One moment you are having tea with the first lady, the next, you are having a Twar on the TL.
Monica ‘Top Cheri’ Pinias made waves on Twitter on Thursday afternoon with a rather controversial Tweet which was described by some as being homophobic.
The award winning songstress posted: “One day we should talk about how so many Namibian women are married to gay men. Especially there by my people … they get married to people’s daughters so they can hide behind ‘wife and kids’. Hou julle op ! Free people’s daughters .. One day is not today nande.”
Although she was almost immediately attacked, Top Cheri remains firm that her message was not homophobic.
“You read the tweet. There is absolutely nothing homophobic about that. Let’s help people find a way to happily live with themselves with who they really are. So nobody should talk for the straight girl, because she is straight and regarded as not special? Her feelings doesn’t [sic] count because she is not gay” she told The Namibian.
While she claims her intentions are not to be harmful, her Tweet did open a platform for some of her followers to display their homophobia in the comments.
“It’s sad really but this woman also do not they just spot those pink strip in those men’s, I think our sister are also desperate for marriage that they ignore those pink strips or just pretend not to see them [sic]” posted user @Tangwe04.
In a following post, he clarified that ‘pink strips’, are traces of femininity in men, which, in actuality has nothing to do with sexuality.
@Stix_Munene posted: “Especially there by Wamboes. I know of a lot of married Wamboe undercover gays, and I mean a lot. Some are even in our DMs. When that day comes please do tag me.”
Radio presenter Dazzle Skrywer supported Top Cheri in the ordeal, stating that nobody is being forced to come out of the closet, and gay people should rather stay single or keep their relationships in the dark.
This was in response to user @manamaseb’s comment: “Kids are still getting bullied and killed for being who they are and you all want cyber bully married men for not wanting to disclose their sexuality for your enjoyment.”
Activist and poet Keith Vries wasn’t having any of it as he expressed disdain for the singer’s comments.
“Top Cheri must stop talking like that. Her career was made by gay men, some of them in their graves now cos of her (& others like her) not being able to fend for and defend the integrity, livelihood and dignity of her gay friends. Haar p*es.”
In another response, he tweeted: “As a public figure you should really think about how you tweet about other people’s lives. For someone that lived with gay people for years so intimately why are you using us as click bait to get people talking kak & so you can trend ur homophobia. Sies Monica, I’ll tell Ajax”
Vries’ younger brother, Kelvin also called out the artist for her remarks. “Your tweet vilifies gay men as if many of your people don’t force their sons to get married even when they are openly gay. Your tweet is double victimisation & oversimplifies the chat. It ignores the systematic nature of the discrimination & insensitive to the realities of gay men.”
In a separate Tweet, Top Cheri posted what may seem the reason behind the original post: “My cousin today moved back to her mother’s house … with her three children, one being a seven month old baby. Her husband has decided that he now wants to openly love his boyfriend whom he been seeing for three years! All I am saying is do not trap people’s daughter!”
@adubmahenna also reacted: “Straight men also marry people they don’t love or marry for show or to appease society and they also leave wives and children to be with who they actually love. So singling out someone’s sexuality and blaming it is homophobic.”
The issue has since garnered various other responses from followers who agree with the singer, and those who condemn her words.
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