It’s fair to say Twitter / X has been rocked by many, many changes since Elon Musk bought and took it over, but one of the rumours currently circulating the mill is that Musk is thinking about charging for access.
This got us thinking, what will the gays do if X starts to charge?
We put that question to our followers and it looks as though there could be a mass exodus from the platform if a paywall were to be installed.
We asked the question: If X starts charging for usage will you… and we offered two answers, Pay up and Leave. So far as of publishing the overwhelming majority (currently over 90%) of our followers chose the Leave option.
So if X / Twitter starts charging for usage, will you
Ah new emoji day, it’s never not controversial as emoji designers add new graphics and look to increase diversity and inclusion in those little pictures we all take for granted.
At one time every emoji that depicted a human was yellow. Families were depicted as one man, one woman and one child. Firefighters were male and nurses were female. It was just a sea of yellow, now however most people emojis have multiple choices because only The Simpsons are yellow in real life.
In the latest update to the world of emojis, dozens of new pictures have been added to the Android 11.0 set, including one with a man wearing a white veil, holding a small bunch of flowers.
Mixed reaction
The review from social media users was a mix of derision and confusion it’s fair to say.
One person asked, “How do I downgrade to version 10”
Another added, “Oh the gays will have a field day with this one”
While others were celebrating the rise of the femboy. Femboy started off as a derogatory term for effeminate guys in the 1990s however it has become more widely accepted as a positive term which rails against toxic masculinity, according to Urban Dictionary.
We’ve just had Pride month and along with that thousands of corporate entities adopted the iconic rainbow symbol, hundreds sent their well-wishes to the LGBT+ community but even fewer actively call out bigotry unlike the Post Office, which managed to deal with homophobic bigotry levelled at its staff in the most perfect way.
In a Twitter post published by the Post Office official account on the 19th June, the Post Office’s Chief Marketing Officer Emma Springham, shared her “journey to pride”, to which one user, @jamesmc13123269 responded with “Degenerate”.
This attack on Emma didn’t go unnoticed by Courtney from the office who called out the bigotry saying,
“Do you honestly think it’s okay to speak about my colleague like that? Your comment is absolutely disgusting. You don’t know Emma personally to even comment on the type of woman she is, so please don’t respond unless you have something positive to say”
Do you honestly think it's okay to speak about my colleague like that? Your comment is absolutely disgusting. You don't know Emma personally to even comment on the type of woman she is, so please don't respond unless you have something positive to say 👍 – Courtney
While another user complained about the use of the rainbow flag saying, “It is not right to quit-claim something that belongs to all mankind.”
However this complaint was expertly handled by Stephen, who replied,
“The rainbow flag represents the diversity and vibrancy of the LGBTQ+ community which we’re proud to celebrate as it gives us the chance to reaffirm the equality, rights and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community in the UK and beyond.”
The rainbow flag represents the diversity and vibrancy of the LQBTQ+ community which we’re proud to celebrate as it gives us the chance to reaffirm the equality, rights and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community in the UK and beyond. – Stephen
One user who used the word faggots against was also taken to task, when the comm team tweet a poll which asked, “Should we continue listening to language like this? and included “Absolutely Not” and “No” as the only two options.
Should we continue listening to language like this?
The Father Ted creator has been suspended from Twitter after apparently tweeting about transgender people.
The author, who Tweets a lot about gender issues, has been apparently suspended from Twitter, just a week after he briefly had his Blue verification tick removed, which was in response to accusing an LGBT+ group of “grooming”. However, Twitter said the removal of his verification was a mistake and later restore it.
His account now has been removed from Twitter entirely, like the suspension of Katie Hopkins, who was removed from the platform entirely early this month.
Linehan’s account suspension comes after he allegedly tweeted “men aren’t women tho”, a response to the Women’s Institute, who wished all their trans members a happy pride.
The WI is a place which welcomes and celebrates all women. As we near toward the end of #PrideMonth, we would like to wish a Happy Pride to all our transgender members.
— Women's Institute (@WomensInstitute) June 25, 2020
Linehan revealed that he been locked out of his account numerous times and “forced to delete tweets” in order to gain full access to his account.
The writer has submitted an appeal with Twitter and the Better Business Bureau.
