Cape Town - Johannesburg Pride has issued a statement calling on DStv to suspend Zodwa Wabantu: Uncensored "with immediate effect," following homophobic and transphobic references made by the local entertainer.
Furthermore, Johannesburg Pride appealed to the Feather Awards to strip Zodwa Wabantu of her Drama Queen of The Year honour awarded in 2017.
On a recent episode of Zodwa Wabantu: Uncensored on DStv's Moja Love, Zodwa, said: "Gays are silly because they are fighting with women. Name one gay who has never fought with a woman in the industry. Their problem is that gays are convinced that they have vaginas, while they have penises.
However Zodwa has denied claims that she is homophobic, telling the Sowetan that she has more than 20 gay friends. "Even my designer is gay," she said.
She added that she was talking about her friends, and that she calls it as she sees it.
"We accommodate you guys because you wear make-up and when we, as women, talk about men you're always there contributing to the conversation," she added.
In what has infuriated the entire LGBTQ+ community, Johannesburg Pride has taken a firm stand against the statements as the group believes them to be both homophobic and transphobic in sentiment.
As an advocacy group that is actively working on creating a positive stance for the LGBTQ+ME community, Johannesburg Pride labelled the utterances "disrespectful and offensive," promoting discrimination and encouraging of hate crimes particularly towards the trans community.
"In our tireless efforts to deconstruct stereotypes, we view these statements as degenerative and damaging to the continuous struggle for equality," the statement said.
Johannesburg Pride reached out to DSTV Content Managers to consider Zodwa Wabantu's statements as hate speech and suspend her show with immediate effect pending investigation, saying: "We understand her show is uncensored however DSTV need to be mindful of the hate it is promoting." Moreover, Johannesburg Pride appealed to the Feather Awards to strip Zodwa Wabantu of her Award issued in 2017.
"This must be a lesson to all media personalities and influencers to be mindful of how they conduct themselves and what they say," the group said.
"In our continued effort to uplift the LGBTQ+ME community, we cannot downplay this. We need to remember Our constitution of the Republic of South Africa recognizes and protects the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer Citizens," Johanneburg Pride added.
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