title: Hoops (TV series)

text: On October 3, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was created by Ben Hoffman who was also expected to executive produce alongside Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Seth Cohen, M. Dickson and Jake Johnson. Production companies involved with the series were slated to be Bento Box Entertainment and 20th Television. Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that Jake Johnson was set to star in the series. In July 2020, it was announced that Natasha Leggero, Rob Riggle, Ron Funches, Cleo King and A. D. Miles were cast in starring roles. The series premiered on August 21, 2020. The official series trailer was released on August 6, 2020. On December 8, 2020, Netflix canceled the series after one season.


title: Hoops (TV series)

text: "Hoops" received negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives it an approval rating of 14% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 3.71/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Crude, rude, and aimless, "Hoops" first season throws nothing but bricks." Metacritic, another aggregation site, gives it a weighted average score of 35 out of 100 based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Hoops (TV series)

text: Caroline Framke of "Variety" described the series "isn't half the joke machine it would need to be in order to justify its total lack of nuance". Stuart Jeffries of "The Guardian" described it as a "puerile comedy ... perfect for Trump's America" that is more "toxically retrograde" than "Love Thy Neighbour", noting its sexualized portrayal of women, an overabundance of penis jokes, and a cast of mostly stereotypical token characters.


title: President of Greece

text: The president of Greece, officially the President of the Hellenic Republic (), commonly referred to in Greek as the President of the Republic (), is the head of state of Greece. The president is elected by the Hellenic Parliament; the role has been mainly ceremonial since the 1986 constitutional reform. The office was formally established by the Constitution of Greece in 1975, but has antecedents in the Second Hellenic Republic of 1924–1935 and the Greek junta in 1973–1974 which predated the transition to the current Third Hellenic Republic. The incumbent, since 13 March 2020, is Katerina Sakellaropoulou.


title: President of Greece

text: The president is the nominal commander-in-chief of the Greek Armed Forces and occupies the first place in the country's order of precedence. Although the Greek Constitution of 1974 vested the presidency with considerable powers on paper, in practice presidents took a largely ceremonial role; the prime minister of Greece is the active chief executive of the Greek government and the country's leading political figure. The president's role was formally brought into line with practice by the 1986 constitutional amendment, which reduced the official powers.


title: President of Greece

text: According to Article 32 of the Greek Constitution, the president is elected for a five-year term by the Hellenic Parliament in a special session at least a month before the incumbent's term expires. Voting takes place in up to five ballots, separated by no more than five days.


title: President of Greece

text: The first and second ballots require a supermajority of 200 out of the 300-person body, dropping to 180 on the third. The fourth ballot requires a simple majority of 151 votes. The fifth and last ballot is then contested between the two candidates with the most votes and decided by a relative majority.


title: President of Greece

text: Before taking office, the president must recite an oath in front of the Parliament according to the Article 33, paragraph 2 of the Greek Constitution:


title: President of Greece

text: The official residence of the president of Greece is the Presidential Mansion, formerly the New Royal Palace, in central Athens.


title: President of Greece

text: The current Third Hellenic Republic () was established in 1974 during the period of "metapolitefsi", after the end of the Greek junta which had controlled Greece since the coup d'état of 21 April 1967.


title: President of Greece

text: On 1 June 1973 the then leader of the military junta and regent for the exiled King Constantine II, Georgios Papadopoulos, abolished the Greek monarchy and proclaimed himself President of the Republic. A staged referendum on 29 July 1973 confirmed the regime change, and passed a new constitution which established a presidential republic. This attempt at controlled democratization was ended by Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis' overthrow of Papadopoulos on 25 November 1973. The republic and its symbols (but not the semi-presidential system) were formally maintained, but they were nothing more than a façade for the military regime. Lt. General Phaedon Gizikis was appointed President of the Republic, but power was in the hands of Ioannidis, who ruled behind the scenes.


title: President of Greece

text: After the fall of the junta and the return to civilian rule under Konstantinos Karamanlis in August 1974, the constitutional acts of the military regime were deemed invalid, and a new referendum was held on 8 December 1974, which confirmed the abolition of the monarchy. In the interim, Gizikis, remained in office as President. After the plebiscite, he was succeeded by the first elected president, Michail Stasinopoulos.


title: President of Greece

text: A new constitution, promulgated on 11 June 1975, declared Greece a "presidential parliamentary democracy" (or "republic" – the Greek δημοκρατία can be translated both ways). This constitution, revised in 1985, 2001, 2008 and 2019, is still in force today.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Edward Cathal Byrne (born 16 April 1972) is an Irish actor and comedian. He has presented the British television shows "Just for Laughs" and "Uncut! Best Unseen Ads", has been a guest on numerous television panel games and has appeared on a number of television cooking shows.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne was born on 16 April 1972 in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland, to Jill and Eddie Byrne, the third of four children.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Deciding to study horticulture at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, he was made entertainments convener at the Students' Union in his second year of study. Byrne started a comedy night called "The Comedy Cellar" in the basement of the 13th Note public house on Glassford Street, Glasgow. On the first night, Byrne appeared on the roster alongside Armando Iannucci's brother David. Over the following few months, acts booked included Ford Kiernan, Phil Kay, Greg Hemphill, Alan Francis and Alan Tyler. After a few months he gave up studying and headed to London. He was later booked to appear at "The Comedy Cellar" by new convenors Ford Kiernan and J.P. Leach.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: After building up his act on observational comedy, Byrne was nominated for the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: In 2006 he toured the UK, recording a DVD in Leeds, entitled "Pedantic and Whimsical", which was largely a "greatest hits" set of his material to date. He has also appeared in "Father Ted", and performed voice-over work in the Carphone Warehouse adverts. In February 2007 Byrne appeared on a comedians' special edition of "Weakest Link". Byrne has performed eight sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and four sell-out UK tours. He has also developed huge success on the international circuit where he has performed to full capacity audiences in Canada, France, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: He has since garnered a raft of major broadcast credits, including five U.S. appearances on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (NBC). In July 2007, Byrne made his début at the Newbury Comedy Festival, having participated in the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny shortly before. He recorded a live DVD "Different Class" at the King's Theatre, Glasgow, on 23 March 2009, which was released on 23 November of that year.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: On 15 September 2010, Byrne, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in "The Guardian", stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne frequently appeared on BBC stand-up comedy programme "Mock the Week" as the most common guest panellist, having appeared on 73 episodes as of October 2022.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne's earliest TV appearances included the ITV shows "The Big Big Talent Show" and "Blind Date". He also appeared in "Father Ted" as a teenager mocking Father Ted and two other priests on a phone chat line, in the episode "A Christmassy Ted". Byrne has presented television shows "Uncut! Best Unseen Ads" and "Just for Laughs", and is a regular guest on "The Panel", "HeadJam", "Mock the Week" and "Never Mind the Buzzcocks". He has also appeared on "Lily Savage's Blankety Blank", "Have I Got News for You", "The Bubble", "The Unbelievable Truth", "Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment" and "We Need Answers". He has also appeared on "The Graham Norton Show" six times.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne featured in a series of comedy shorts on the MSN Video Channel in which he discusses some of his pet hates, including occasional smokers and his girlfriend's snoring. Byrne appeared in the second part of the BBC2 programme "Three Men Go to Scotland" on 30 December 2010 whilst hitching a ride to reach the Cuillin mountains on Skye for his Munro bagging attempt – climbing every mountain in Scotland over . On 31 March 2012, Byrne appeared on "All Star Family Fortunes".


