October 21st Gladys Bentley
Gladys Bentley is today’s black LGBT+ icon. She was a an American blues singer, pianist and entertainer. Her career took off in the 1920s as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer.
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Facebook, which owns the Instagram platform has apologised after numerous images, which complied with its nudity policies were removed from The Naked Rugby Player’s profile.
Yesterday we reported that The Naked Rugby Players, which aims to raise awareness of male cancers and body positivity through its partnerships with LGBT+ Rugby Clubs and Balls To Cancer, had been threatened by Instagram to have its profile deleted after two pictures were uploaded to its account.
The two pictures in question featured no actual nudity and were cropped inline with Instagram’s no genital policy.
Speaking to THEGAYUK.com, a spokesperson for Facebook said, “Every day we’re inspired by the millions of people using our platforms to connect with, and raise money for, meaningful causes. This content was removed in error and has now been restored. We’re sorry for this mistake.”
The Naked Rugby Players have released a calendar every year since 2018 with the aim of raising money for Balls To Cancer and LGBT+ Inclusive Rugby Clubs.
The players have managed to put together a calendar for 2021 despite the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. This year’s calendar is called “Unseen Bits” and features 12 never-seen-before pictures from previous photoshoots.
We’d love for you to help us grow this historical archive of London’s lost gay scene. If you’ve got photos or memories of any of the venues you’d like to share please use the comment section below and we’ll add them right here.
In Charing Cross Road
Opened: Was open in the mid-to late 70s
Closed: We don’t know – can you help with this info?
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Help us deliver unique, usable and reliable journalism that supports the gay, bisexual and curious community of the United Kingdom. Can you help protect LGBT+ media? Publishers like us have come under severe threat by the likes of Google and Facebook. The problem is that advertisers are choosing to put their money with them, rather than with niche publishers like us. Our goal is to eliminate banner ads altogether on site and we can do that if you could pledge us a tiny amount each month.
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It’s quick and easy to sign up and you’ll only have to do it once.
We’d love for you to help us grow this historical archive of London’s lost gay scene. If you’ve got photos or memories of any of the venues you’d like to share please use the comment section below and we’ll add them right here.
Opened: We’re not sure
Closed: We don’t know – can you help with this info?
YOUR SUPPORT MEANS EVERYTHING
Help us deliver unique, usable and reliable journalism that supports the gay, bisexual and curious community of the United Kingdom. Can you help protect LGBT+ media? Publishers like us have come under severe threat by the likes of Google and Facebook. The problem is that advertisers are choosing to put their money with them, rather than with niche publishers like us. Our goal is to eliminate banner ads altogether on site and we can do that if you could pledge us a tiny amount each month.
We’re asking our readers to pledge just £1 per month, more if you’re feeling swanky. You can stop payment at any time.
It’s quick and easy to sign up and you’ll only have to do it once.
We’d love for you to help us grow this historical archive of London’s lost gay scene. If you’ve got photos or memories of any of the venues you’d like to share please use the comment section below and we’ll add them right here.
A club in Soho
Opened: Was open in the 70s
Closed: We don’t know – can you help with this info?
YOUR SUPPORT MEANS EVERYTHING
Help us deliver unique, usable and reliable journalism that supports the gay, bisexual and curious community of the United Kingdom. Can you help protect LGBT+ media? Publishers like us have come under severe threat by the likes of Google and Facebook. The problem is that advertisers are choosing to put their money with them, rather than with niche publishers like us. Our goal is to eliminate banner ads altogether on site and we can do that if you could pledge us a tiny amount each month.
We’re asking our readers to pledge just £1 per month, more if you’re feeling swanky. You can stop payment at any time.
It’s quick and easy to sign up and you’ll only have to do it once.
We’d love for you to help us grow this historical archive of London’s lost gay scene. If you’ve got photos or memories of any of the venues you’d like to share please use the comment section below and we’ll add them right here.
Just off the Kings Road Chelsea.
Opened: Was open in the 70s
Closed: We don’t know – can you help with this info?
YOUR SUPPORT MEANS EVERYTHING
Help us deliver unique, usable and reliable journalism that supports the gay, bisexual and curious community of the United Kingdom. Can you help protect LGBT+ media? Publishers like us have come under severe threat by the likes of Google and Facebook. The problem is that advertisers are choosing to put their money with them, rather than with niche publishers like us. Our goal is to eliminate banner ads altogether on site and we can do that if you could pledge us a tiny amount each month.
We’re asking our readers to pledge just £1 per month, more if you’re feeling swanky. You can stop payment at any time.
It’s quick and easy to sign up and you’ll only have to do it once.
