This just in: Barry Humphries, better known as drag queen Dame Edna Everage, is total trash.
In a new interview with the Spectator, the subject of trans rights came up. When asked his opinion on the matter, the Australian comedian deplorable replied, “Terrible rat-baggery!”
84-year-old Humphries then went on to call being trans a “fashion–how many different kinds of lavatory can you have?” before adding, “And it’s pretty evil when it’s preached to children by crazy teachers.”
Twitter has responded to the comments accordingly:
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Uh uh. No Barry, you are a fashion, and you’re WAY out of style. https://t.co/3viOz56VII
— Zoe Coombs Marr (@zoecoombsmarr) July 20, 2018
Barry Humphries retire bitch
— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) July 20, 2018
Barry Humphries is a female impersonator rather than being a @RuPaul drag queen on @RuPaulsDragRace. He is a heterosexual man who puts on women's clothes as a costume to create his Dame Edna Everage character. As such, he lacks empathy towards those who are transgender.
— Michael Bednarski (@mikebednarski) July 20, 2018
I mean I knew Barry Humphries was a dumbass but my god he’s a fucking dumbass
— ?Midge? (@MargaretLucyy) July 20, 2018
But this isn’t the first times Humphries has attacked trans women.
In 2016, he called Caitlyn Jenner “self-mutilated” and a “publicity-seeking ratbag.”
“They had their genitalia chopped off and tucked in and whatever they had to do,” he added. “It’s all given the stamp–not of respectability, but authenticity or something. If you criticize anything you’re racist or sexist or homophobic.”
In that same interview, Humphries voiced his undying support of Donald Trump.
“I’m grateful to Trump for stirring up politics,” he said. “And I won’t be joining any marches against him.”
Related: Caitlyn Jenner spotted in “Make America Great Again” hat days after Trump’s transphobic attack
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Josh447
Pretty correct on his points. Though I don’t think Jenner deserves the attention seeking label.
If trans women described themselves as trans women and not women I think that would be more accurate to describe themselves.
spiralx
It could be – but then you start getting into labels for everything, don’t you. Is that a good, or even a useful, approach to take?
It always annoys me when headlines or articles say “gay actor (so-and-so), but they wouldn’t dream of saying “straight actor!.
Same here. Whether trans or cis, biologically you’re a woman. That’s the way you were born. The fact that you may have had to alter your body through surgery because it didn’t get the message, is no different to female cis models starving themselves to meet an ideal, or cis women going on diets (or yes, getting surgery – breast or cheek implants, for example). Is it?
brianlange
I agree Nothing worse than a world class male athlete wearing a tight pair of jeans and a size 15 pair of stilettos. He is so insulated from the real world his opinion is meaningless
spiralx
Are you sure you’re not confusing Barry Humphries with Dame Edna?
Edna famously never recognised her son was gay. She treated her bridesmaid with wonderful contempt (“The badge, Madge!”). Trashing trans people, and supporting Trump, would be entirely in line with her belief system!
tham
I heard that he retired from the stage years ago because he started to suffer from dementia.
I think this interview clears that up.
Mick406
Good ole Barry. Whether the comments came from him or through Dame Edna, he was on the mark.
He also has this other male persona he plays . . . I think it is an aging English ex-politician. He has this giant penis running down his leg and it sometimes moves when he is in dialogue with women. The man is a genius.
tham
I think you’re playing fast and hard with the term “genius”
You agree with a person with dementia…good to know.
john.k
You might be thinking of Sir Les Patterson the “Australian Cultural attache” who is always durunk and ill-dressed.
Gordon of the Bassets
I am an old – but not quite as old as Humphries – Australian. I have been watching his performances for nigh on 60 years.
Humphries is and always has been rich, White-privileged, entitled and politically Right Wing. At his private Anglican (for Americans, Episcopalian) school, Camberwell Grammar School, he was considered to be homosexual. His regular limousine driver in Sydney understood him to be mostly so, in spite of the marriages and children. The homosexual component of his personality is clearly of the self-loathing kind. This may explain his alcoholism.
He is racist and was always overtly so in his Australian stage shows. His treatment of non-white audience members was appalling. (“Colour and movement, that’s all they want and understand.”)
Sir Les Patterson is a caricature of a sort of working-class Catholic Australian Labor Party politician someone from the Right Wing of Left politics as it is undertood in Australia. Whilst Edna is who Humphries most wants to be, and he has affection for Sandy Stone, working-class and left and Catholic are all things that Humphries hates with a vengeance.
