Lorraine Kelly epically shut down Sharron Davies after former Olympian compared drag to blackface
Lorraine Kelly dragged up for Attitude Magazine as Morning Gloria.
Queen of daytime TV and Drag Race UK guest host Lorraine Kelly has come out swinging in defence of the gays, in response to Sharron Davies’ comments about being “fed up” of drag and comparing it to blackface.
Lorraine shut down former Olympic swimmer Davies after she tweeted, “Am I the only person fed up of drag shows? A parody of what a real woman is, like black face.”
Apparently without irony, Davies went on to offer her own caricature of what it is to be a woman: “Woman are juggling kids, rushing out a wholesome dinner, doing the laundry & cleaning, holding down a job all with period pains & leaky boobs if breast feeding.”
Lorraine – who recently dragged up and explained the term “power bottom” for Attitude magazine’s “activists and allies” issue – was quick to put Davies in her place.
“Oh Sharon. You can’t underestimate the power of drag and how it empowers people who often feel like outsiders – they can find their family, grow in confidence, learn to love themselves and be who they really are,” she said.
“It can literally save lives. And it’s such a lot of FUN!”
Thank you @reallorraine for standing with us. People dont see how powerful Drag is. Providing not only entertainment but support to a community that often feels a minority and has alot of internal struggles just as much as external. Xx
— Miss Dixie Swallows (@DixieSwallows) December 23, 2019
Davies had tweeted in support of JK Rowling, who’s currently embroiled in a row over her anti-trans views.
Rowling had tweeted in support of Maya Forstater, a “gender-critical” woman who lost a court case last week in which she’d tried to claim her “gender-critical” views – including calling trans women men and comparing using non-binary people’s pronouns to taking date-rape drug rohypnol – should be protected by UK equalities law.
The judge said Forstater’s views on transgender people are “not worthy of respect in a democratic society”.
Lorraine is a vocal supporter of the LGBT+ community and a staunch trans ally, recently saying that she’s “very uncomfortable” with the current trend of broadcasters inviting anti-trans commentators on-air to “debate” trans equality.
“I don’t like it and I don’t think it gets us anywhere,” Lorraine said.
“Because those people that are entrenched will not change their points of view, sadly, and sometimes it’s almost an ambush,” she added.
“I think what’s going on with trans people just now is kind of what the gay community went through years ago,” Kelly said.
“One would like to hope that it will get better, but in the meantime we’ve got people having a s**t time… just because they want to be the person that they’re supposed to be. And God, don’t we all deserve that?”
