Dame Edna Comedy Award to Be Renamed After Transphobic Comments
Dame Edna, the alter ego of drag performer Barry Humphries, has been making audiences laugh for decades with her over-sized cat-eye glasses and her love of gladiolas. But following remarks Humphries made in which he called trans women “mutilated men,” a prestigious comedy award named in his honor, is getting a new name, according to BBC News.
While the Melbourne Comedy Festival organizers have not announced what the award’s new name will be, they have said it will no longer hand out the Barry Award to up-and-coming comics and that Humphries's anti-trans comments “definitely played a part” in the decision.
Humphries came under fire for his anti-trans statements in 2016, and after blowback, apologized. But he has since expressed other transphobic sentiments, including saying just last year that identifying as transgender is “a fashion.”
Humphries, who was 81 at the time of the 2016 remarks, was agreeing with noted trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) Germaine Greer when he said of trans women, “You’re a mutilated man, that’s all. Self-mutilation, what’s all this carry on? Caitlyn Jenner — what a publicity-seeking ratbag.”
https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2019/4/16/dame-edna-comedy-award-be-renamed-after-transphobic-comments
