LGBT

The man accused of tackling Dave Chappelle -- and who seems to be copping to it -- says he did what he did because he was "triggered" by DC's LGBT jokes ... which is an apparent change of tune.

23-year-old Isaiah Lee did an interview with the New York Post, and explained his reasoning for hopping up on the stage and attacking the comedian -- and wouldn't you know it ... he says he was, in fact, offended by Dave's material, and wanted him to know about it.

Lee is quoted as saying, "I identify as bisexual … and I wanted him to know what he said was triggering." He adds, "I wanted him to know that next time, he should consider first running his material by people it could affect."

Dave is reported to have addressed his transgender controversy that night before Lee allegedly rushed the stage -- talking about how he didn't have a problem with trans people, until now ... when he says they took his 'Closer' content out of context and warped it.

Here's another element that apparently sent Lee over the edge ... jokes that Dave apparently made about homelessness, which Lee says personally hurt him -- as he himself had experienced it at a young age.

Lee says, "I’m also a single dad and my son is five. It’s a struggle and I wanted Dave Chappelle to know it’s not a joke." Plus, jokes earlier in the night (made by an opener, it seems) talking pedophilia rocked Lee as well. He says he was sexually abused as a minor.

On his gruesome injuries, Lee said ... "They spat on me and twisted me as if on purpose." He also acknowledged having the fake-gun-turned knife on him that night, adding Chappelle asked why he did it. Lee says ... "I told him my mother and grandmother, who fought for his civil rights to be able to speak, would be upset at the things he said."

All of this is a new and different twist on Lee's motives. As we reported, Chappelle has said Lee told him backstage -- before he was arrested -- that he'd rushed onstage to draw attention to his grandmother's plight in a gentrified neighborhood in Brooklyn.

John Mulaney is usually beloved by all, but right now -- he's getting slammed big time ... all because he let Dave Chappelle open for him, and the guy told "anti-trans" jokes.

Here's the deal ... John had a comedy show Friday night in Columbus, OH -- where phones were locked up in a pouch so no one could record -- and according to folks who flocked to social media afterward, DC was a surprise guest who did a set before John came out.

A lot of these people say they felt ambushed by Dave's presence, especially since he allegedly went on to tell what they characterize as transphobic/homophobic jokes.

The argument is that these paying customers came out to see JM -- not Dave -- and many of them are either part of the LGBT crowd, or consider themselves allies ... going on to say they never would've purchased tickets if they'd known Chappelle was going to show up.

Of course, this all dates back to the controversy over his Netflix special, "The Closer," which some have said is transphobic -- despite DC denying that, and the streamer sticking by him.

As for what exactly was said that's transphobic (in these users' minds) ... you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually detailed the crack(s), but someone finally did. The supposedly harmful joke was about the stage crasher and the gun/knife he had on him.

Dave apparently said something to the effect of ... it was a knife that identified as a gun, which some took as an allusion to gender fluidity -- and sure, that's a fair assessment.

He moved on from that -- this after getting laughs, it seems -- and then made a joke about a couple of audience members he speculated might be gay ... adding, not that there's anything wrong with that. Apparently, that's about all that was said ... but it's got people up in arms.

We'll say this ... Dave does seem to be obsessed with joking about trans topics -- he did so during his Hollywood Bowl sets a few weeks ago ... and even said something about the alleged attacker, Isaiah Lee, joking that it was a "trans man" after he was tackled.

Bill Maher ventures into dicey areas all the time, and he did not disappoint Friday night when he argued ... gender reassignment with kids has gone too far.

The "Real Time" host began his weekly editorial with some interesting stats ... before 1946, only .08% of the population identified as LGBTQ. That number shot up to 2.6% among Baby Boomers. It shot up again to 4.2% with Gen X, 10.5% among Millennials and 20.8% with Gen Z.

Maher says much of the rise in percentages is a good thing ... that people feel comfortable enough to say who they are to a pollster, but his take is that some of the rise is attributed to trendiness ... i.e., it's now trendy to be LGBTQ.

Bill's argument is laced with humor, but at its core, he's saying especially when it comes to kids, their feelings are not always innate ... he says they often react to trends, to friends, to social media and parents should not reflexively take their children down a path of gender reassignment until the child's self-identity is certain. He zeroes in on hormone blockers on young kids, the consequences of which he thinks have been glossed over.

Ezra Miller gave cops a stern warning during their arrest in Hawaii, don't hurt their wrists ... and get their pronouns right or face hate crime charges.

More police body cam has surfaced from the March incident where Miller allegedly went after several bar patrons, getting busted for disorderly conduct and harassment.

The footage starts with Miller in handcuffs complaining of pain in their wrists, and telling cops they need to be careful, as Ezra's a musician and any damage to the nerves in their wrists could be catastrophic to their music career.

