Jess Glynne called out for using transphobic slur in Mo Gilligan interview

8 March 2021, 11:07

Jess Glynne encourages followers to be kind

By Sam Prance

Jess Glynne used the offensive term on The Mo Gilligan Podcast and has since taken to Instagram to apologise.

Jess Glynne is coming under fire after using a transphobic term in a recent interview with Mo Gilligan on his weekly podcast.

Yesterday (Mar 8), Mo Gilligan posted a brand new episode of The Mo Gilligan podcast with Jess Glynne. In the episode, Mo interviewed Jess about her career to date and how she became the multi-platinum artist she is today. However, shortly after the episode was posted online, a clip of Jess using a transphobic slur during the interview went viral on social media.

The podcast has since been removed from official platforms. However, people are calling out Jess over her use of the slur.

In the viral clip, Jess is telling an anecdote in which she says: "This is probably the funniest bit...we got to the end of our trail or whatever and it was like a t****y like strip club thing like, and he's this bad man like 'What is this?'. It was amazing and he was stood in the corner like, 'Oh my days.'"

Given that the term "t****y" is a slur used against trans people, people started calling Jess out. One person tweeted: "Jess Glynne, you really could have worded this a lot better."

Strip club owner Luciya Blake added: "As the owner of a 'tranny strip club' I’d ask Jess Glynne not to use slurs to describe us or call us 'men in wigs'. In fact just leave us out of your funny anecdotes, we are not a laughing stock, we are human beings. "

Comedian, Holly Stars added: "The Jess Glynne video is double trash. There’s the slur of course – and the punchline of the whole story in which she uses the slur is that she takes a (presumably) straight/homophobic man to a queer safe space and how funny it is for her to see his reaction. She can get to fuck."

People are also calling out Mo and his team for publishing the clip. One person wrote: "I’m a big fan of Mo, but having Jess Glynne on the podcast and no one pulling her up on that T slur and it making the edit (which is now being used for the promo) ain’t the one!"

Popstar Cher Lloyd also tweeted: "There’s absolutely no excuse for transphobic slurs."

Jess Glynne has since taken to Instagram to apologise for the comment. She wrote: "I want to address my appearance on the mothecomedian podcast, when a story I told caused massive and righteous offence. Firstly, I want to say that I am wholeheartedly sorry."

She has also promised to lend her platform to "voices of the community" in the coming weeks.

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A post shared by Jess Glynne (@jessglynne)