ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

I’m coming out

Dancer, singer, and all-around star JoJo Siwa feels breaks the news about her sexual orientation

Alayna Majkrzak Staff Writer

“Born This Way,” a hit tune by Lady Gaga, plays as a student scrolls through their For You page on TikTok, pausing at a particular video. Despite the flashing lights, the person in the video seems very familiar. JoJo Siwa emerges, singing and dancing along. This was Siwas’s coming out video, giving her a place in the LGBTQ+ community.

“After being my best friend for over a year, January 8th, 2021 I got to start calling this exceptional human my girlfriend,” the caption of Siwas’s Instagram post reads. All of the photos show JoJo Siwa and her new girlfriend holding hands and grinning widely. Siwa has been known online for a long time due to her run on “Dance Moms,” and now she is a very popular Nickelodeon star. In a video posted on her Instagram, she stated that she was “really really really happy” to have shared this big part of herself with all of the people who support her, including her network and the people in her professional life.

Her former dance instructor, Abby Lee Miller even made an Instagram post responding to Siwa coming out. “[You’re] a shining example for the kids out there to live their best lives each and every day.”

Siwa beamed as she talked about how she felt with her fans and how everyone has supported her throughout the years. The public response has been majorly positive, and even students at MCHS were feeling the love.

Sophomore Brook Krapf stated how they feel about JoJo Siwa coming out publicly online. “I think it helps to break the stereotype that young people can’t know they’re queer or that being queer can’t be something that is celebrated.”

Krapf also talked about how important it is to have queer and trans representation in the media to show children that there is diversity. “There is other people — not just cis-gender heterosexuals.”

Max Wenc, a sophomore at East Campus, after having just found out about JoJo Siwa’s coming out had stated, “I didn’t even know she did, but that’s good for her.”

For many queer kids, the response to JoJo Siwa’s coming out is the dream. Not every child receives the same celebration JoJo Siwa has received. Hopefully, as she continues to be a symbol of color, fun, and bright, poppy music and dance, she can also be a symbol of hope and joy for LGBTQ+ people everywhere.

The story of Gypsy Rose is a disturbing reminder of how people use and abuse their power over others for their own selfish reasons.

Illustration By: Alayna Majkrzak

Crime Scenes: When murder is inevitable

In the case of Gypsy Rose, her abusive mother’s death was the only escape from a tortured life

Alayna Trimingham, Copy Editor

Gypsy Rose was as a young sick girl with big glasses and a shaved head in a wheelchair. Her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, was seen as a loving mother who gave everything to help her sick child. The twist, however, is that Gypsy was never sick, and her mother was filling her with unnecessary medicine and surgeries.

Dee Dee had Munchausen Syndrome by proxy, which means she gave her child, Gypsy, a fake illness so she could be seen as a caregiver. This is a type of abuse, but not the only abuse Gypsy endured. Dee Dee lied to Gypsy about her age, her father, and her illness and was known to deny her food and hit her.

When Gypsy got older, she would sneak on the computer and she made a Christian dating site account and began talking to her online boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn. Gypsy told her online boyfriend everything, and he ended up murdering Dee Dee in her bedroom. Then Gypsy ran away with Nicholas. They were eventually caught and the truth came out. Nicholas was sentenced to prison for a life sentence, and Gypsy was sentenced for 10 years in prison, causing a lot of controversy.

With this story, I believe that Dee Dee deserved the fate she got.

One of the many reasons is Dee Dee Blanchard was an abuser. Gypsy’s life was constant emotional and physical pain. The abuse started when Gypsy was born, and didn’t end until the death of Dee Dee. Gypsy was also manipulated to think that no one would believe the abuse, so she didn’t have the option to tell someone what was going on.

Another reason why Dee Dee’s death was necessary is because Gypsy had no other way out of that awful house. No one believed or would ever believe that Gypsy was being abused, or at least be willing to say anything. One doctor actually did not believe Dee Dee about Gypsy’s illnesses, but was forced to stay silent due to the publicity the family had. An anonymous report but didn’t go anywhere. Gypsy tried to escape and run away before, yet Dee Dee always caught back up to Gypsy.

Final important reason — Gypsy’s life was at risk. Her mother was also known to potentially have poisoned people before, and could give Gypsy an early death for the sake of fame. Dee Dee has been accused of starving her own mother to death, and putting weed killer in Laura Petre, her stepmother’s food. Her mother giving Gypsy medications that weren’t needed could have also killed Gypsy. Gypsy participated in the murder of her own mother to save her life.

Many people would say no one deserves to be murdered. However, in cases of awful people who would deserve this death, Dee Dee Blanchard is pretty high up there. She abused her daughter her entire life, didn’t give her an escape from her, and manipulated and lied to everyone around her. She forced her daughter into a false life where she had to pretend to be ill and unaware of what’s going on. Her death was justified, however, Gypsy and her boyfriend deserved prison time. The murder was unnecessarily brutal, Dee Dee being stabbed 17 times, and nearly decapitated. Another reason they deserved prison time was because this was such a public case. It was important that so many people knew you couldn’t murder and get away with it stock-free.

But in the end, with all the pain Dee Dee caused to others around her, she deserved her fate. Through years of abuse and manipulation, with no way out, Gypsy Rose is a survivor and did all she could to survive her unfortunate upbringing.

This story is part of a series that unpacks true crime cases. Read more stories at themchenrymessenger.com/crime