Tayce and A’Whora fight Commonwealth anti-gay laws with stunning Pride lingerie campaign
Exclusive: "Hopefully campaigns like this will bring change," Tayce tells Attitude.
Words: Jamie Tabberer; pictures: provided
Drag Race UK stars Tayce and A’Whora have joined forces to launch a new Pride campaign to repeal anti-gay laws in 35 Commonwealth countries.
As the faces of Bluebella’s Pride lingerie collection, series two sisters and current housemates Tayce, 26 and A’Whora, 25, have posed for a photoshoot featuring underwear in all the colours of the Pride rainbow.
The collection launches today (27 April), with 10% of proceeds from sales going to the London-based Kaleidoscope Trust, a non-profit organisation working to advance the human rights of LGBTQs globally.
Being actively homosexual is illegal in 35 or the 54 sovereign states of the Commonwealth. In Malaysia, for example, gay sex is punishable by 20 years in prison, while Brunei and Northern Nigeria carry the death penalty.
“Hopefully campaigns like this will bring change”
Discussing the campaign with Attitude, Tayce said: “My dad is English, born in Hackney but his mum is from Grenada in the Caribbean. I’ve not been over there but I’ve always wanted to go, even though it’s not easy to be out and gay over there.
“It’s definitely not somewhere that is out and proud. I know that I wouldn’t be going over there and walking down the street in drag, it just wouldn’t happen. Being gay is still illegal there and it’s very much frowned upon.
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“It’s a shame but hopefully campaigns like this will bring change.”
She adds: “I’ve never really travelled the world, I’m hoping to do that now. But now I’m going to get opportunities to travel much more. It makes me feel privileged to live where I do and not have to go through those hardships just for being yourself.”
“Apply pressure”
Lady Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust said in a statement: “We are delighted to have the support of Bluebella, Tayce and A’Whora in raising money for our important work upholding the human rights of LGBT+ people across the Commonwealth.
“So many LGBT+ people suffer discrimination, persecution and violence because of homophobic colonial-era laws, and the UK has a responsibility to redress these wrongs and help liberate our LGBT+ siblings.
“The support of a quintessentially British brand like Bluebella, with two of our brightest LGBT+ stars means the world to all of us at Kaleidoscope Trust.”
A’Whora added: “In many of these 35 countries there is already growing unrest that these discriminatory laws still exist, and so added support from this campaign in the UK may be all that’s needed to elicit change.”
The list of Commonwealth countries in which homosexual activity is illegal is Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Pakistan, Kenya, Malaysia, Brunei, Nigeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Cameroon, Ghana, Zambia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga, Kiribati, Eswatini, Samoa, Cook Islands, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Namibia.
It is estimated that of the 2.9 billion people living in these countries and 174 million of them identify as LGBT+.
The campaign follows news last month that Tayce has become a new face of Coca-Cola.
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