Then things get even more tense as Ezra's being transported to the police station, when one of the officers addresses Ezra as "sir" Ezra fires back, saying, "I'm not a sir. I'm transgender nonbinary."

The cop says he was only trying to be respectful, but Ezra continues, "If you fail to do that again, it is an act of intentional bigotry and it is a technical hate crime according to U.S. Federal law."

Once at the station ... Miller continues to complain about pain in their wrist, but is much calmer than during the drive over.

Kendrick Lamar is stepping into territory seemingly every mainstream rapper has refused to enter ... bringing attention to the trans community and offering his support through the telling of his own personal experiences.

In his song, "Auntie Diaries," Kendrick starts by rapping "My auntie is a man now" ... and then, he goes on to talk about his transition. Later in the song, he reveals his cousin is trans as well, rapping, "Demetrius is Mary-Ann now."

Kendrick says, "I mean he's really Mary-Ann, even took things further. Changed his gender before Bruce Jenner was certain. Living his truth even if it meant see a surgeon."

Of course, many folks took to social media to share their thoughts -- with many calling it a groundbreaking rap song and pointing out the fact that this hasn't been done before, at least not by such a celebrated artist in the genre.

It's pretty significant ... Kendrick raps openly and candidly about learning to understand and grow from these family members. He even talks about being in elementary school and the mistakes he made, including when he'd use homophobic slurs.

At one point, he says "The day I chose humanity over religion the family got closer, it was all forgiven" ... clearly taking a stand against homophobia, especially in the church.

"Selling Sunset" star Chrishell Stause has rebounded from her romance with Jason Oppenheim ... she's now dating G Flip.

Chrishell dropped the news on the "Selling Sunset" reunion special ... she and the nonbinary Australian singer are an item. She said, "I recently have been spending a lot of time with someone that's very important to me. Their name is G Flip. They're nonbinary, so they go by they/them. And, they're an extremely talented musician."

The 2 were seen leaving The Abbey in WeHo, spending 4 hours partying until 2 AM -- with plenty of PDA.

As for how they hooked up, Chrishell said, "It started because I was just going to be in their video. And, it's about this chaotic love story. I come from soaps, I love acting. And, with the job that we have, I don't always get to do it. At first of course I was like yes, let's do that."

The 27-year-old musician is reportedly living with Chrishell, 40, in her L.A. home. As we reported, Chrishell bought the home, in part, with the loot she got from selling her wedding ring courtesy of ex-hubby, Justin Hartley.

The 27-year-old musician hails from Melbourne and is known for their songs, "GAY 4 ME," "Lover," and "Drink Too Much."

Chrishell flew to Denver last weekend to watch her partner perform with Lauren Sanderson ... the 2 collabed on the song, "GAY 4 ME."

The first black transgender Victoria's Secret Model, Emira D’Spain, has just done a little tune-up on herself ... getting a Brazilian butt lift just before summer kicks off.

Emira was in NYC last week where she underwent the minimally invasive BBL, along with liposuction of the abdomen and waist with fat transfers to the butt.

She tells us, she's always been insecure about her lower stomach, especially after dropping 30 lbs, but now, "I finally have the curves I’ve always wanted."

Dr. Ryan Neinstein, who specializes in modern body sculpting techniques tells us Emira had light sedation for the procedure which allows a quicker recovery because she's on the go and doesn't have a lot of time to waste.

We're told the procedure cost Emira around $20k and she's fine with that ... Dr. Neinstein says with diet and exercise she wouldn't be able to achieve the bikini body look she wanted, so this got her over the hump just in time for her next VS photo shoot.

In case you didn't know, back in 2020 Emira became the first Black transgender model to work with Victoria's Secret as a part of their Valentine's Day social campaign.

NBC News' social media team could use Elon Musk's proposed edit tool on a tweet about the reigning "Jeopardy!" champ ... all because they focused on her sexuality and job title, confusing and even angering a lot of users on Twitter.

Mattea Roach has won 17 consecutive games, which ranks No. 8 all-time, qualifying for the game show's Tournament of Champions and bringing her current winnings to $396,182 ... but NBC News decided to highlight the fact she's a "lesbian tutor" in a story about her achievements.

The controversial tweet was blasted out Friday to NBC News' 9 million followers, with many people reacting to the "lesbian tutor" description, showing confusion over the choice of words and even anger.

One user's hilarious response ... "Oh ffs. What on earth is a lesbian tutor? You mean she helps people become better lesbians? Be better @NBCNews & know that this incredible woman’s sexuality has absolutely no bearing on her amazing @Jeopardy streak & smarts!"

The tweet is still up as of this post, and it doesn't get much better when you click the link ... the headline for the NBC News story reads, "Mattea Roach becomes latest LGBTQ 'Jeopardy!' phenom."