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: On 5 July 2012, Byrne appeared as a guest on "The One Show". Byrne presented segments during "Volcano Live" from 9 to 12 July. He appeared on a celebrity version of "The Chase" on 30 November 2013, where he successfully brought £117,000 through, a record for the programme. "Dara and Ed's Great Big Adventure", a 2015 three-part fly-on-the-wall television series, followed Byrne and Dara Ó Briain (fellow Irish comedian and best friend) in their journey by car down the Pan-American Highway.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: In January 2013 Byrne was a contestant on episode 4 of BBC's "The Great Comic Relief Bake Off" and won the Technical Challenge with his lemon meringue pie. In January 2014 he hosted episode 4 of "The Great Sport Relief Bake Off" on BBC Two.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: In January and February 2021 he was a contestant on BBC's "Celebrity Best Home Cook". Describing his signature dish, smoked pork ribs, Byrne said, "I cover them in a dry rub that I've been perfecting by trial and error for years, then shove them in a barrel smoker for about 10 hours, spraying them with apple juice and cider to keep them moist." Byrne was described as "a reasonably strong participant" and was named as one of the judges' favourites in episode two. He was eliminated, along with Karim Zeroual, in episode five, on 8 February.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne played the title character in the 2000 ITV adaptation of the pantomime "Aladdin" and had a small part in the 2000 comedy film "Rat". In 2001 Byrne was the main character in an RTÉ-produced sitcom entitled "The Cassidys". It was cancelled after one series.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: In 2005 he starred in the film, "". The film is about John Davies (played by Byrne) who suffers from multiple obsessive compulsive disorders. When his current model girlfriend leaves him, he decides to replace her with the most attractive woman on the planet, Czech model . The film follows his attempts to curb his old obsessions to meet his latest obsession – Veronika.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne played the part of Luke Dyson in a comedy film set in London called "Are You Ready For Love" for which he won an Angel award at the Monaco Film Festival as best supporting actor.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne plays the part of Irish radio presenter Dylan Dale in the British feature film version of Tony Hawks' book "Round Ireland with a Fridge" which was released in September 2010 and on DVD on 8 November 2010.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Since 2011, Byrne has written a column for the hillwalking magazine "TGO" in which he tries a different outdoor activity each month in the company of an expert. He also had a column in the "Metro" newspaper until January 2012.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne believes his older brother Stephen was the funniest member of the family as a child. His younger brother Paul was a comedy director and had long been a fixture at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: Byrne married theatre publicist Claire Walker in 2008. The couple live in Essex and have two sons, the elder called Cosmo and the younger named Magnus. Fellow comic Dara Ó Briain was best man at his wedding, returning the favour after Byrne was previously Ó Briain's best man in 2006.


title: Ed Byrne (comedian)

