IDOLS SA viewers were furious with the way judges treated Ashern Madlopha, who auditioned at Carnival City, Ekurhuleni.
After transsexual Ashern sang Halo by Beyonce, the judges referred to her as “it” and people accused them of trans-shaming.
When Ashern left the audition room, guest judge Kelly Khumalo asked the others if she was a man or a woman, after Somizi commented on her banging body.
Unathi answered, “It’s a girl”, while Randall Abrahams and Somizi said, “It’s a boy”. And since the conversation aired on Sunday, social media has been buzzing.
- Luke Waltham said: “It’s disgusting how tran-phobic the judges were. They must apologise for their degrading comments!”
- Carla De Bouchet wrote: “ I’m losing respect for these judges calling a transgender person ‘it’.”
- Ntsiki Chichava said: “People like Unathi have the privilege of knowing about the trans tipping point and can learn about trans lives. Ignorance is a sad excuse.”
- Motlatsi Motseoile said: “Someone was called ‘it’ and had their gender questioned. Did the contestant come to the show to get that kind of attention?”
- M-Net’s Nondumiso Mabece said the show has a history of supporting the LGBTQIA community.
“It is shown in the make-up of the top 16 over the past seasons. Here, the judges judged the contestant’s voice. Contestants are treated equally and judged on their singing, irrespective of sexual orientation. The dialogue was an effort to understand the contestant’s identity. We apologise for any offence.”
