Ever wonder what it would be like if the LGBT community ruled the world? Well, GLAAD Award-winner Tyra Banks wondered too, so yesterday on her show she conducted a little “social experiment” called “The Gay Kingdom.” Six members of the LGBT community — who identified themselves as: “masculine gay man,” “transgendered woman,” “butch lesbian,” “drag queen,” “feminine gay man,” “bisexual man,” and “lipstick lesbian” — volunteered to vote on and role play a LGBT social hierarchy, and discuss the results on Tyra show.
I did not there were issues inside the LGBT community. I always thought it was just the straight people against the “gay” and “lesbian” community. The task of The Gay Kingdom was to assign the following roles to each of the participants: king, queen, pauper, jester, cook, villain, concubine.
There was conflict from the beginning when the drag queen took the role of the moderator. The first role to be determined was the king. The masculine gay man automatically thought he should be king because he was the stereotypical king figure. The butch lesbian also thought she should be king because she too could show strength and vulnerability. And the bisexual man because he is on top! All members voted that the masculine gay male should be king!
The next role to be determine was the queen. The drag queen, the lipstick lesbian and the feminine gay male all wanted to be queen. The lipstick lesbian won the vote because she is normal according to society according to her.
The other roles were doled out as follows: the butch lesbian was made villain; the drag queen was voted jester; the feminine gay man was relegated to kitchen duty as cook; the bisexual man was chosen as the pauper; the transgendered woman was made concubine.
During the whole show nearly everyone took a shot at the bisexual man telling him that he doesn’t belong and show be ashamed of himself because he needs to pick a side (gay or straight).
Tyra noted that feminine gay men are often represented on television, but it’s very rare to see a butch lesbian portrayed. Hedda Lettuce jumped in with an assessment: “Feminine lesbians, it’s easy for men to fantasize about. Masculine lesbians, they go, ‘She can fix my car, but oh my God, don’t come near me!’”
The transgenered made a comment that she feels like she does not belong because she is now a woman and in a relationship with a man that in society she is a straight women. It was interesting to hear some of these point of views inside the LGBT community that I had no idea went on. It was also kind of funny how Tyra made an analogy involving the bisexual man saying that it is almost similar to being mixed. A person that is half black and half white for example can hang out and be accepted by “white” people and can do the same with “black” people and at the end of the day they are not fully black or white.
It was an interesting show and I love social experiments. What are you thoughts on the gay kingdom?