A post, purportedly from Lineham on Mumsnet, said,
“Recently, I keep being locked out of my account and forced to delete tweets to get back in. The latest tactic by trans rights activists is to run a search for any time I’ve used the word ‘groomer’, a phrase Twitter recently decided was Not Allowed
He continued,
“Twitter has a high percentage of trans-identified employees and for some time has been silencing feminists and their allies who run afoul of its absurd ‘misgendering’ policies. The one good thing about my situation is that I’m in great company–Claire Graham, Meghan Murphy, Skylar Gwynn, Miranda Yardley, GNC Centric and many more, important feminist and critical voices who have been silenced for fighting a dangerous ideology that tells children it’s possible to be born into the wrong body.”
Twitter confirmed that Linehan’s account “has been permanently suspended after repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation”.
Katie Hopkins has used her last mainstream social platform, Instagram, to share the reason why Twitter suspended her account, which had grown to over 1.1 million followers.
According to Hopkins, Twitter had said that it had only “suspended” her.
In a quick video on the platform, Hopkins shared the contents of the tweet, which was the final nail in her Twitter coffin, in which she used the phrase, she claims was from the BBC / Rowan Atkinson comedy, Blackadder, “Hung like a baboon”.
It was in answer to a Tweet from Rugby player Ashton Hewitt who called Hopkins “fucking toxic”.
A spokesperson from Twitter said, “Keeping Twitter safe is a top priority for us – abuse and hateful conduct have no place on our service and we will continue to take action when our rules are broken.
“In this case, the account has been permanently suspended for violations of our hateful conduct policy.”
The former reality star (Apprentice, Celebrity Big Brother) has had her twitter account permanently suspended for violating Twitter’s policies.
Hopkins has lost a number of jobs and positions due to her controversial nature and comments. In May 2017 her contract with the radio station LBC was ripped up and both the Daily Mail and The Sun, for whom she wrote columns for, also failed to renew contracts with her.
In recent times Hopkins has turned her attention to transgender issues, regularly commenting on the LGBT+ rights movement.
In January 2019 she published a limerick which included a transphobic slur aimed at Humberside police after the force revealed that they would always investigate reports of potential hate crime, which includes transphobia.
If you’ve not heard of the #NakedBoyfriendChallenge yet – it’s because it’s yet to truly take off, but we really need it to.
Are you starting to get a little antsy due to the current lockdown? Have you managed to cut your own hair and have you Marie Kondo’d your entire house? Then this challenge might be the rest-bite from boredom you need from those long, drawn-out days.
If you look up #NakedBoyfriendChallenge on Twitter you’ll only get a couple of hits at the time of us publishing this article, but we’re hoping that will all change soon.
So what is the #NakedBoyfriendChallenge? It’s actually a really simple challenge to undertake and it’s perfect while we’re currently in the current coronavirus lockdown.
Simply, all you need to do in order to take part is to film yourself walking in on your boyfriend whilst you’re in nothing but your birthday suit and film his reaction to your nakedness.
Twitter user, The OrangeFrog86 recently decided to do the challenge and walked in on his boyfriend, who was innocently playing on his computer and the result was hilarious.
His boyfriend, who was playing a game on his computer, barely looked away from the screen but did crack a smile, before returning to the screen. When OrangeFrog86 enquired, “is that it? … I’m naked”, his boyfriend replied, “when are you not naked?”.
So, grab your phone, get naked and walk in on your boyfriend at an unexpected moment and don’t forget to tag the results with #NakedBoyfriendChallenge.
In past years, the Oscars have come under fire for being too white with the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag trending to blast the organisation for its lack of diversity. This year people are saying it’s too white, too male and too straight.
#OscarSoWhite became a headlining story in 2015.
This year, it seems is the LGBT+ community’s time to shout about how undiverse the nominations are, along with how male and white the nominations appear to be.
Across Twitter people have been blasting the Oscars for the lack of LGBT+ (or more specifically how cis and heteronormative the award nominations are in 2020.
“Boycotting”
Fans of the show have sworn off this year’s show, with some suggesting that the organisation hadn’t learned from previous years.
I guess the Oscars haven't learned any lessons from their past decisions. I'm boycotting this year's #OscarsSoStraight
However, Antonio Banderas is up for Leading Actor for his performance in Pain And Glory. And Rocketman receives one nomination for Best Original Song.
