Model and YouTube celebrity Gigi Loren Lazzarato, 24, better known as Gigi Gorgeous, was detained at Dubai International Airport on Tuesday, and denied entry because she is transgender.
Lazzarato made a video while still in the airport, detailing what she had just gone through, calling it “one of the scariest moments of my entire life.”
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After getting off the plane, Lazzarato said she ran into trouble while trying to go through security. She said she was first told that her passport couldn’t be stamped due to a broken machine, despite her having seen it working up to that point.
She said she was taken aside and waited while they had her passport for around two hours, which she reports having just renewed and updated.
“Finally, my bodyguard comes out and starts shaking his head at me,” Lazzarato said in the video. “And I said, ‘What are you shaking your head for? What is going on?’ Hes said, ‘You’ve been denied entry.'”
She said she was then informed by her bodyguard that she had been denied entry for being transgender, prompting a panic attack.
“I full on started balling. Sobbing my eyes out,” she said. “To the point where I was having, I thought an anxiety attack or panic attack or something. I’ve never felt this feeling before. I couldn’t breathe.”
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She explained that it felt like the world was closing in on her.
Lazarrato, who is Canadian, next went to immigration, where she said she was there for another two and a half to three hours. She said she asked her baggage lady, whom she said was helpful throughout the situation, and her bodyguard not to leave her.
“At that point I really was scared for my life,” she said.
Dubai Police claimed her passport listed her as male, but Lazarrato disputes that claim.
“I knew this kind of discrimination existed…but my girlfriend and I wanted to come here,” she said. “This just kind of proves that people like me are not welcome here. It doesn’t matter what you have changed on your passport. You are not welcome if you are transgender.”
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She called for the end of discrimination against transgender people in the United Arab Emirates.
Lazaratto reported sleeping in the hotel that night because she would have been arrested had she had stepped foot onto Dubai soil, before flying to Sweden with her girlfriend.
The video picks up from there, where she thanked a number of people for helping her during the situation, including her girlfriend’s mother, The United Nations Foundation, “people at the White House,” and the Prime Minister’s aide.
Lazaratto first gained attention with her makeup tutorials on YouTube, when she was still identifying as male, in 2008. She continued making videos after her transition and in January of 2015 her channel reached over one million subscribers. She has appeared on shows like Project Runway: All Stars and has been featured by the likes of People magazine and Entertainment Tonight. She has also worked on projects with fellow YouTube celeb Shane Dawson, as well as Miley Cyrus and Kylie Jenner.
Related: Popular YouTuber Shane Dawson Comes Out As Bi: “I Wished I Was Gay”
Dubai has strict laws against LGBTQ individuals, including a law against “men imitating women,” which can lead to jail time of six months to a year. In 2014, two Brazilian women were detained in Dubai and had their passports taken for being transgender.
Watch Lazarrato’s video below.
robho3
Wtf did she expect trying to go to a country like that? Next time honey maybe do a little research
Before traveling to the Middle East or watch the news.
lazlicious
Haha. such a drama queen.
crowebobby
What, no one telling her how lucky she was not to have been thrown off the highest building in the city? You’re losing your edge, guys.
DarkZephyr
@crowebobby: Amen. I’m sick of the a**hole comments that we see under queerty articles. I swear, some of the worst of the LGBT community comes here to comment and make us look like snarky, heartless, bigoted douche bags to the rest of the world.
ErikO
@robho3: Exactly. But it’s not some secret that Muslims hate bisexual and gay men, and a lot don’t like t r a n n i e s either. She’s lucky she was not stoned in public and I don’t mean her smoking herb or hash.
Chris
I quit right at:
“I knew this kind of discrimination existed…but my girlfriend and I wanted to come here,” she said.
What more needs be said. You knew it and still you went there.
I’m glad she wasn’t hurt physically. But her feelings are of no concern to me, not when she already knew what would happen.
Xzamilio
Yeah, I’d hate to look like a bigoted douchebag to archaic monsters still living in the Dark Ages and the regressives that defend them
Brian
Why is he visiting Dubai in the first place? Dubai is a homophobic backwater.
