One of the Internet’s Greatest Memes Is Now an Official Part of LGBTQ+ History

The star of one of the internet’s best memes, Renata Sorrah, has announced that she is bisexual.

Sorrah, who features in the “Confused Math Lady” meme, came out at a performance of Renata Carvalho’s Manifesto Transpofágico. The Théâtre de la Ville website describes Carvalho and the show like this: “Carvalho is a transgender woman born in Santos (São Paulo). She is an actor, performer, drama¬turge and stage director, and also a transpologist, transpology being a branch of anthropology which she founded herself, as is only fitting. Alone on stage she tells the story of struggles fought with and against the body which alone defines her in the eyes of others.”

At the end of the show, its star, Renata Carvalho, asks questions of the audience, and one of those questions, when Renata Sorrah attended, was whether anyone in the audience was bisexual. Sorrah raised her hand, and the internet rejoiced. What makes this even more iconic is that the actress is 76 years old. What a queen.

According to Know Your Meme, the image (or gif, depending on how you like to share a good old meme) originated in 2016 and features Sorrah in character from a scene in Senhora Do Destino, a show in which her character, Maria, is in jail. With it being Pride Month next month, this new bit of context for a classic meme is a nice bright spot in the midst of the hate that has been on the rise in worrying levels around the globe, especially considering this meme has often been used to poke fun at bigots who can’t seem to understand anyone who’s not exactly like them.

There has been so much crap thrown at the LGBTQ+ community recently, from the banning and vilification of drag shows to heavy restrictions and bans on trans healthcare. It’s a worrying time to be LBGTQ+ and is upsetting to think that people who identify as LGBTQ+ may feel as if they cannot celebrate in fear of hate crimes against them being on the rise. In the U.K. last year, it was reported that hate crimes against those who identified as part of the LGBTQ+ community had skyrocketed. Both hate crimes against trans and gay people had risen to the highest statistic they’d ever been.

Not only that, but as small a thing as it is, it’s nice that this new information is attached to a meme, such an organic piece of our culture, separate from the inevitable wave of rainbow capitalism we’re all about to experience.

(featured image: TV Globo)