Muammar Al Khadafi

Nigeria Super Phobes (oops Super Falcons) head coach Eucharia Uche made some startling comments during the recent 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in which she claimed during a June 26 press conference she removed lesbians off her team.

There was a subsequent June 29 meeting between Uche and FIFA's head of women's competitions Tatjana Haenni in which the anti discrimination policy was reiterated to her, and the Nigeria Football Federation made it clear she was still their coach for the time being.


At the same time this was blowing up, an Allout.org sponsored petition drive was gathering over 45,000 signatures and organizing a 'Give The Red Card To Homophobia' protest before the Women's World Cup semifinal game in Frankfurt urging FIFA to attack homophobia in the game with the same zeal they do racism in 'the beautiful game'.

The International Gay and Lesbian Football Association, the Federation of Gay Games and ALLOut.org jointly wrote a letter to FIFA President Sepp Blatter concerning the Uche situation.

FIFA and its affiliated organisations are to be commended for the kinds of strong measures taken against racism in football. Unfortunately we have not yet seen the same commitment to take action against homophobia. It is long overdue for FIFA to apply its own rules regarding discrimination, and help insulate the sport from ideological and religious interference that infringes on players rights.

That it is. The IGLFA and AllOut.org wrote press releases that were picked up in other parts of the Gayosphere claiming that a FIFA investigation of Uche has been launched, but the Federation of Gay Games says otherwise.

The Federation of Gay Games asserts on their FB page she's not being investigated, and had this to say.

Contrary to the press release from our friends at AllOut, cosigners of the letter to FIFA to which Jérôme Valcke has now (more than two months later) replied, FIFA has not decided to investigate the lesbophobic behavior of Nigerian women's football club Eucharia Uche.

We quote:

"Thus, in the event the FIFA Disciplinary Committee considers having enough evidence to be in a position to open proceedings, it will not fail to do so with the assistance of the FIFA administration."

We are puzzled by FIFA's request for us to provide information, as it is clear in our letter that the information provoking our letter came from the press. We do hope that FIFA will look into those sources, and eagerly await news of any investigation.

But we're not holding our breath...

Neither am I.  Nigeria's Super Falcons are in the middle of a two leg playoff for the remaining 2012 London Olympic Games women's qualifying tournament with Cameroon. 

They won the first leg 2-1 and play Cameroon on October 22 to decide who gets that other African qualifying spot.  

If there were any FIFA investigation of Uche, it would be big news in Nigeria, on the African continent, the FIFA website, the Confederation of African Football one and any site on the Net that tracks international football.   So far all I've been able to detect is cricket chirping silence on the issue.

I said this when I wrote about the controversy back on July 7:  

This situation with Uche admitting that she forced lesbians off the squad cries out for sanctions, but the likelihood of that happening is about the same as a certain appletini chugging gay rights orgs in the States hiring a transperson to run it.  

And so far, both scenarios are playing out.

If you white transpeople (and cis people) wanna hate on drag queens, leave the inaccurate over the top 'it's just like blackface' rhetoric out of it.    That's appropriation of my people's history, disrespectful and not applicable.

Blackface was specifically designed to denigrate, demean and dehumanize African Americans, hence the name for the those performances that started in the 1830's. 

I get it some of y'all have problems with drag queens and have a foaming at the mouth hatred for certain types of drag queens.   But just as you hate it when people consider all trans people the same, we have to be just as respectful of the fact that not all drag queens are monolithic in their behavior either.

I'm bringing up this point again because of something that unexpectedly blew up as I was innocently web surfing this morning..  I was reading a comment on Kelli Busey's FB feed concerning this DC Metroweekly article that caught my attention because of the hatin' on drag queens and inaccurately linking it to blackface.  

If you read the original article, you'll note drag queens aren't even mentioned.. Now on to the fauxgressive fail.

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Madisyn Barbosa I hate dragqueens. its blackface for transwomen. the only thing worse that dragqueens are transvestite fetish sick bastards

Monica Roberts ‎@Madisyn...Drag is NOT 'blackface for transwomen'....That's problematic for African American transpeople to mischaracterize it that way.

She repeated the following comment twice.
Madisyn Barbosa Yes dragqueens are blackface for transwomen. they mock . nuff said.

I messed up the comment I meant to post I immediately behind this one and deleted it for revision.  I wanted there to be no mistaking what I was about to say next in response to the double dip of fail. .

Madisyn Barbosa Okay so its twice as worse.

Mx Tam Pax Do drag kings mock transmen? Or is that something different?

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And this is the one I intended to follow up her double dip of fail

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Monica Roberts ‎@No Madisyn...That's your white privilege talking that ignores the painful history of blackface...it's not even close and you wouldn't be saying that BS if you were African American

Monica Roberts ‎@Madisyn...Explain in longer than a sentence, how drag is 'twice as 'worse than blackface'?

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You know the old saying..give somebody enough rope and they'll hang themselves.  Here's where Madisyn begins to tie the noose and drape it around her neck..

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Madisyn Barbosa Im not white. im spaniard. shows how much you judge people by the color... tsk tsk stupid girl.


Madisyn Barbosa

Monica Roberts Blackface mocks, denigrates and dehumanizes a specific ethnic group...therefore it is inaccurate to say that a drag queen performance is 'just like blackface' when there are ranges of drag performances.

Madisyn Barbosa id be upset to if i had your face. but thats the way the world is...the unpassable will always hate on the beautiful...hate away monica hate away...prove me wrong....

Ambalika Williams Sounds like someone is completely ignorant in the drag subculture (queer theory lesson much needed here). Oh and a black history lesson would be wise too.

Madisyn Barbosa I dont need to know jackshit about dragculture or queer lessons im a straight girl. im better than that.

Before I had a chance to blast her on that one...Ambalika beat me to it.....

Ambalika Williams So ur homophobic and you like to talk about issues you don't know jack shit about. Plus you admit it. WOW! Much respect for admitting your total lack of knowledge.


Mx Tam Pax And yet lots of trans people have phases in their lives of exploring their gender in different communities and areas, including drag, cross-dressers, two-spirit, berdache, kathoey, hijra and queer communities.. Sounds like kicking ourselves overall this specific kind of transphobic hating..

Madisyn Barbosa All drag is a joke. i dont care what kind of performers they are. caking on clown makeup and lipsyncing is not performance nor talent. anyone can do it. dont think youre some kind of awesome because gayclubs make you feel like a celebrity when you have no actual talent.

Mx Tam Pax ‎*whoops too much info, y'all can google the terms above to find out more..

Monica Roberts

Monica Roberts ‎@Madisyn...trying to call a Black woman ugly because you are intellectually outgunned by her is another manifestation that you have white privilege....My suitors would dispute your less than scientific impression..

Mx Tam Pax bizarrely sounding like phrases used to beat on trans women now "you think you're a real woman, you're a freak, you're nothing special, you're just a gay man in a dress, you're a pervert wearing too much make-up..." which often leads to violent hate crime..

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I'm going to skip down to the money post by Jami Ward....


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Jami Ward