No Nomination for Rocketman
Taron Egerton as Elton John in Rocketman from Paramount Pictures.
One of the biggest omissions from this year’s “big category” nominations was the widely acclaimed Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton.
The Dorian Award from the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics has shortlisted 6 LGBT+ films for its awards including, Booksmart, End of the Century, Pain and Glory, Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Rocketman.
Is your relationship on the rocks? Was 2019 a tough year, research has shown that people are rowing about what their other after is posting online!
Just under half of all Brits admit they have secretly checked their partner’s Facebook account and one in five went on to row about what they discovered, new research has revealed.
One in seven said they had contemplated divorce because of their other halves activities on Facebook, Skype, Snapchat, Twitter or WhatsApp.
People are angry at the amount of posting their partners do
CREDIT: monkeybusinessimages-bigstock
Nearly a quarter or the 2,000 married Brits asked, said they had at least one argument a week with their partner because of social media use and 17 per cent said they rowed every day because of it.
The most common reasons for checking their partner’s social media accounts was to find out who their partner was talking to, to keep tabs on them, to check who they were out with and find out if they were telling the truth about their social life.
While 14 per cent said they looked specifically to identify evidence of infidelity.
The research was commissioned by family law specialists Slater and Gordon who have seen an increase in the number of people citing social media use as a cause of divorce year on year.
Andrew Newbury, head of family law at Slater and Gordon said:
“Social media can be a wonderful way of keeping in touch with family and friends, but it can also put added strain on a relationship.
“Five years ago Facebook was rarely mentioned in the context of a marriage ending, but now it has become common place for clients to cite social media use, or something they discovered on social media, as a reason for divorce.
“With more than 556 million people using Facebook each day, the way we live our lives, and our marriages, has drastically changed. We are finding that social media is the new marriage minefield.
“Social media, specifically pictures and posts on Facebook, are now being routinely raised in the course of divorce proceedings.”
It wasn’t just what their partner was doing on social media but also how long they spent on it that was likely to cause marital problems with Facebook usage topping the list of reasons couples argued over social media.
Arguments were also caused because of contact with an ex-partner, sending secret messages and posting inappropriate photos.
One in twenty even complained that their partner didn’t post any pictures of them together which made them upset.
Fifteen per cent of Brits considered social media to be dangerous to their marriage, with Facebook considered the most dangerous, followed by WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram.
But one in ten admitted they hid images and posts from their partner, while eight per cent admitted to having secret social media accounts.
A fifth of respondents said they felt uneasy about their relationship after discovering something on their partner’s Facebook. 43 per cent said they confronted their spouse immediately about this, but 40 per cent said it took them some time before they felt comfortable to raise it with their partner.
While a third said they kept their social media log-in details a secret from their partners, 58 per cent said they knew their partner’s log-in details, even if their spouse wasn’t aware they knew them.
Andrew Newbury, head of family law at Slater and Gordon said:
“Social media can also make a divorce more difficult. Divorce is already a stressful time for everyone involved and what is being posted on Facebook can antagonise families and make a speedy resolution more difficult to achieve.
“We are now actively advising our clients to be cautious when it comes to using Facebook and all forms of social media because of its potential to damage relationships.”
Five social media tips that could save your relationship.
1. Don’t post in anger.
Your post will be seen by all your friends, family and potentially millions of others. Even if you later delete your post, the damage will have been done.
2. Be respectful.
Don’t complain about your partner or other family members online.
3. Be transparent.
Check with your partner before you post images or information.
4. Check your privacy settings.
You might think someone can’t see a post when they actually can.
5. Take a break and enjoy the moment.
You don’t need to post everything on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
The tweet grew a large audience and quickly went viral with many people commenting about how true to life the Tweet felt, with at least one exclaiming “Oh my goodness – how accurate this observation is” while another admitted, “I feel like I fit excellently into many of these categories”
Although it did leave one or two questioning about what happens to gay who hit 40/50/60.
Of many people started to add their own thought about what subclasses should be added to the list including, travel gays and theatre gays and one asked, “Wait what about the farmers market / bake sourdough bread and give it to all your friends / raise chickens and sheep outside city limits gay”.
The tweet has over 20,000 likes, nearly 3,000 retweets and over 500 comments.
