April’s Best & Worst

Well, what a month! April was brimming with activity; the royal wedding was the event that dominated the headlines and whether you watched every minute or were just glad of the extra bank holidays it certainly had a big impact. We’re going to give you a round-up of the five things were thought were brilliant and the five that just… well… weren’t!

1. 

   East End Pride march

   Taking this month’s crown are the 25 LGBT community members who turned out to East End Pride! We’re sure you’ll have seen the controversy and uncertainty in the build-up to the event, and were as pleased as all of us were when 25 fabulously dedicated members of the LGBT community showed exactly what the spirit of Pride is all about and went ahead with the march. You can read about what happened on the day in a report from our very own Caspar.

2. 

   Lady GaGa

   Lady GaGa was busy during April. Not only did she have time to release her single ‘Judas’ – which at its peak made it to number nine in the UK Singles Chart – but she also confronted a homophobic protester who had given her grief about her ‘homo stuff’. You can see the fabulous GaGa setting him straight in her GaGavision video.

3. We’re sure you noticed how hot it was in April, so that’s why we dedicate our number three spot to the UK weather! Whether you spent your spare time sunning yourself in the back garden, park or (our own favourite) the beer garden, we’d like to raise a glass to what was officially the hottest April since 1910! Let’s hope we’ll be having more months like that before winter arrives again.
4. A two-year battle by adoption agency Catholic Care came to an end in April when the Charity Tribunal ruled that they could not discriminate against gay and lesbian people wanting to adopt. Stonewall issued a statement welcoming the decision, in which it reiterated its view that publicly funded organisations should not be able to ‘pick and choose their service users on the basis of individual prejudice.’ We’re thrilled by the decision – and many gay and lesbian couples thinking about adoption will be too.
5. We were really torn about who to give our number five slot to, so two of our favourite Glee kids are filling it. Throughout the new series both Brittany and Santana have bloomed into brilliantly funny characters that we adore, and when we learned that they had been having a secret lesbian liaison that sealed the deal for us. You can of course keep up with all the latest Glee developments in Matt ‘Darcey’ Buttell’s weekly reports right here on So So Gay.

…and some things we weren’t too happy with.

1. Taking our (not so prized) number one spot is The John Snow pub in Soho. On 13 April a gay couple out enjoying a pleasant evening were allegedly told that they would have to leave the premises after kissing – a story broken by So So Gay. A number of protests have since been held outside the pub, but as far as we are aware the couple involved is still yet to receive an apology.
2. That villain Simon Cowell has been upsetting people again! We learned in April that former X Factor winner Joe McElderry has been chucked by Cowell’s label Syco. While McElderry’s music wasn’t exactly breaking records (no pun intended), we don’t think the little geordie sweetheart deserved that.
3. Andrew Stone from Pineapple Dance Studios – just in case you had no idea who he was (many people don’t and even more wish they didn’t) – was on our television screens rather a lot during April and we just can’t work out why! We’re not sure what annoys us more about Stone: the fact that he laughs uproariously at his own jokes, or maybe just that he keeps turning up on TV in the most unlikely of places.
   

   Princess Beatrice at the Royal Wedding

4. Love the royal wedding or hate it, you can’t have missed Princess Beatrice’s hat. We can’t quite work out what it’s supposed to be, nor can we get our head around quite why she decided that her flamboyant choice of headgear was a good look. Whether you think it looks like antlers or an octopus, it was quite a bizarre sight to behold. Better luck next time Beatrice – if only Fergie had been there to stop her! (That said, she’s auctioning it on eBay for charity, and it’s already reached more than £19,000′s worth of interest.)
5. April saw the return of Britain’s Got Talent, and with it a new face – David Hasselhoff. The change in the judging panel has got us a little worried: we’re just not sure how a man with no obvious talent is qualified to sort the wheat from the chaff. We’re pretty confident, however, that his empathy with the talentless should see some ‘entertaining’ acts getting through the auditions and returning to further embarrass themselves in the coming weeks.

That wraps up our take on what we thought was the best and worst of April 2011. Think we got it right or wrong? Tell us your highlights and lowlights in the comments section.