Jessica Anne Newham (Betty Who) commented on Reneé Rapp's sexuality during Mallorie Glownke's Made It Out podcast on 19 August. Glownke steered the conversation to Jojo Siwa and Fletcher, two sapphic artists who this summer revealed they were dating men. Who, identifying as queer and bisexual, said she supported Rapp's current stance but would hold space if Rapp later dated a man. The comments drew swift backlash accusing Who of lesbophobia and of reinforcing harmful tropes about lesbians. On 28 August Who posted an Instagram apology, acknowledged poor language, and vowed to do better.
As much as it's funny that Reneé Rapp is like, 'You'll never catch me dating a man.' It's like, 'Go off, queen! I love that for you.' But I also hold space for her in 10 years if she goes, 'Oops, I met the love of my life and it's this man, I didn't mean to.' It's like, that's okay!"
During the podcast, Glownke turned the conversation to Jojo Siwa and Fletcher, two sapphic artists who have previously been in relationships with women and have huge queer female followings. This summer, both of them revealed they were dating men, with Siwa coupling up with her Big Brother UK co-star Chris Hughes and Fletcher detailing that she is dating a man in her new track "Boy".
Taking to their Instagram story on their official account on Thursday (28 August), 33-year-old Who published a lengthy statement in which she apologised for her language and reinforcing ideas that are "harmful or dismissive" to lesbians, vowing to "do better". She wrote: "In recent days, I've taken time to sit with the conversation around my gender and sexuality. I recognise that the language I used poorly articulated my experience and unintentionally reinforced ideas that were harmful or dismissive"
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