Beyoncé, Who Was Praised For 'Black Queer' Support, Earns $24M in UAE, Where Homosexuality Is Illegal

In the United States, Beyoncé is an advocate for LGBT equality.

Last summer, she dedicated her album, "Renaissance," to her gay uncle. She says "black queer icons" inspired her to produce music. The Washington Post praised her for her support of "black queer culture."

Yet away from the U.S., Beyoncé is hardly as virtuous.

She earned a reported $24 million for a private concert in Dubai on Saturday at the luxury hotel Atlantis The Royal, her first live performance in five years.

In the UAE, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons face prosecution under public decency laws for acts such as cross-dressing and kissing in public.

Homosexuality is illegal there. And same-sex sexual activity is punishable by death.

One would think a musician so inspired by "black queers" would avoid cash to perform inside a country that can legally execute a black queer for same-sex activity, no?

Wrong.

Such blatant hypocrisy is far from novel.

We published a column in the summer examining how leading corporate brands -- from Pfizer to Apple to Microsoft -- change their Twitter icons to LGBT Pride colors each June. In the United States, they stand in arms with the gay community. Yet in countries where same-sex sexual activity is illegal, they hide their support.

Their U.S. profile images are colorful during Pride Month. Their profile images in Saudi Arabia are not. Here are Pfizer's Twitter pages from the same day on June 2, 2022, in both countries:

Joining Pfizer and Beyoncé is a list of prominent gay rights advocates:

Teams in the NBA tweeted out quiz questions to better inform followers about gay history. The NBA, however, left out of its history lesson that it will make its own history this year when it stages games in the United Arab Emirates. In the UAE, the law states that the government may punish homosexuality by death.
But because the league has a rainbow flag on its timeline, the NBA believes all is well.
The Walt Disney Co, a leader in mischaracterizing a Florida law as a ban on the word “gay,” just recently cut a movie scene that alluded to homosexuality in the film Turning Red. Disney acts at the behest of the Chinese government. When China says don’t say gay, Disney doesn’t dare say gay.
So while US-based CEOs tell American consumers that they are LGBTQIA+ advocates, they are leading other countries to believe the opposite. These corporations will promote whichever belief is financially advantageous at a given time, no matter the hypocrisy or the inconsistency.

So, it's hardly surprising to see Beyoncé take money from the UAE while pretending to stand for black queers in the United States.

What is surprising, however, is the response. Left-wing groups hardly condemn sacred cows for their hypocrisy. Yet here this time they are coming for Queen B, the most sacred of sacred cows.

Fox News reported on the growing list of fans and LGBTQ advocates angry with the Queen, with group leaders calling her performance "disappointing." Others demand she explains her decision.

"idk, if I already had $500 million, I don't think an additional $35 million would be enough money for me to go perform the album I dedicated to my gay uncle in a country where being gay is still punishable by death," said Inside Hook Managing Editor Bonnie Stiernberg.

LGBT advocacy is trendy. As is $24 million for a one-night performance in front of those who support killing gay people.

#Renaissance.