text: On 12 February 2022, Byrne announced via his Twitter account that his younger brother Paul had died aged 44 years old. He also has an older sister, Trish.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Transformers: Cyberverse (retitled Transformers: Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures in season 3) is a cel shaded computer animated series based on the "Transformers" toy franchise by Hasbro. The series debuted on Cartoon Network on August 27, 2018.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: When Bumblebee begins to suffer amnesia, his partner, Windblade, comes to the rescue and begins the process of helping him repair his memory files, enabling him to rediscover his past adventures on Cybertron. Once his memories are repaired, Bumblebee gets a clue that will lead both him and Windblade to complete their current mission and save their friends.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Prior to the series, Cybertron was a peaceful planet, but when Megatron was elected supreme ruler of Cybertron, half of the planet's inhabitants protested against his rule which escalated into a civil war in an effort to overthrow him.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: During the war on Cybertron between the Autobots and Decepticons, Optimus Prime decides to throw the AllSpark through a space bridge to an unknown location. The AllSpark holds all Cybertronian life and possesses vast powers that must not fall in the hands of the Decepticons. Eventually, it becomes clear that Cybertron is slowly dying without the AllSpark. Optimus Prime goes on a journey to find the AllSpark on a spaceship called the "Ark" together with Bumblebee, Arcee, Prowl, Grimlock, Ratchet, Wheeljack, Chromia, Rack'n'Ruin, Drift, Teletraan-1 and Teletraan-X. Due to Energon shortage, all Autobots have to go into stasis. The "Ark" finds the AllSpark on Earth, but it gets damaged and crashes. Bumblebee and Grimlock fall out of the ship before the "Ark" hits the surface. Bumblebee stays in stasis, while Grimlock befriends the dinosaurs and teaches them Cybertronian technology. They search the entire planet for the "Ark" and the AllSpark, but then a meteorite crashes on Earth. The dinosaurs go extinct and Grimlock goes back into stasis.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: The first chapter focuses on Windblade who was the only bot able to get through a partially repaired space bridge. She lands on Earth in search for the Ark. She only finds Bumblebee, who has now awoken from stasis, but has lost all his memory files. Windblade possesses telepathic powers and helps Bumblebee to restore his memory. Old memories from Cybertron and the journey on the "Ark" are rediscovered in every episode. Meanwhile, they have to defend themselves against several Decepticons, who are also looking for the "Ark" and the AllSpark.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Eventually, they find Teletraan-X, a flying hard drive of the "Ark", and they manage to find and awaken Grimlock. Teletraan-X is able to locate the "Ark" with the data Grimlock has collected. They wake up all Autobots on board from stasis "right" before Starscream arrives on Earth with his Decepticon armada.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Following the Autobots' reawakening, they and the Decepticons continue their war on Earth as Megatron attempts to slam Earth's moon into the planet. In the ensuing battle, Megatron is wounded by Optimus Prime, and when Starscream refuses to aid him, Megatron names Slipstream the new commander of the Seekers. Tired of being humiliated and insulted by Megatron, Starscream attacks him and briefly takes command of the Decepticons. However, Megatron survives the attempt and apparently kills Starscream in revenge, leaving his body on the moon. Meanwhile, the Autobots destroy the device the Decepticons were trying to use to make the moon smash into Earth, but as they celebrate their victory, Bumblebee sees a yellow, spotted Earth creature watching him.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: With help from Arcee, Bumblebee is able to identify the creature as a cheetah. The cheetah is eventually seen by Megatron, and both he and Optimus Prime learn that this cheetah is Cheetor, a Cybertronian created by the AllSpark to serve as its guardian. Cheetor holds a contest where Optimus and Megatron battle one another to see who is worthy of holding the AllSpark. But before a winner can be determined, a still-living Starscream appears and steals the AllSpark for himself. Using the AllSpark and Vector Sigma, the now-insane Starscream creates an army of Scraplets, planning to use the AllSpark's power to kill everyone who opposes him. Slipstream tries to warn the Decepticons and Autobots of Starscream's plan but is only successful in informing Windblade before being killed by the Decepticon Bludgeon, who believes that she had sided with Starscream like most of the Seekers had done.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Powered by the AllSpark, Starscream attacks both sides but is driven off by Cheetor, who has now sided with the Autobots. Later, the Autobot Jetfire and Decepticon Sky-Byte come to Earth, pursuing one another to put an end to their rivalry. Starscream pits the two against one another to distract both sides from his plans, but this eventually leads to the two leading their respective sides to right to him. After absorbing the sparks of his fellow Seekers, Starscream attempts to do the same to the Autobots and Decepticons, but Optimus uses the Matrix of Leadership to rob Starscream of the AllSpark. Cheetor recovers it for the Autobots, and they also take Starscream prisoner.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: With the AllSpark in hand, the Autobots leave Earth to return to Cybertron. Unknown to them, the Decepticons use a Space Bridge built by Shockwave to get back to their home first. During the journey back to Cybertron, Windblade uses the AllSpark to reawaken Croaton, an ancient Titan who was forced into emergency stasis by an unknown force that kidnapped the colonists who were traveling with him. As Croaton departs into space to find his missing colonists, he unknowingly picks up an escaping Starscream as a passenger. Eventually, the Autobots discover another Space Bridge which they use to travel to Cybertron, unaware that Megatron has already conquered the planet and is leading the Autobots into a trap.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: The third and final season consists of three arcs: the Autobots and Decepticons battling for the AllSpark and control of Cybertron, the Quintesson invasion, and Bumblebee searching for pieces of Windblade's fragmented mind.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Picking up where the last season left off, the Decepticons have beaten the "Ark" back to Cybertron and attempt to lure the arriving Autobots into a death trap. However, Optimus anticipated this and evacuated the ship's crew before the "Ark" flies into a laser snare set up by Shockwave and is destroyed. The Autobots soon reveal themselves and a large-scale battle occurs between both sides, with the Autobot Prowl taking a fatal shot from Shadow Striker meant for Optimus. With help from Windblade, Wheeljack destroys Vector Sigma by sending it into Unspace, while Windblade knocks Bludgeon into Unspace with Vector Sigma, avenging Slipstream.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Meanwhile, Hot Rod leads Bumblebee and Cheetor to the Well of the AllSpark, to return the AllSpark there and revitalize Cybertron. Despite interference from Shockwave, the team is successful, but Cheetor sacrifices himself to save the AllSpark when Shockwave attempts to corrupt it. Megatron is defeated after Optimus knocks him into a swarm of scraplets, allowing the Autobots to achieve complete victory.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: However, not long afterward, the multiverse-conquering Quintessons invade Cybertron, easily conquering the planet and trapping most Transformers in a groundhog day loop that slowly drains their sparks. Evading capture, Hot Rod and Perceptor free some Autobots and Decepticons to form a resistance against the Quintessons. The resistance discovers that beneath Maccadam's Old Oil House lies an ancient war Titan called Iaconus, and Hot Rod decides to reawaken him using Windblade. Though they initially clash for leadership, Hot Rod and Soundwave learn to work together, defeating the Quintesson's scientist and freeing the rest of their fellow Transformers.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: The Autobots and Decepticons agree to work together to bring the Quintessons down, with Wheeljack discovering that the Quintessons have a multiverse drive that allows them to conquer other universes. Optimus, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Megatron, and Dead End sneak onto the Quintessons' main ship to destroy it, while Hot Rod and Soundwave lead the rest of the Transformers in destroying their main tower and Windblade partially awakens Iaconus. Megatron betrays Optimus and travels through the multiverse portal with Dead End before the tower is destroyed. Moments later, Starscream emerges from the rubble, having been made the judge of this universe by the Quintessons and eager to use his new power to conquer Cybertron for himself.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: While Starscream incapacitates the Transformers, Optimus heads into the multiverse with Bumblebee and Wheeljack in an attempt to escape. Windblade and Maccadam manage to fully raise Iaconus, but Starscream counters with a brainwashed Croaton. Maccadam frees the Transformers from Starscream's captivity before being killed by a stray blast from Croaton. When Iaconus appears to gain the upper hand, Starscream summons an Unspace portal to decapitate Iaconus, killing him, before Croaton begins to lay waste to the rest of Iacon City.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Optimus, Bumblebee, and Wheeljack escape the multiverse and end up in the Quintesson scientist's lab and are attacked by the Scientist himself using clone bodies. Wheeljack finds the bodies' controller and kills him before the trio are attacked by Starscream. Megatron returns from the multiverse, aided by Dead End and Astrotrain, to aid his fellow Transformers. Windblade manages to free Croaton from Quintesson control, but ends up shattering her consciousness, which scatter all across Cybertron. Croaton takes Windblade away from the battle so she can rest. Megatron reveals to Optimus he has acquired his own Matrix of Leadership from the multiverse, and both Optimus and Megatron use their Matrices to end Starscream's threat for good.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: In the aftermath of the Quintesson takeover, Cybertron is divided up evenly between the Autobots and Decepticons, with a barrier being constructed to separate their territories. Bumblebee sneaks into Decepticon territory and finds Windblade's body there, the Cityspeaker having been discovered by Shadow Striker. Sympathetic to Windblade's current condition, Shadow Striker allows Bumblebee to leave with her. With help from Chromia and Grimlock, Bumblebee travels to various corners of Cybertron to find the lost fragments of Windblade's mind, from the legendary Crystal City, to a forbidden moon, the prehistoric Cybertronian underworld, and the gaseous Argon Sea.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Meanwhile, the rest of the Autobots investigate Megatron's activities, finding that he is preparing for the coming threat of someone known as "the Other One". From his Matrix, Optimus receives a message from the spirit of Maccadam, revealed to be Alchemist of the original Thirteen Primes, telling him that the last of Windblade's memory fragments is inside Megatron's Matrix. Optimus leads an infiltration mission into Decepticon territory to destroy said Matrix, but they are soon discovered. Megatron insists that both Matrices must be used against the Other One before mysterious troopers appear and attack both sides. These troops are revealed to be Decepticons from an alternate timeline, specifically the "perfect" Decepticons Megatron once dreamed of creating.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Though both sides attempt to fight off the perfect Decepticons, the Other One himself soon arrives, revealing himself to be an alternate universe version of Megatron. In his universe, this Megatron, called Megatron X, killed his Optimus and stole his Matrix before using the AllSpark and Vector Sigma to create his perfect Decepticons. When the Quintessons invaded years later, Megatron X destroyed them with the Matrix and stole their multiverse technology. Megatron X kills his prime universe counterpart before Bumblebee steals the Matrix and races to the planetary border, with Optimus soon coming to Bumblebee's aid.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Within Megatron's Matrix, the last of Windblade's memory fragments learns from the spirit of the alternate Optimus that this Matrix must be destroyed to defeat Megatron X. Although initially shocked at this revelation, Windblade complies, short-circuiting the alternate Matrix from within and allowing Optimus to overcome and defeat Megatron X. After Bumblebee collects Windblade's last memory fragment, Astrotrain takes Megatron X into the multiverse, intending to trap him there forever. With the last memory fragment secured, Windblade is fully restored to the Autobots’ delight, ending the series.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Arcee and Grimlock venture to another planet to retrieve Nexus Prime's artifacts. Meanwhile, back on Cybertron, during the peace treaty ceremony, the planet is frozen by a group of mercenaries led by Soundblaster, a former Decepticon who defected after Soundwave was chosen over him. Arcee and Grimlock arrive and try to assess the situation, but Arcee is captured and Grimlock finds another group of Dinobots, survivors of another planet previously destroyed by mercenaries who received Grimlock's message from prehistoric Earth. Later they combine into Volcanicus using the Enigma of Combination's powers. After learning how to handle it, they face the mercenaries and defeat them, but their employer Trypticon arrives and takes over the fight while they escape, Volcanicus defeats Trypticon using an immobilizer gun the mercenaries left behind. With some help from Wheeljack, they reanimate the entire planet and its inhabitants minus Trypticon and continue the celebration.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: The Autobots and the Decepticons are celebrating the opening of Trypticon's plaza, but are interrupted by a mortally wounded Astrotrain who warns them of a threat worse than the other Megatron. The Autobots and the Decepticons try to stop the invasion, but the Perfect Decepticons arrive, and immediately begin fighting each other. One of them, Tarn, explains that they were mindless slaves of Megatron whom after taking revenge on Astrotrain for his demise had been fighting one another to choose the strongest as their new leader, he then tells them about the Cortex Helm, an artifact of Onyx Prime that will help them reprogram Tarn's kin. They agree to help him, and a group consisting of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Soundwave and Shadow Striker accompany him, and with help from Thunderhowl they find the Cortex Helm. Tarn then reveals his deception and uses the helm to control the Perfect Decepticons, he then announces himself as the new leader of all Decepticons and declares war on the Autobots. Afterwards, he forces Optimus into a Gladiator fight with his army. The Autobots save Optimus and join forces with their Decepticons against the invaders. Amidst the battle, Soundwave ultimately sacrifices himself to destroy Tarn and free the Perfect Decepticons. Afterwards, everyone holds a memorial service for Soundwave as all of Cybertron achieves true peace.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: On June 7, 2017, Boulder Media Limited confirmed working on an additional "Transformers" series besides "".