He is not a nice person.
Sir Les Patterson is
OzJosh
There’s zero suggestion that Humphries is a Trump supporter. He’s merely acknowledging that Trump has disrupted things and angered people – and any comedian is going to see that as fertile ground for comedy
rodzilla
gee, nobody asked for my opinion so here it is…
dear everyone, please don’t let this mean a##hole of a performer bother you. and i wonder how
many times when a baby is born and their sex organs are still kind of ambiguous. the doctor ain’t
gonna say,”congrats! you gave birth to a 5 lb 6 oz WHATSIT!” in these cases, the new parents don’t
want to answer when asked by a myriad of family and friends WHAT DID YOU HAVE? BOY OR
GIRL?, “well we hope to find out in another 11 or 12 years, after they reach puberty.” so i would think
the doctor picks one and that’s what ends up on the birth certificate. and since 50% of all doctors
graduate in the bottom half of their class, they are often wrong. and in my not so humble opinion,
whether u have a blank or a blank OR BOTH that is exactly what u should have. and i don’t want to
give away the ending of the story of your life but one of you are going to find the cure for both cancer
AND racism so don’t you waste one moment of your precious life worrying about what some cranky
old performer thinks. apparently he is a self-hating closet case who probably sh*ts himself. poor old thing!
gymmuscleboy
He’s pretty much right. And all his opponents have to say is that he’s a dumbass, out of style, a bitch… it’s pathetic.
tham
It’s not that he’s a dumbass..he suffers from dementia. It happens with age.
Congratulations, you agree with someone who suffers from memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning.
Sounds about right.
jjunke
Barry Humphries has always been an arch conservative but he is now 84. Why bother commenting on what this old man, a child/man of the 1940’s/ 50’s has to say? He’s entitled to his opinion and leave it at that. Not worth reporting on really.
okbye
I have no issue with trans people and I also have no issue with Caitlyn Jenner being called a publicity seeking rat bag. Those two things do not have to be related.
It does strike me as odd though. I have read a couple of his “memoirs” as Dame Edna and he usually has a ‘do whatever you like and mind your own business’ philosophy. I don’t think he was like this before. Maybe he is losing the plot as he gets old.
Alex
Always disappointing to see so much transphobia in the Queerty comments. As a trans person, I will always be there for my LGB brothers and sisters. It’s sad that many of them won’t have my back in return, and it’s sad seeing bigotry from the very people you’d think would understand what it’s like to be hated and mocked for who you are. “Nobody is born gay, it’s a choice” and “Nobody is actually trans, they’re just playing dress-up” are the same ignorant nonsense. A little more love and a little less closed-minded hypocrisy would be nice.
Cylest Brooks
I have deleted some comments and banned at least one member bc of transphobic language on this thread. I am sorry that you had to read those comments… they were disgusting.
JoeyRamone
Love him. He’s hysterical. Who cares what he thinks. Not everyone has to tow the political line. But ever day is Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” on this site’s comment thread, with neutered grannie gurls and unemployed de-gendered graduates from overpriced gender studies programs. As the plane crashes. . . the clowns fight over the in-flight movie.
Bob LaBlah
Lol Lol Lol The Lottery is one of the few short stories that I have read at least ten times because of its suspense and climatic ending. Another good one was Truman Capote’s “My Side of the Matter” that had me in stitches every time I read it. I had an Aunt Eunice with as ass just as wide as he described hers in the book. lol lol
As for Mr. Humphries I say this. Honey, I agree with you. You are twenty-four years older than me but I am in your corner. A lot has happened and I think a lot of it went too fast and too far. Blame my midwestern upbringing for it.
vanessak69
I haven’t really followed him, but I heard him interviewed a few years ago and he’s a serious book collector, so I thought he must be ok if he likes books so much. That was wrong.
(How do you like books and Trump both?)
The transphobia is and will always be gross. And so is the transphobia on this thread.
Kevan1
Boy that was a bridge he should not have burned. I guess people do get old and set in their lack of informed ways.
Kevan1
Cylest Brooks why do you not erase the advertisement I see someone keeps putting in the forum about making money?
brianlange
Well seems like she was posses because she was getting shade so she is returning the favor. Was she in character? That is something Came E.E. Cut him a break! The guy is 84. These queens give no one a break.