Following on from the news that one Birmingham school has stopped its LGBT+ relationships and equality lessons, Section 28 has started trending on Twitter.
So for those who don’t know what Section 28 is here’s a little summary.
What was Section 28?
Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 meant that local authority employees, including school teachers, could not “intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.
Section 28 was supported by a number of religious groups including, Salvation Army, the Christian Institute Christian Action Research and Education, the Muslim Council of Britain, and groups within the Catholic Church and the Church of England.
It became law in England, Scotland and Wales on the 24th May 1988 under Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government. Section 28 was repealed in 2003 by the Labour government. The Scottish government was able to repeal this bill in 2000 and was, in fact, one of the first pieces of legislation enacted by the new Scottish Parliament.
Why is it trending now?
The Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, Shabana Mahmood gave a speech at the end of February in which she raised concerns from her constituents that there was no consultation with parents before schools embarked on the No Outsiders campaign in Birmingham, where the ethos of the campaign was to promote LGBT+ equality and to question transphobia and homophobia in primary schools.
It’s vital that schools follow the guidance for teaching #RSE, with parental engagement and proper consideration for pupils’ religion and background. Yesterday, I made this clear to Education ministers in response to a petition signed by 1,763 #Birmingham#Ladywood constituents. pic.twitter.com/M3Whe4SgDs
The school removed the lesson and in a letter to the parents it said,
“Up to the end of this term, we will not be delivering any No Outsiders lessons in our long term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious education (RE).
“Equality assemblies will continue as normal and our welcoming No Outsiders ethos will be there for all.
The school has now confirmed that they have put the lessons on hold and will, according to The Guardian, “resume only after a full consultation with every parent”.
The letter continued,
“The discussions were a helpful first step and identified the key issues that are concerning parents, including the ethos, the books, the age appropriateness, the lessons and the assemblies. The agreed outcome of the meeting was the need to have a discussion with the school community about the No Outsiders curriculum and how it should be delivered.”
Some parents have argued that their children are “too young” to be learning about same-sex relationships.
One mother, Fatima Shah said,
“We are not a bunch of homophobic mothers. We just feel that some of these lessons are inappropriate. Some of the themes being discussed are very adult and complex and the children are getting confused.
“They need to be allowed to be children rather than having to constantly think about equalities and rights.”
Homophobic, offensive. Amazes me that you can all discriminate freely against our community but you demand acceptance and understanding from everyone else. This breaks my heart. You should be ashamed. Religion is not religion if it is not inclusive, it’s a cult.
Shabana, I am genuinely sad about the position you’ve taken. What I love most about this country is our diversity. We NEED MP’s who reflect our diversity, but along with that, those MP’s must also respect the diversity of others. It’s a great shame you’ve chosen not to do that.
Your suggestion that kids knowing gay people exist is not “age appropriate” is the oldest homophobic trope in the book – smearing gays as predatory and peadophiles. This speech is courting serious bigotry for the sake of pandering to a section of your core vote.
— Benjamin Butterworth (@benjaminbutter) March 4, 2019
There is an appropriate age to learn about the existence of LGBT people, and that age is “from birth”. We fail the next generation of LGBT people, and the generations who were let down by Section 28, if we support the idea parents have a right to demand the erasure of LGBT people https://t.co/99J1dCdpET
Let me tell you about my own gender expression before we go on. I don’t think of myself as a “man” because I don’t really fit into what society expects of its men. When I was a child all I wanted to do was be called a girl, wear high heels, my mum’s dresses and sing Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ on repeat.
I was a Grade A queer/trans kid. As an adult I couldn’t admit that to anyone outside my immediate family. I was so shamed by this behaviour – and bullied mercilessly at school when I chose to wear the white, patterned “girls’” socks instead of the regulation grey socks for boys.
Nowadays, I dress in masculine clothes, I have a boyfriend, I have short hair and people assume that I’m a man and a gay one at that. I enjoy the privileges that, for the most part, that assumed identity affords me. But, it never really feels right when someone refers to me in that way.
That said, I don’t mind if people use the pronouns him/his or he when they refer to me. Although it does jar me if someone calls me a man. Weird.
I also don’t mind it if I’m referred to with female pronouns.
I’m pretty relaxed about the pronouns that are used to describe me.
But for some, words really matter. So here’s some advice to help us all become better allies to our non-binary, gender non-conforming siblings.
It seems that we’ve all got our lives set to transmit only. We need more receiving in our lives. So when someone is telling you something about them, listen.
Someone once wisely told me, “Assumptions are the mother of all fuck-ups” – and they were completely right. How often have you assumed something about a situation only to find that nothing was as you imagined? Pretty often, right?
Your assumptions are based on your own life experience. It doesn’t take into account other people’s experience. So leave your assumptions at the door and again, open your mind.
If a person tells you what their preferred pronoun is, accept it don’t fight it. It’s what they’ve asked you to call them. The decision is effectively out of your hands. It’s the same as when someone tells you their name. You accept it and it becomes part of their identity. Well, pronouns are the same.
Some non-binary, gender fluid and gender non-conforming folks use a number of different pronouns. Some popular ones are: Zim/Zer and Ze, they/them and theirs or even thon, which was actually added to the dictionary in 1964. They as a singular pronoun has been used for centuries.It’s not particularly new, it’s not trend based, it’s just getting a lot of media attention at the moment.
Blue for boys, Pink for girls… gender stereotyping is all so the 1950s and really doesn’t work for today’s society. No one likes living in a predefined box and we don’t live in a black and white world. There’s a whole rainbow out there.
Gender norms and stereotypes, when adhered to, just keeps society attached to a patriarchal system that’s almost impossible to climb and doesn’t work for all of us, particularly LGBT+ people. So lets bin it shall we?
Normalise the conversation surrounding pronouns. Write your preferred pronouns in your social media profiles. As @thalestral says on Twitter, “normalise that shit”.
Also on twitter, stop assuming people’s pronouns based on their profile pic and your binary stereotypes.
Read their profile. Check their pronouns. Don’t assume.
And while you’re there, put your own pronouns in your profile.
THEGAYUK has learned that Twitter could be adding a “hide replies” feature. An innovation that could help anyone who is the target of online or cyberbullying remove hateful messages without deleting crucial evidence for the police.
A hide feature would help users control what they see and when they see it. It could work very similarly to the Turn Off Comments function on YouTube.
It could also allow the primary user to help control the conversation, remove falsehoods or hate from their timeline, before other users jump in on a thread.
Twitter has recently rolled out a number of schemes to help detoxify the app.