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: "Transformers: Cyberverse" was first announced during Hasbro Media and Investor Day in August 2017. The first season, titled "Chapter 1", would air in 2018, while a second season, titled "Chapter 2", is set to air in 2019. The series puts more emphasis on characters. The first season consists of eighteen eleven-minute episodes.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: On December 9, 2017, Dan Salgarolo, who previously worked on "", has joined the series. On April 9, 2018, voice actor Lianne Marie Dobbs has also joined the series.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: A 1-minute clip from the episode "Megatron is My Hero" was previewed at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, alongside the show's intro.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: On September 28, 2019, it was announced that the series has been renewed for the third and final season for 2020. It has also retitled as "Transformers: Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures."


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: On October 6, 2020, it was announced that two Transformers Cyberverse TV movies are currently in production.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: On May 29, 2021, it was announced that the two Transformers Cyberverse TV movies will be released on Netflix on November 21, 2021.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Similar to "" and "", Cartoon Network acquired the global broadcasting rights for the series, which includes linear and digital rights.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: The series premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network, with the first two episodes released earlier on the Cartoon Network App on August 27, 2018, and debuting on television on September 1, 2018; starting with the third episode, subsequent episodes are released in advance on Fridays on the Cartoon Network App before the television broadcast. In Canada, the series premiered on Teletoon on September 16, 2018 and YTV on September 28, 2018.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: Internationally, the series premiered on RTL 7 in the Netherlands on September 2, 2018, on Cartoon Network on September 29, 2018, in Australia, October 2, 2018 in Latin America, October 27, 2018 in India, Central and Eastern Europe, and the United Kingdom, on Gulli on October 7, 2018, in France. and on Spacetoon in 2020 in the Arab League.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: September 7, 2018. Episodes in many other languages have followed suit. Unlike other web shows on Hasbro's YouTube channel, only select languages are available for specific regions, whilst the rest are region-locked.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: The first six episodes of season one were released on Region 4 DVD in Australia on February 20, 2019, by Beyond Home Entertainment. The second installment was released on DVD in April 2019 followed by the third and final release in June. Season two has yet to be released on DVD.


title: Transformers: Cyberverse

text: A video game based on the series, "Transformers Battlegrounds", was released on October 23, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: Indian Horse is a 2017 Canadian drama film adaptation of the 2012 novel by author Richard Wagamese (Ojibwe) of the same name. Directed by Stephen S. Campanelli and written by Dennis Foon, it premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and received a general theatrical release in 2018.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: The film centres on Saul Indian Horse, a young Canadian First Nations boy who survives the Canada's Indian residential school system to become a star ice hockey player. The film stars Sladen Peltier as Saul at age 6, Forrest Goodluck as Saul at age 15, and Ajuawak Kapashesit as Saul at age 22; along with supporting roles by Edna Manitowabi, Evan Adams, Michiel Huisman, Michael Murphy, and Martin Donovan.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: The film is an adaptation of the 2012 novel "Indian Horse", written by author Richard Wagamese (Ojibwa).


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: Originally slated for production as a television film to air on Super Channel, "Indian Horse" premiered as a theatrical film after Super Channel filed for bankruptcy in Canada in 2016. The film was shot primarily in Greater Sudbury and Peterborough, Ontario.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: Minor controversy arose over the casting of Will Strongheart in the supporting role of Virgil in the film; the actor was known to have a history of criminal domestic violence. Strongheart has attributed his past actions to problems with drugs and alcohol. He said that he regrets such actions, and has reformed since attaining sobriety in 2010.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: The Indian Horse family, including six-year-old Saul and his older brother, retreat in canoes deep into the wild to avoid the authorities after Saul's older brother is left seriously ill by his time in an Indian residential school. Saul resolves never to go to a residential school. His parents have converted to Christianity and believe that their eldest son will go to heaven. When the boy dies, they take him away to be blessed by a priest, leaving Saul with his grandmother deep in the woods. The parents do not return.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: Saul and his grandmother stay and camp, but once cold weather starts, his grandmother decides they must continue their trek toward their ancestral lands. After their canoe capsizes, they huddle to stay warm at night; they continue their journey on foot through snow. When his grandmother dies, Saul is discovered by the authorities and forcibly taken to a residential school. There, he meets a boy named Lonnie, who cannot speak English. The top official, Father Quinney, and his nun deem Lonnie an unsuitable name and call him Aaron. They forbid the boys to speak their Ojibwe language, beating Lonnie although he knows no English.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: In the school, Saul witnesses the nuns and priest instructors abuse the children, and struggles to survive. Father Gaston Leboutilier seems to want to change conditions. He convinces Father Quinney to allow a new outdoor activity, ice hockey. Saul does not meet the age requirement to play, but he convinces Father Leboutilier to give him the job of maintaining the rink in the early morning, which allows him to spend time on the ice. From watching televised hockey games and practising in the mornings, Saul also begins learning techniques. When one of the school's players is injured, Saul steps forward as a substitute and astounds Father Leboutilier with his talent. Saul declines to join Lonnie's escape attempt, as Saul was looking forward to playing; Lonnie is recaptured and punished.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: Saul shows remarkable hockey skills on the school team. When he becomes a teen, the school allows Saul to leave and move into a foster home with an Indigenous family in a mining town, where he can further pursue hockey. Saul joins an all-Indigenous team called the Moose, who travel to games between Indian reserves, and receives the jersey number 13, "for luck". Winning a key game, Saul is treated as a star player in "Hockey Night in Canada" style, but the team faces racial discrimination and beatings afterwards in a pub.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: Saul attracts the attention of the Toronto Monarchs, a feeder team for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but does not want to leave his friends in the Moose. His team insists he take the offer, and he reluctantly joins the Monarchs. There, he keeps his number 13, which no one else wants due to triskaidekaphobia. Initially excelling, he is put off by a racist caricature of him in the newspaper. On the ice, Saul becomes the target of racist slurs from opponents and teammates alike, while the audience throws toy Indian figures onto the ice. Pushed into violence by many fouls, he is confined to the penalty box. He is stunned when Father Leboutilier appears one night, professing pride in where hockey has taken Saul, and admitting the abuses in the school were wrong. Father Leboutilier tells Saul that the church is sending him to work in Africa. Leboutilier's appearance causes Saul to have flashbacks to the abuses committed at the school, and he leaves the team.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: Taking odd low-level jobs, he drifts from place to place between 1979 and 1989. He sees Lonnie in an alley, drinking liquor. Saul also drinks a lot and develops alcoholism. Facing serious health issues after severe damage to his liver, Saul is accepted by the Indigenous rehabilitation centre Rising Dawn. The group therapy leader, seeing how sad and withdrawn Saul is, encourages him to confront the root of his suffering. Saul travels back to the now closed school, where it is revealed that he had been sexually molested by Father Leboutilier. He makes a pilgrimage by canoe back to his ancestral lands. After he returns to his foster family, he is happily welcomed by them and his former Moose teammates.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: Released to average reviews, "Indian Horse" was a box-office bomb, garnering only $1.69 million on an $8 million budget. Nonetheless, "Indian Horse" was the highest-grossing English Canadian film of 2018.


title: Indian Horse (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 79%, based on reviews from 14 critics, with an average rating of 5.90/10.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: LeRoi Holloway Moore (September 7, 1961 – August 19, 2008) was an American saxophonist. He was a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band. Moore often arranged music for songs written by Dave Matthews. Moore also co-wrote many of the band's songs, notably "Too Much" and "Stay (Wasting Time)".