Bill Maher went in hard on Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, for "demagoguing" the culture war issue over LGBTQ+ mentions in schools.

The "Real Time" host railed on DeSantis for the draconian action he took against Disney World, yanking their tax status and independence because the Mouse House took a stand against the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

Bill said he has every reason to hate Disney -- after all, they fired him for comments he made on "Politically Incorrect" -- a bonehead move, given the name of the show, right?

Nevertheless, Bill feels sorry for Disney because they seem to be in a no-win situation ... the left hated them when they didn't take a stand on the bill, and now they've taken a stand and the right hates them. As Bill said, Disney's initial response ... "We just make fairies and elves, riding teacups" ... and that triggered the left. Now that they won't donate to political campaigns of those who support the bill ... well, the right went nuts.

Atlantic writer, Caitlin Flanagan, said she hates the way Disney waffled, imploring the company to "have a backbone." Conservative, Mary Katharine Ham, took a different stance ... "The key might be neutrality on these big culture war issues."

Isaiah Rashad broke his silence this weekend about a sex tape that appears to out him as LGBT friendly -- and he's taking all the love and support he's received in stride.

The TDE artist -- who's had a solid and loyal fanbase for years, dating back to the 2010s -- performed Saturday at Coachella ... the first time he's taken the stage publicly since a private tape of his leaked back in February, showing him engaged in a sex act with two men.

The clip went viral, conjuring lots of reaction from the hip-hop community, including shock. Fact is, Isaiah had only ever indicated he was into girls ... at least in his music, anyway.

While there were some who chimed in with homophobic jokes and insults, there were just as many who spoke up having Isaiah's back -- including some prominent figures in the industry, like The Game, who said people's private lives were no one else's business but their own.

Isaiah was clearly keeping tabs on all the chatter that surfaced, as he compiled a lot of it into an intro video that he played before coming out to rock his set.

IR performed with tons of energy and didn't explicitly say anything about the sex tape until later on when he was nearing the end ... giving thanks to his fans for the solidarity, even indicating they may have saved his life with their messages of positivity and embrace.

It also appears the guy was getting emotional during one of his songs -- eagle-eyed viewers watching the live stream from home spotted what look to be tears coming down his face.

Tons of people are giving Isaiah props for tackling this issue head on at Coachella, the most public of spaces. Also ... him getting embraced like this is indicative of where we are as a culture ... namely, it ain't that big a deal if a rapper is anything but straight these days.

50 Cent is revealing some pretty intense homophobia by attacking Young Buck after the rapper claimed 50 forced him into bankruptcy ... suggesting YB is gay.

Young Buck was on the "It's Tricky with Raquel Harper" podcast when he talked about his fallout with 50, blaming the G-Unit honcho for some legal and recording issues.

Clearly, 50 saw the interview, because Wednesday he posted on Instagram with the caption, "Young Buck, Benzino just embrace who you are but don't pat nobody butt when they score a basket 🏀fool. LOL😆Hahaha, Nah 🤔FOR REAL! PUNK."

The caption was accompanied by an old video which allegedly is a recording of "Love & Hip Hop" star Benzino talking about his sexual preferences. Buck isn't in the video, but 50 obviously made the attempt to tie him in.

Turns out Young Buck also addressed his sexuality during his 'It's Tricky' interview ... saying he's a heterosexual man who "loves women" and "loves p****."

Sam Elliott is backing down from his harsh take on the Oscar-winning movie "The Power of the Dog" -- words many considered homophobic ... something that isn't lost on the guy.

The actor -- who's often cast as a cowboy type, and who apparently has some ties to the rancher community -- apologized for what he said about the flick back in February during an appearance on the 'WTF Podcast with Marc Maron,' where he went on the attack.

On Sunday, however, Sam was given a chance to clarify -- because, frankly, his train of thought was all over the place and hard to piece together. And yes, the guy issued a full mea culpa ... saying he didn't mean to hurt people, including those in the LGBT community.

While making an appearance at Deadline's Contenders TV event, where he was plugging his new show '1883,' Sam said he meant no harm ... and got pretty emotional as he recounted how many friends he has that were apparently offended by his remarks.

ICYMI ... Sam slammed 'POTD' for what he considered as a warped depiction of the American West -- bringing up the fact a lot of farmhands in the movie are portrayed shirtless like Chippendales dancers and seemingly taking issue with allusions to homosexuality.

He also didn't appreciate the fact director Jane Campion shot the film down in her native New Zealand and tried to pass it off as Montana ... so his diatribe was aimed all over.

Benedict Cumberbatch reacted to Sam's comments at the time, saying he found 'em to be "odd" -- which Sam made sure to acknowledge in his apology ... specifically saying sorry to the brilliant cast, but especially to Benedict -- who plays a closeted gay man in the film.