An account by The Naked Rugby Players, which aims to raise awareness of male cancers and body positivity, on the Facebook-owned Instagram platform has been threatened with removal after it uploaded two pictures from its 2020 calendar featuring the LGBT+ Rugby club, Chester Centurions.
The two pictures in question featured no actual nudity and were cropped inline with Instagram’s no genital policy.
This isn’t the first time that Instagram has pulled, censored, deleted or threatened to delete an account over pictures of nearly naked men or men that are naked but have their genitals covered.
Screenshots shared by The Naked Rugby Players seen by THEGAYUK show that the account holders weren’t even permitted to lodge an appeal with Instagram and told that because there are fewer reviewers due to the coronavirus outbreak, one of the largest companies in the world, Facebook, wouldn’t be able to review the post.
The two images in question complied with Instagram’s “Nudity or sexual activity guideline” and did not show genitals, or “close-up of fully-nude buttocks”.
In fact take a look at them here.
Fans were quick to defend the calendar and accused Instagram of being “prudish” and “ridiculous” and that their deletion of images of men happened all too often.
We have reported that Instagram has blocked numerous gay male accounts for images that it says breaks its policies, such as porn star Brent Everett, meat Magazine, Celebrity Master Chef winner Riyadh Khalaf however, it seemingly has set a double standard, by allowing singer Lizzo and Kim Kardashian to keep, to name a couple, fully nude pictures published on the platform.
After THEGAYUK.com reached out to Instagram for comment on the picture removals, the two posts in question were restored as well as a number of other pictures which had been deleted by the social network in the past.
Facebook told THEGAYUK that it’s ‘investigating’ the issue.
The Naked Rugby Players 2021 Unseen Bits calendar is now available to order.
October 20th Staceyann Chin
Let’s have another black LGBT+ icon. Today it’s Staceyann Chin, a spoken word poet, performing artist and LGBT+ activist.
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During Dan Wootton‘s drive time live Talk Radio show, Labour MP, Chris Bryant called Wootton a “nutcase” and “dangerous” after Wootton said he believed in herd immunity as a way to control COVID-19.
The fiery exchange happened during Wootton’s evening show when Bryant was invited on to speak about the Welsh government’s decision to put Wales into a total lockdown for two weeks, but it soon descended into name-calling from the Labour MP for Rhondda, who branded the journalist a “nutcase”, and labelled his way of presenting radio as “tedious”. He also said that Wootton was dangerous and questioned his intelligence.
When Wootton asked what the Welsh government was hoping to achieve by a nationwide lockdown, Bryant retorted, “Well you don’t seem very bright” before outlining that hospitals in Wales were “rammed full”, when pushed Bryant admitted that his local ICU (Intensive Care Unit) was 75 per cent full, which according to Bryant, is double what it was in 2019.
He stated that the aim of the lockdown was to ensure that “the NHS isn’t overwhelmed”.
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However the real fireworks happened when Wootton asked about the idea of Herd Immunity, saying “You do understand that science has forever used herd immunity to deal with these corona viruses”
To which Bryant responded, “So you subscribe to herd immunity do you?”
Wootton answered, “yeah and protecting the vulnerable…”
Bryant then asked how you’d protect the vulnerable before stating, “you’re a nutcase, you’re a complete and utter nutcase and you’re dangerous as well”.
Wootton then banished Bryant from his show.
Watch the drama unfold here:
October 19th Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox is today’s black LGBT+ icon. She is an American actress and LGBT+ activist, probably best known for her role in Orange Is the New Black. She was the first openly trans person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in any acting category.
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An LGBT+ bar in Wales has said that a two-week lockdown enforced by the Welsh government “isn’t that bad” and has said that it made it through the first one and it will make through the next.
From the 23rd of October Wales will place all its citizens in a strict lockdown for 17 days in order to reduce the rising cases of coronavirus in the nation.
The bar’s owners added that they would do their best to keep all its clientele updated and revealed that they have planned a whole two weeks of Facebook Live shows, including a Halloween Special on the 31st October.
With reported cases of COVID-19 rising across the country, the devolved governments of the UK are permitted to enact whatever policy they see fit to bring the number of Covid-19 cases down.
Back in March, the whole of the UK was placed in lockdown, about the only time that the UK, Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh government have had a coherent approach to dealing with the pandemic.
The economic fallout of lockdown has seen thousands of businesses close across the UK, with hundreds of thousands of job losses. There have also been some casualties when it comes to the LGBT+ scene. At least one bar in Wales has closed permanently due to the ongoing crisis, while another said that it would be closing indefinitely.
We surveyed readers of THEGAYUK on whether they’d support a second “circuit breaker” lockdown. 58 per cent of readers said that they would support another lockdown, 30 per cent said they didn’t why the remaining 12 per cent said they were unsure.