YouTube star Zoella sparks outrage by mocking gay and transgender people

Zoella has mocked gay and transgender people on Twitter.

The posts, made in 2010 and 2011, have sparked outrage and dismay from fans who see the YouTube star as an LGBT ally.

Last year, the 27-year-old – who has more than 12 million subscribers on YouTube – was the target of a backlash after the British LGBT Awards nominated her for its Straight Ally category.

Many said that Zoella – whose real name is Zoe Sugg – hadn’t done enough to deserve her place on the shortlist.

And it has now been revealed that in 2010, when she was 20, Zoella tweeted: “I find it funny when gay men spit…it’s like they’re trying to be a bit macho but never works…”.

The tweet has since been deleted.

However, another offensive post from 2011 remains on her account at time of publication.

Writing to beauty YouTuber Tanya Burr, Zoella tweeted: “are they honestly letting a tranny in a policeman hat speak to them like that? How odd! Haha x”.

The revelations came as a shock to supporters who have seen the star repeatedly speak out in favour of LGBT rights.

In 2011, she tweeted: “Gay, straight, female, male, transgender, alien…who cares!

“Everyone has an equal right to be happy. You get one life, live it how you want”.

People are making their anger and disappointment clear online.

One user just wrote simply: “#ZoellaIsOverParty”.

This hashtag, with the name replaced of course, is used when a popular figure has outraged the public to the point where some people see no way for them to come back from it.

Another person tweeted: “What so no gay men can be macho @Zoella extremely rude and ignorant”.

One user said: “that Zoella tweet about macho gay spitting omg  “.

Another wrote: “Saying gay men can’t be macho is pretty homophobic hun ”

And one user lashed out at those saying Zoella was too young to be judged, saying: “i wasn’t going to retweet those zoella tweets but she tweeted them when she was 21 apparently so she can f*** right off lmao”.

Zoella apologised for the tweets, saying she was “sorry if I have offended anyone”.

The YouTube star wrote: “I’ve seen a few of my old tweets from 7/8 years ago floating around (which I have now deleted) using words like “chav” “skank” and other words I wouldn’t use now as part of my language and lot of them were taken out of context referring to TV shows but I would never say those things now and I’m sorry if I have offended anyone, that was not my intention.

“Obviously that is not who I am today and I’d like to think I’m a little older and wiser! I’m not perfect and I’ve never claimed to be, I’m only human!”

She received support from bisexual YouTuber and singer Dodie Clark, who has repeatedly shown her support for LGBT youth.

Dodie wrote: “suddenly every youtuber panics and does search history to delete the whole of their 2011 twitter timeline”.

She added: “(because we were ALL uneducated and problematic. It’s super unfair to hold the past against someone when it came to the language we all used then!)”

• Dec 01 2023

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