Earlier this week, YouTube beauty vlogger (and Kylie Jenner's BFF) Gigi Gorgeous was detained and prevented from entering Dubai — all because she's transgender.
Now Gigi is speaking out about her terrifying ordeal, and it turns out President Obama is to thank for her newfound freedom. Come thruuuu, Barack!
In a video posted to her YouTube channel, Gigi details her horrifying ordeal. Filming from a restaurant in the Dubai airport — because her passport still confiscated — she explains how the whole thing went down.
"It absolutely disgusts me that this kind of discrimination still goes on," she begins. According to her vlog, after getting off a long-ass flight to Dubai, she and her bodyguard were stopped by an airport official — who she says recognised her and knew that she was transgender.
"He looks at my passport, and suddenly he has all these questions. Where are you coming from, why are you coming here. So we go to this side room where we sat outside while they had my passport for two hours."
The Dubai airport says that Gigi was travelling on a passport that listed her gender as male, and had a male photo. She says this is bullshit.
"Finally my bodyguard comes out and he’s shaking his head. He says, you were denied entry. I have no criminal record. I have never done anything wrong. I have a fresh passport." So what was the deal?
"He told me, 'it’s because you’re transgender, and they don’t like that or allow that here.'"
"I started sobbing my eyes out. I thought I was having a panic attack. I thought, what was going to happen to me? I'm scared for my life." Gigi and her security detail had to stay overnight in the hotel attached to the airport, because if she'd set foot on Dubail soil, "I'd have been arrested."
Even though Dubai has a reputation for being a cosmopolitan city, it's treatment of non-cis, non-hetero people is extremely backwards. "The impersonation of women by men," is an offense punishable by a year in prison. Homosexuality is literally illegal — in 2012, a British man was jailed for being gay.
"This just proves that people like me are not welcome here. I took all the precautions, and still, because someone knows I’m transgender… this is really, really scary. If I didn’t have all these people here, would I be in a holding cell? It’s petrifying."
Luckily, the story has a happy ending: After the White House intervened on her behalf, Gigi got her passport back, and she and her girlfriend are currently in Sweden.
Gigi and her girlfriend Nat Getty thanked everyone involved for her safe escape from Dubai; the United Nations Foundation, the White House, the Prime Minister's aide… and Nat's mother Ariadne Getty, who wasted NO fucking time getting on the phone and raising holy hell until Gigi was released.
"I love you, Gigi," said Ariadne. "No discrimination!"
Damn right. I'm so glad that Gigi is safe; if you want to know what YOU can do to help ensure trans discrimination like this stops, check out The National Center for Transgender Equality.
Watch Gigi's full video right here.