QJ201
But real whorish housewives and kunty kardashians… Come on down!!!!
asby
She is either really dumb…..or a real fame whore….If she knew what the country views towards LGBTQ’s where …. yet she still choose to head there ? She is trans going to a homophobic country with her girlfriend?…What is their next trip? Syria? Iraq? Nigeria?
ErikO
@asby: Iran?
lazlicious
This is the best thing to happen to this guy with tits. I never heard of this person before this and I’ll bet most people hadn’t heard of her. What I would like to know is how does she earn money? She said something about booking a private jet out of there. That would cost tens of thousands of dollars. I’d also like to know what she was really planning to do in Dubai.
Hussain-TheCanadian
Well I’m scratching Dubai off of my travel list; last time I went there it was nice but if this is how they’re going to treat transsexual woman then I’m sure they don’t need LGBT money either.
I find it hilarious that a country rife with prostitution and drugs act moral when it comes to transsexuals.
Dave Downunder
While it can be argued that people should be able to travel the world with out prejudice or persecution if you are going to tempt fate like this you have nobody to blame but yourself. Glad she is safe and all but seriously what a silly move.
Mo Bro
If her passport didn’t classify her as male, then why would they have detained her for being trans?
Busted.
SnakeyJ
All done for publicity. Did she really think she’d be let into that country? I’d never go. i”m surprised that women PERIOD go there. She’s acting like she didn’t know that country was prejudice against LGBT’s OR that she has a RIGHT to go wherever she wants. Both ideas are stupid.
not a clone
why choose to go there? lucky they did not lock her up
notevenwrong
@snakeyjay, you are wrong. She absolutely has a right to be free of discrimination wherever she may go in the world. That many countries (including the U.S., by the way, who does worse than this with many refugees) refuse to recognize and enforce certain basic human rights is not the fault of the victims.
Xzamilio
@notevenwrong: Evidence? You obviously have evidence that the US does worse than this with refugees, right?
leobaga
Just shows there’s a lot of disgusting Hillary supporters here full of hate. Gigi did a great job in exposing Dubai for what it is – a homophobic country that we should all boycott. And yet, all you queers are blaming her. Sick people you are just like corrupt Hillary who accepts bribes from Muslim countries like this shithole Dubai.
tardis
@leobaga: Exposing Dubai? We all know Dubai’s track records for LGBT people. Why is she going to Dubai in the first place? It’s common sense. No one is blaming her. People are just pointing out what a poor decision that was.
asby
@ErikO: BBC did a story on Transsexuals in Iran..Called “be like others” on youtube ..It is “accepted” and even paid for by the state…As “accepted” as being gay can be over there ….If you are gay ..You pretty much have 2 options….Hide the fact that you are gay…Or have a sex change..Even though you may not even be trans
viveutvivas
@Xzamilio, read any newspaper.
viveutvivas
Actually I have to amend this. Read any moderately reputable newspaper, like the NYT.
ErikO
@lazlicious: She is probably a puta the way a lot of trans-women are or have been at one time.
Stache
@leobaga: Ha. Another hate Hillary troll. I’m really sure you care about Gigi’s welfare.
SnakeyJ
@notevenwrong: @notevenwrong: It’s her fault for going to a country that does not recognize her as a person. Any country could make their own rules, and she was well aware of what she was getting into. So acting surprised and indignant is just ridiculous. Just because you think everyone “should” be accepting, doesn’t make it so. She does not have the right to move around the globe freely, none of us do. Any country could deny you entry for a whole bunch of reasons.
Will L
@Chris: Isn’t that the truth. She could have been killed because she just wanted to go there anyway. Real life is not a theme park. Their country, their rules. Those are not the waters you want to test just to make a silly ass political statement.
Louis
Sighs once again the total insensitivity and callousness of this community rears its incredibly ugly head.
We expect TOLERANCE yet half of you cant show tolerance to this young WOMAN SHE not HE show some respect…if that is half of you are actually capable of doing so to begin with.
From the looks of some of these comments that is definitely in serious question.
leobaga
@Louis: very well said. I’m 100% sure Most of these hateful queers are Hillary supporters. A bunch of scums.