title: LeRoi Moore

text: Moore was born in Durham, North Carolina to Roxie Holloway Moore and Albert P. Moore. Raised in Virginia, he attended college at James Madison University studying tenor saxophone, and later became an accomplished jazz musician in Charlottesville, Virginia, playing with artists such as John D'earth and Dawn Thompson. Moore began playing professionally after a brief stay in college. Moore helped found the Charlottesville Swing Orchestra (1982), and the John D'earth Quintet. The latter played at Miller's, a Charlottesville bar, every Thursday night in the late 1980s, where Moore first met Dave Matthews in 1991. In an effort to bring in instrumental help for some songs Matthews had written, Moore began recording songs with Matthews.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: Moore played bass, baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones, as well as the flute, bass clarinet, the wooden penny whistle, and the oboe. Moore's woodwind technician, David Saull, notes that Moore had "quite an extensive horn collection."


title: LeRoi Moore

text: In addition to performing with the Dave Matthews Band, Moore recorded a 1995 album with Thompson and Greg Howard under the name Code Magenta, combining improvised jazz grooves with spoken-word poetry. He appeared on "In November Sunlight", the 1996 debut album of Sokoband (then known as Soko).


title: LeRoi Moore

text: Moore was injured on June 30, 2008, in an all-terrain vehicle accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia. His last live performance took place two days prior at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: Jeff Coffin, the saxophonist from Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, stood in for Moore on subsequent tour dates, starting July 1, 2008, in Charlotte, North Carolina. This marked the first time a band member had missed a show since 1993, two years after the band was formed.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: Moore was riding an ATV on his farm to check a fence when he hit a grass-covered ditch, causing the ATV to flip and partially land on him. He broke several ribs and punctured a lung, and was hospitalized at UVA for several days. After his release, he was re-hospitalized in mid-July for complications related to the accident.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: After Moore was released again from the University of Virginia Health System, he traveled to his home in Los Angeles to start his rehabilitation program. On the morning of August 19, Moore was feeling unwell and those present could see that his lips were turning blue. He was rushed to the hospital, but died shortly thereafter. While it was widely reported that he had died from a blood clot, the coroner's office determined his cause of death to be pneumonia.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: We are deeply saddened to announce that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: Matthews paid tribute to Moore on the day of his death at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, after the band's first song of the performance, "Bartender." "We all had some bad news today," Matthews told the sold-out crowd. "Our good friend LeRoi Moore passed on and gave his ghost up today and we will miss him forever." Fans then shouted Moore's name in remembrance.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: On August 27, Moore was entombed at Holly Memorial Gardens in Albemarle County. Attendance at the funeral numbered in the thousands, including the rest of the band, Moore's family, and dedicated fans.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: Dave Matthews Band released LeRoi Moore's final concert performance as "Live Trax Vol. 14". The concert took place in the band's home state of Virginia in Bristow on June 28, 2008. Proceeds from the CD were donated to local charities that Moore valued.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: On September 30, 2008, during a concert in Brazil for the South American Tour while the Dave Matthews Band was playing the introduction of "#41," Brazilian fans spread white balloons around the concert house in order to pay homage to Moore. At this point, the band almost completely stopped playing and thanked the crowd for this amazing show of thanks to Moore. Violinist Boyd Tinsley was driven to tears by this homage to Moore.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: After Moore's death, Methane Studios, the company that creates most of the band's show posters, paid tribute to Moore on the posters that were sold at the shows. One such poster that was sold at a show on September 7, 2008, which would have been Moore's 47th birthday, has become a sought after collectors item among fans. Sales of the poster have been seen as high as $600 on eBay.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: A second tribute poster was printed and released on September 6, 2009, and was sold during the final day of the Gorge '09 show. The poster was the King of Spades, a part of the Royal Flush series. There were 1100 printed and all prints sold out in the first hour. It shows the King of Spades playing a saxophone with his eyes closed. Across the base of his crown it reads "GrooGrux King."


title: LeRoi Moore

text: Glow sticks were also tossed by the crowd during the Gorge shows in 2008, as well as a tribute slide show video with photos of Moore, played along with the studio version of "#34" during the encore breaks.


title: LeRoi Moore

text: At the 51st Grammy Awards, the first one following Moore's death, a video tribute to musicians who had died in the previous year excluded Moore, disappointing and angering fans. Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, responded with a statement noting that Moore was included in a list of deceased musicians in the program for the event, and "unfortunately we are unable to include all of the talented and wonderful people within the allotted timeframe." This created a tremendous outrage from the band's fans and many other music celebrities.


title: Nacirema

text: Nacirema ("American" spelled backwards) is a term used in anthropology and sociology in relation to aspects of the behavior and society of citizens of the United States of America. The neologism attempts to create a deliberate sense of self-distancing in order that American anthropologists might look at their own culture more objectively.


title: Nacirema

text: The original use of the term in a social science context was in "Body Ritual among the Nacirema", which satirizes anthropological papers on "other" cultures, and the culture of the United States. Horace Mitchell Miner wrote the paper and originally published it in the June 1956 edition of "American Anthropologist".


title: Nacirema

text: In the paper, Miner describes the Nacirema, a little-known tribe living in North America. The way in which he writes about the curious practices that this group performs distances readers from the fact that the North American group described actually corresponds to modern-day Americans of the mid-1950s.


title: Nacirema

text: Miner presents the Nacirema as a group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. The paper describes the typical Western ideal for oral cleanliness, as well as providing an outside view on hospital care and on psychiatry. The Nacirema are described as having a highly developed market economy that has evolved within a rich natural habitat.


title: Nacirema

text: Miner's article became a popular work, reprinted in many introductory textbooks and used as an example of process analysis in the literature text "The Bedford Reader". The article received the most reprint permission requests of any article in "American Anthropologist".


title: Nacirema

text: Some of the popular aspects of Nacirema culture include: medicine men and women (doctors, psychiatrists, and pharmacists), a charm-box (medicine cabinet), the mouth-rite ritual (brushing teeth), and a cultural hero known as Notgnihsaw (Washington spelled backwards). These ritual purification practices are prescribed as how humans should comport themselves in the presence of sacred things. These sacred aspects are the rituals that the Nacirema partake in throughout their lives.


title: Nacirema

text: In 1972 Neil B. Thompson revisited the Nacirema after the fall of their civilization. Thompson's paper, unlike Miner's, primarily offered a social commentary focused on environmental issues. Thompson paid special attention to the Elibomotua (automobile backwards) cult and its efforts to modify the environment.


title: Nacirema

text: This article is reprinted and appears as the final chapter in an anthology, "Nacirema: Readings on American Culture". The volume contains an array of scholarly investigations into American social anthropology as well as one more article in the Nacirema series, by Willard Walker of Wesleyan University: "The Retention of Folk Linguistic Concepts and the ti'ycir Caste in Contemporary Nacireman Culture" which laments the corrosive and subjugating ritual of attending "sguwlz". On phonology, the anthropologist notes:


title: Nacirema

text: This refers to the conceptualization of the English vowel system based on orthography (with "5" vowels), which is in stark contrast to the actual system (with nine vowels and several diphthongs).