British Cycling is now banning transgender athletes from participating in their races ... just a week after trans cyclist Emily Bridges was disqualified from the women's championship.

It's a bit surprising because British Cycling has a Transgender and Non-binary Participation Policy that seemingly allows trans cyclists to compete.

But, since the incident with Bridges -- when the Union Cycliste Internationale banned her from the April 2 race because she was registered as a male cyclist -- the board voted this week to suspend the policy.

"As a result of this, on Wednesday 6 April the British Cycling Board of Directors voted in favor of an immediate suspension of the current policy, pending a full review, which will be initiated in the coming weeks," BC said in a statement.

British Cycling says its initial policy is "unfair on all women riders and poses a challenge to the integrity of racing."

Bridges' mother was not happy when she received the ruling via email ... saying on Twitter, "Dumped by email."

"We've just received this in our inbox. We will be making a statement at some point during the next 24 hrs."

British Cycling says they will work "tirelessly" to make sure their new policy remains "free of hate, discrimination and abuse in all forms, and that we prioritize the welfare of riders, volunteers, event organizers, commissaries and others that our sport can’t continue without."

"As an organization, we remain committed to ensuring that transgender and non-binary people are welcomed, supported and celebrated in the cycling community, and the inclusion of these groups within non-competitive activities remains unaffected by the suspension."

UFC middleweight Paulo Costa crossed the line when calling out Derek Brunson for a fight ... referring to the fighter as a gay slur -- and now, he's getting bashed over it.

30-year-old Borrachinha has been going scorched-earth on social media recently ... pulling out all the stops in hopes of getting Brunson to get in the Octagon with him.

Costa -- who is 0-2 in his past two fights -- seemingly mocked Brunson for being a former cheerleader ... posting a pic of La'Darius Marshall of the popular Netflix show, "Cheer" and captioning it," Derek F** Brunson. Fight me bitch."

Costa's Twitter followers rightfully called him out for the slur ... saying, "You’re gonna end up getting canceled" ... and "@ufc seriously? This is ok from an employee of yours?"

There's more -- "Aside from being a bigoted and just low IQ middle school level insult, it's pretty rich coming from a guy who got styled on then literally humped by a dude who did Naruto hand signs."

The latter tweet is referencing Paulo's loss to Israel Adesanya ... who then humped his back after the 2nd-round TKO.

FYI, Costa and Brunson are currently (both) the 4th ranked UFC Middleweight ... so a fight between the two would seem to make sense.

Kris Jenner has clearly evolved in her feelings toward Caitlyn Jenner ... because she herself is saying she understands Caitlyn's transition in ways that escaped her when they broke up.

Kris and her fam are hyping their upcoming Hulu series on an ABC show that aired Wednesday night. Kris told Robin Roberts she and Caitlyn are in a good place now ... as she puts it things have "settled down a lot"

There was a lot of tension and anger in the wake of their divorce ... as Kris says she was shocked to find out Caitlyn was transitioning.

Kris says she didn't understand Caitlyn's feelings at first, especially following a 22-year marriage where they shared 2 kids -- Kendall and Kylie. The dynamic between her and Caitlyn today is "fine" though, and she considers them to be friends. The two see each other from time to time at family gatherings.

As you know, Caitlyn came out as transgender in April 2015 -- two years after their split ... while Kris claimed she was unaware of Caitlyn's feelings towards her gender, Caitlyn's 2017 book, "The Secrets of My Life," revealed Kris was more aware than she led on.

Joe Exotic's estranged husband Dillon Passage is willing to sign off on divorcing the 'Tiger King,' but he wants to work out a settlement first.

Dillon's attorneys, Chris Kirker and Holly Davis, tell TMZ … their client is eager to finalize the divorce, as long as Joe agrees to his terms.

His legal team says they actually started negotiating a divorce settlement back in September with Joe's previous lawyer when DP and Exotic were already estranged ... but they hit pause on moving forward when Joe announced his cancer diagnosis.

As we first told you ... Joe ended up filing for divorce last week after more than 4 years of marriage, saying he wants to make their split official so he can marry his new prison lover.

Joe's new divorce attorney, Autumn Blackledge, tells TMZ … Joe wants to hammer out a deal, and it shouldn't be a problem, as long as Dillon's terms are "reasonable."

As for his terms -- Dillon's attorney says he wants both parties to walk away with what they owned coming into the marriage ... and he wants a permanent injunction preventing Joe from contacting him directly, stalking or harassing him.

Dillon's camp says those are the terms they offered back in September, when Joe's response was, "It will be a cold day in hell before I sign these papers ... You're out of your f***ing mind."

Sounds like it's gonna take some doing to reach a settlement, but Dillon's team stresses he's not looking for any big payday -- and Joe's camp says he wants something simple that allows each of them to take their own stuff and move on.