After announcing Iggy Azalea as the headlining act for the forthcoming “Pittsburgh Pride In The Street” festival on June 13, the event’s organizers have received large amounts of protests from the LGBTQ community, demanding that the Australian-born rapper be removed from the line-up.
XXL reports that the organization who run the event, the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, were already being criticized for “not being inclusive of all races and members of the LGBTQ community” and adding Iggy Azalea to the line-up has drove protestors to voice their opinion.
A Facebook event page titled, “Shut It DOWN (No ICKY at Pride 2015)” has been created to get Iggy Azalea removed as the headlining act.
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“Iggy azalea is coming to pride June 13 2015 as part of the Pittsburgh’s 2015 Pride celebration,” the page’s bio reads. “Icky is a known homophobic, racist, culturally appropriating ‘rapper’ (term used losely). Delta has the reputation of advocating for the LGBTQ community in Pittsburgh, but there is little to no evidence of Delta advocating for anybody but affluent cis gay white men. Let’s shut this down.”
In response to the backlash, the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh released a statement to the Pittsburgh City Paper, an excerpt of which can be viewed below:
“If we believed that Iggy Azalea was racist or homophobic, we certainly would not have selected her to headline Pittsburgh Pride,” the statement reads. “We also don’t believe she would have agreed to come if she was racist or homophobic. Iggy is a highly regarded artist and female entertainer and we have received a tremendous amount of positive messages from members of the community and our allies both locally and nationally that are excited that she will be performing at Pittsburgh Pride.”
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For additional Iggy Azalea coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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