title: Nacirema

text: Gerry Philipsen (1992) studies what he terms "speech codes" among the Nacirema, which he contrasts with the speech codes of another semi-fictionalized group of Americans, the inhabitants of Teamsterville culture. His Nacirema comprises primarily middle-class west-coast Americans.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Big Fish is a musical with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and book by John August. It is based on Daniel Wallace's 1998 novel, "", and the 2003 film "Big Fish" written by John August and directed by Tim Burton.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: "Big Fish" revolves around the relationship between Edward Bloom, a travelling salesman, and his adult son Will, who looks for what is behind his father's tall stories.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The story shifts between two timelines. In the present-day real world, sixty-year-old Edward Bloom faces his mortality while his son, Will, prepares to become a father himself. In the storybook past, Edward ages from a teenager, encountering a Witch, a Giant, a Mermaid, and the love of his life, Sandra. The stories meet as Will discovers the secret his father never revealed.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The musical plot differs from the 2003 film in certain aspects. The mythical town of Spectre — and Edward's quest to save it from destruction — has been folded into Edward's home town of Ashton. In the musical, The Witch and Jenny Hill are two distinct characters. In the film, Jenny Hill and The Witch were aspects of the same character played by Helena Bonham Carter. The character of Norther Winslow, played by Steve Buscemi in the film, doesn't exist in the musical, nor do conjoined twins Ping and Jing.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The curtain rises in Alabama on Edward Bloom, who is skipping rocks on the river. His son, Will, who is about to get married, comes to ask Edward not to make a toast or tell any of his crazy stories at the wedding. Edward cannot understand why Will feels this way, but assures Will that he will oblige. Entering a flashback to when Will was a child, Edward tells him a story. Edward is walking down the river when he meets a man trying to catch fish to no avail. So Edward teaches him that the proper way to catch fish is by doing the "Alabama Stomp", saying, "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man the Alabama Stomp, you feed his soul!" The entire company joins them, and they catch many, many fish. At the very end of the song, a giant fish jumps out of the water into the fisherman's arms ("Be the Hero"). When he finishes his story, Edward's wife, Sandra, tells them it's time for Will to go to bed. Edward refuses behind her back and tells Will another story of a witch that Edward met as a teenager, who showed Edward and his high school enemy, Don Price, how they would die ("The Witch").


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The show continues as Edward leads young Will and some other boys in a boy scouts troop to make a bonfire. He tells them the story of when he was in the war. In a flashback, Sandra and some show girls are performing for the military troops when a masked man appears on stage to kill the general. Edward goes on stage and discovers that this masked man is Red Fang, the infamous sniper. After a long battle on stage alongside the showgirls, he successfully kills Red Fang ("Red, White, and True"). Edward tells the boys that "some people say it was the turning point of the war." But when young Will asks which war, he is unable to answer. This adds to young Will's growing doubts of his father's stories. Later on, Edward tells Sandra and Will he has to travel for a while for his work as a traveling salesman. Will is upset, but Edward tells him he must be brave and Fight the Dragons ("Fight the Dragons").


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, "Big Fish" opened in an out-of-town tryout at Chicago's Oriental Theatre, running from April 2 to May 5, 2013. The cast featured Norbert Leo Butz as Edward Bloom, Kate Baldwin as Sandra Bloom, Bobby Steggert as Will Bloom, Krystal Joy Brown as Josephine, Brad Oscar as Amos Calloway, and Ryan Andes as Karl, with scenic design by Julian Crouch, costume design by William Ivey Long, lighting by Donald Holder, music direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, and orchestrations by Larry Hochman. The musical was produced by Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen in association with Stage Entertainment.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: "Big Fish" premiered on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre on September 5, 2013, in previews, and opened on October 6, 2013. The musical closed on December 29, 2013, after 34 previews and 98 regular performances.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The first regional production of "Big Fish" was presented by Jedlicka Performing Arts Center in Cicero, Illinois The production ran from July 29 through August 10, 2014. The second regional production was presented by Musical Theatre West at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach, California (October 31 - November 16, 2014). This first production "west of the Mississippi" used sets (partial), costumes, and multi-media from the original Broadway production, purchased by MTW after the show closed at the end of 2013, and was directed by Larry Carpenter, choreographed by Peggy Hickey, and conducted by Matthew Smedal. Jeff Skowron led the cast as Edward Bloom. The 12-chair (12-person cast) version of "Big Fish", licensed by Theatrical Rights Worldwide, was presented by Front Porch Theatricals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a sold-out seven-show run from August 18–27, 2017, at the New Hazlett Theater. This regional professional premiere starred Billy Hartung as Edward Bloom and Kristiann Menotiades as Sandra Bloom, and was directed by Spencer Whale, choreographed by Mara Newbery Greer, and music directed by Melissa Yanchak.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The European premiere took place in Munich's Prinzregententheater on November 10, 2016. Directed by Andreas Gergen and choreographed by Danny Costello, the show starred the undergraduates and graduates of the "August Everding" theatre academy. The Scottish premiere took place in Glasgow and was produced by Epilogue Theatre in partnership with the Village Storytelling Charity. It ran from January 17–19 and was directed by Luke Seawright and starred Pete Robson as Edward Bloom, Rachel Hunter as Sandra Bloom, and Michael Pellman as Will Bloom.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The Australian professional premiere opened at the Hayes Theatre on April 2, 2017, starring Phillip Lowe as Edward Bloom, Katrina Retallick as Sandra Bloom, and Adam Rennie as Will Bloom. The production was the 12 Chair version, produced by RPG Productions and directed by Tyran Parke.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The show received its London premiere in November 2017 at The Other Palace, starring Kelsey Grammer, Clare Burt (Sandra), Jamie Muscato, and Matthew Seadon-Young, with direction by Nigel Harman.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: The show received its Scandinavian premiere at Uppsala Teater in Sweden on March 13, 2019. The Norwegian premiere will be at Sandvika Teater in October 2022.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Big Fish will receive its Belgian premiere in Bruges in September 2022. They will perform the West End version of the musical.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Two bonus tracks were added on the cast recording. These songs were initially in the show, but were later cut for various reasons.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: "Big Fish" was orchestrated by Larry Hochman, with additional orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin, for a fourteen-piece orchestra. The instrumentation calls for two keyboards, two guitars, bass/bass guitar, drums, percussion, two woodwind players (Reed 1: piccolo, flute, alto flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax; Reed 2: flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax, baritone sax, bassoon), trumpet, French horn, violin, viola, and cello. This orchestration was used on Broadway, conducted by Mary-Mitchell Campbell and will be licensed with the show. Additional string players were added for the cast recording.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Out-of-town reviews for "Big Fish" were positive. "Variety" called it "a wholly satisfying show: meaningful, emotional, tasteful, theatrically imaginative and engaging," and concluded: [B]y taking Edward's tales as the jumping-off point for the theatricality of production numbers, the show makes a case for the musical form itself as a means of privileging imagination over ordinariness. The show does have a target audience after all, and it's those who love musicals.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Chris Jones of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote: [I]n the best moments, you feel like you're watching something deep and powerful, sourced by a work of fine literature, propelled into awareness by a potent film and, most crucially of all, a story that makes us feel we can control, if not transcend, the story of the end of our lives.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Reviews were mixed once the show moved to Broadway. Upon seeing the show again after its move to New York, Jones commented on the changes: This final Broadway version of "Big Fish" has changed considerably, and improved in leaps and bounds, from the version audiences saw in Chicago, especially in the radically different first act. . . . With the indefatigable, deeply engaged and seemingly irreplaceable Norbert Leo Butz driving its storytelling and willing the show's crucial emotional subtext into being by sheer force of talent and will, "Big Fish" arrives on Broadway as an earnest, family-friendly, heart-warming and mostly successful new American musical


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Despite the quality production values, Joe Dziemianowicz of the "New York Daily News" felt that Susan Stroman's dances were pedestrian, writing: " 'Big Fish' is a singing version of catch-and-release. It hooks you, then loses you — all night."


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Ben Brantley of "The New York Times" wrote: Here, though, [Director Susan Stroman] seems to be drawing almost randomly from her bottomless bag of tricks. Yes, her use of dancers to embody an enchanted forest and a campfire is delightful. And it's hard not to chuckle when those two-stepping elephants make a cameo appearance. But if the show is all about the need for personal myths, it has to let its leading mythmaker take charge.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Elysa Gardner of "USA Today" agreed: Somehow, though, the effect isn't as dazzling, or as moving, as you would hope -- particularly given the talented players involved in this production […] In the end, though, this Big Fish lacks the imagination or cohesion to reel you in like one of its hero's yarns.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Thom Geler of "Entertainment Weekly" had a more positive take on those same aspects: It's no spoiler to say that imagination wins out, particularly in director-choreographer Susan Stroman's visually lavish production, which boasts dancing circus elephants, a mermaid who pops up from the orchestra pit, and tree trunks that ingeniously morph into a coven of witches. Don Holder's lighting, William Ivey Long's costumes, and Benjamin Pearcy's projections are often wondrous to behold . . . For the most part, though, Big Fish finds theatrically inventive ways to reel audiences into its central love story. In this case, it isn't boy-meets-girl but father-hooks-son. And Edward Bloom is quite a catch.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Wholesomeness gets a bad rap on Broadway these days, usually regarded as the kind of unbearably sweet and inoffensive entertainment that sophisticated theatergoers must endure while taking their conservative grandmas out for a night on the town. […] But Big Fish, the new musical that tattoos its heart on its arm, displays no fear in plopping its unabashed wholesomeness right in your lap. Its spirit is steeped in Rodgers and Hammerstein decency that propels an evening that's adventurous, romantic and, yeah, kinda hip.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: Butz's performance, however, has been almost universally praised. Jeremy Gerard of "Bloomberg" wrote: The part is custom made for Norbert Leo Butz, who hasn't had such a meaty role since 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.' His ingratiating singing and dancing bespeak the rare man comfortable in his own skin, and he has that indefinable charismatic spark that defines a star.


title: Big Fish (musical)

text: "Variety" reviewer Marilyn Stasio wrote: "Norbert Leo Butz is cutting loose in another one of his don't-dare-miss-this perfs in 'Big Fish,' a show that speaks to anyone pining for a studiously heart-warming musical about the efforts of a dying man to justify a lifetime of lousy parenting to his alienated son."


title: United Bank for Africa

text: United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) is a Multinational pan-African [[financial services]] group headquartered in [[Lagos]] and known as Africa’s Global Bank. It has subsidiaries in 20 African countries and offices in London, Paris and New York. In December 2021, UBA received its banking license to commence operations in the UAE. It is listed as [[commercial bank]] by the [[Central Bank of Nigeria]]. The shares of [[stock]] of the group are listed on the [[Nigerian Stock Exchange]], where they trade under the symbol: UBA. The Group Chairman of the bank is Tony Elumelu and the GMD/CEO is Oliver Alawuba.


title: United Bank for Africa

text: United Bank For Africa is a large financial services group in Nigeria and on the African continent. As of December 2021, the group's financial assets were valued at ₦8.5 trillion (US$20.1 billion), with shareholders' equity of ₦724.1 billion (US$1.8 billion). At that time the group employed 20,000+ people. The group maintains subsidiaries in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, Cameroon, Kenya, Gabon, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Liberia, Sierra-Leone, Mozambique, Senegal, DR Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Mali, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, and UAE.


title: United Bank for Africa

text: The British and French Bank Limited (BFB) commenced business in Nigeria in 1948. BFB was a subsidiary of [[Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie]] (BNCI) in Paris, which transformed its London branch into BFB as a separate subsidiary. Banque Nationale de Credit and two British investment firms, S.G. Warburg and Company and Robert Benson and Company, held shares in BFB.


title: United Bank for Africa

text: Following Nigeria's independence from Britain, UBA was incorporated on 23rd, February 1961 to take over the business of BFB.


title: United Bank for Africa

text: In 1970, UBA listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and became the first Nigerian Bank to undertake an Initial Public Offering (IPO).


title: United Bank for Africa

text: Today's UBA emerged from the merger of the dynamic and fast-growing Standard Trust Bank, incorporated in 1990, and UBA, one of the biggest and oldest banks in Nigeria. The merger was consummated on August 1, 2005, and was one of the largest mergers completed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).


title: United Bank for Africa

text: Following the merger, UBA further expanded its brand through acquiring Continental Trust Bank that same year. In 2006, UBA acquired Trade Bank, which was under liquidation by the Central Bank of Nigeria at the time.


title: United Bank for Africa

text: UBA had another successful combined public offering rights issue in 2007 and made further acquisitions of three liquidated banks: City Express Bank, Metropolitan Bank, and African Express Bank. UBA also acquired Afrinvest UK, rebranding it UBA Capital, UK. The quest to build a strong domestic and African brand intensified in 2008 when UBA made further acquisitions of two liquidated banks: Gulf Bank and Liberty Bank.


title: United Bank for Africa

text: UBA has a broad footprint across Africa and the world. It maintains subsidiaries in the following countries*, listed in the order of their commencement of banking operations:


title: United Bank for Africa

text: The table below illustrates the locations and Group shareholding in the subsidiary banks of the UBA Group Plc.


title: Kim Engelbrecht

text: Kim Suzanne Engelbrecht (born 20 June 1980) is a South African actress. She is the recipient of two South African Film and Television Awards as well as a nomination for an International Emmy Award.


title: Kim Engelbrecht

text: She is known for her roles as Lolly in the soap opera "Isidingo", Sgt. Noma Banks on the Syfy series "Dominion" (2014–2015), Marlize DeVoe on The CW show "The Flash" (2017–2018), and the titular character in "Reyka" (2021).


title: Kim Engelbrecht

text: Engelbrecht presented a local youth television programme called "Take5" in the 1990s. Much of Engelbrecht's work is localised in Johannesburg. Kim had a starring role in the South African film "Bunny Chow", directed by John Barker.


title: Kim Engelbrecht

text: She got her first big break at the age of 12 when she landed the lead role of Sara in an Italian production, "Sarahsara", in which she played the role of a 12-year-old girl of Sudanese descent who swims from the Isle of Capri to Napoli in Italy.


title: Kim Engelbrecht

text: Engelbrecht starred as Marlize DeVoe in the fourth season (2017–2018) of "The Flash". In an interview with Kyle Zeeman of the "Sunday Times", she said: "It was amazing working with actors like Grant Gustin (who plays The Flash) and Neil Sandilands, who is also a South African. I am coming into a show that is the biggest on its network and is already on its fourth season. It has a huge fan base and that comes with a huge amount of pressure. I understand that it is a big show. That it is a big deal (for South Africa) and I just really want to do well"


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in South Africa enjoy the same rights as non-LGBT people. South Africa has a complex and diverse history regarding the human rights of LGBT people. The legal and social status of between 400,000–over 2 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex South Africans has been influenced by a combination of traditional South African morals, colonialism, and the lingering effects of apartheid and the human rights movement that contributed to its abolition.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: South Africa's post-apartheid Constitution was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, and South Africa was the fifth country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. South Africa is to date the only country in Africa to have legalised same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples can also adopt children jointly, and also arrange IVF and surrogacy treatments. LGBT people have constitutional and statutory protections from discrimination in employment, the provision of goods and services and many other areas.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Nevertheless, LGBT South Africans, particularly those outside of the major cities, continue to face some challenges, including homophobic violence (particularly corrective rape), and high rates of HIV/AIDS infection.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Homosexuality and same-sex relations have been documented among various modern-day South African groups. In the 18th century, the Khoikhoi people recognised the terms , which refers to a man who is sexually receptive to another man, and , which refers to same-sex masturbation usually among friends. Anal intercourse and sexual relations between women also occurred, though more rarely. The Bantu peoples, most notably the Zulu, Basotho, Mpondo and Tsonga people, had a tradition of young men ( in Zulu, in Sesotho, "tinkonkana" in Mpondo, and in Tsonga, also known as "boy-wives" in English) who typically dressed as women (even wearing fake breasts), performed chores associated with women, such as cooking and fetching water and firewood, and had intercrural sex with their older husbands ("numa" in Ndebele and Sesotho, and "nima" in Mpondo and Tsonga). In addition, they were not allowed to grow beards, and sometimes they were not allowed to ejaculate. Upon reaching manhood, the relationship would be dissolved, and the boy-wife could take an "inkotshane" of his own if he so desired. These relationships, also known as "mine marriages" as they were common among miners, continued well into the 1950s. They are usually discussed as homosexual relationships, though sometimes the boy-wives are discussed in the context of transgender experiences.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Other Bantu peoples, including the Tswana people, and the Ndebele people, had traditions of acceptance or indifference towards same-sex sexual acts. In these societies, homosexuality was not viewed as an antithesis to heterosexuality. There was widespread liberty to engage in sexual activity with both men and women.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In IsiNgqumo, the term refers to effeminate gay men or transgender people (typically people born male but who act, dress and behave as female) who have sexual relations with men, and refers to masculine gay men.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Sexual intercourse between men was historically prohibited in South Africa as the common law crime of "sodomy" and "unnatural sexual offence", inherited from the Roman-Dutch law. A 1969 amendment to the "Immorality Act" prohibited men from engaging in any erotic conduct when there were more than two people present. In the 1970s and the 1980s, LGBT activism was among the many human rights movements in the nation, with some groups only dealing with LGBT rights and others advocating for a broader human rights campaign. In 1994, male same-sex conduct was legalised, female same-sex conduct never having been illegal (as with other former British colonies). At the time of legalisation, the age of consent was set at 19 for all same-sex sexual conduct, regardless of gender. In May 1996, South Africa became the first jurisdiction in the world to provide constitutional protection to LGBT people, via section 9(3) of the South African Constitution, which disallows discrimination on race, gender, sexual orientation and other grounds. Since 16 December 2007, all discriminatory provisions have been formally repealed. This included introducing an equalised age of consent at 16 regardless of sexual orientation, and all sexual offences defined in gender-neutral terms.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Under South Africa's ruling National Party from 1948 to 1994, homosexuality was a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison; this law was used to harass and outlaw South African gay community events and political activists. In January 1966, the Forest Town raid on a large party in Forest Town, Gauteng led to further restrictions on gay and lesbian South Africans.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Despite state opposition, several South African gay rights organisations formed in the late 1970s. However, until the late 1980s gay organisations were often divided along racial lines and the larger political question of apartheid. The Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), based in the Hillbrow district in central Johannesburg, was a predominantly white organisation that initially avoided taking an official position on apartheid, while the Rand Gay Organisation was multi-racial and founded in opposition to apartheid. Hubert du Plessis, one of the most prominent South African composers of the 20th century, was proudly and openly gay yet also a staunch supporter of the National Party and composed many nationalist works. He was outspoken about his sexuality, however, and appeared before Parliament in the late 1960s to protest the tightening of sodomy laws.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In the country's 1987 general election, GASA and the gay magazine "Exit" endorsed the National Party candidate for Hillbrow, Leon de Beer. The campaign brought to a head the tensions between LGBT activists who overtly opposed apartheid and those that did not. De Beer was the National Party's first candidate to address gay rights, and advertised for his campaign in "Exit". It was the general opinion of the gay community of Hillbrow that their vote was the deciding factor in de Beer's ultimate victory.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: From the 1960s to the late 1980s, the South African Defence Force forced white gay and lesbian soldiers to undergo various medical "cures" for their sexual orientation, including sex reassignment surgery. The treatment of gay and lesbian soldiers in the South African military was explored in a 2003 documentary film, titled "Property of the State".


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Organisations such as the Organisation of Lesbian and Gay Activists (OLGA) worked with the African National Congress to include protections for LGBT people in the new Constitution of South Africa.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In 1993, the African National Congress, in the "Bill of Rights", endorsed the legal recognition of same-sex marriages, and the interim Constitution prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. These provisions were kept in the new Constitution, approved in 1996, due to the lobbying efforts of LGBT South Africans. As a result, South Africa became the first nation in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution. Two years later, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled in a landmark case that the law prohibiting homosexual conduct between consenting adults in private violated the Constitution.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: The gay pride flag of South Africa, designed by Eugene Brockman, is a hybrid of the LGBT rainbow flag and the South African national flag launched in 1994 after the end of the apartheid era. Brockman said "I truly believe we (the LGBT community) put the dazzle into our rainbow nation and this flag is a symbol of just that". The stated purposes of the flag include celebrating legal same-sex marriage in South Africa and addressing issues such as discrimination, homophobia, corrective rape and hate crimes. The flag is a gay pride symbol that aims to reflect the freedom and diversity of the South African nation and build pride in being an LGBT South African.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In 1998, Parliament passed the "Employment Equity Act". The law protects South Africans from labour discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, among other categories. In 2000, similar protections were extended to public accommodations and services, with the commencement of the "Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act".


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In December 2005, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that it was unconstitutional to prevent people of the same gender from marrying when it was permitted to people of the opposite gender, and gave the South African Parliament one year to pass legislation which would allow same-sex unions. In November 2006, the National Assembly voted 229–41 for a bill allowing same-sex civil marriage, as well as civil partnerships for unmarried opposite-sex and same-sex couples. However, civil servants and clergy can refuse to solemnise same-sex unions. Not all ANC members supported the new law. Former South African President Jacob Zuma was among its most outspoken opponents, claiming in 2006 that "when I was growing up, an ungqingili (Zulu term describing a homosexual) would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out." Unlike Zuma, his successor Cyril Ramaphosa is considered LGBT-friendly and has a positive record regarding LGBT people and their rights. In 2017, he said in a recorded videoclip to celebrate LGBT History Month: "It is a sad truth that in our nation the LGBTI community are amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised. They suffer discrimination, violence and abuse. We must as a nation do better than what we are now. We are all born the way we are. We need to support, embrace and respect each other. When we treat each other with dignity, we are all more dignified. When we treat each other with respect, we are all more respected. It is upon us all to contribute to the creation of a more just, equal and safe society. Every South African must hold themselves, our communities, our institutions and our government accountable for upholding our laws and for protecting the rights of all in South Africa."


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In 2019, Cyril Ramaphosa included lesbian and gay people in his presidential inauguration speech, saying:


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: On 4 August 1997, in the case of "S v Kampher", the Cape Provincial Division of the High Court ruled that the common-law crime of sodomy was incompatible with the constitutional rights to equality and privacy, and that it had ceased to exist as an offence when the Interim Constitution came into force on 27 April 1994. Strictly speaking, this judgment only applied to the crime of sodomy and not to the other laws criminalising sex between men, and it was also only binding precedent within the area of jurisdiction of the Cape court. On 8 May 1998, in the case of "National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice", the Witwatersrand Local Division of the High Court ruled that the common-law crimes of sodomy and "commission of an unnatural sexual act", as well as Section 20A of the "Sexual Offences Act", were unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court confirmed this judgment on 9 October of the same year. The ruling applied retroactively to acts committed since the adoption of the Interim Constitution on 27 April 1994.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Despite the decriminalisation of sex between men, the age of consent set by the "Sexual Offences Act" was 19 for homosexual acts but only 16 for heterosexual acts. This was rectified in 2007 by the "Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act", which codified the law on sex offences in gender and orientation neutral terms and set 16 as the uniform age of consent. In 2008, even though the new law had come into effect, the former inequality was declared to be unconstitutional in the case of "Geldenhuys v National Director of Public Prosecutions", with the ruling again applying retroactively from 27 April 1994.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: On 1 December 2005, in the case of "Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie", the Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state to deny same-sex couples the ability to marry, and gave Parliament one year in which to rectify the situation. On 30 November 2006, the "Civil Union Act" came into force; despite its title it does provide for same-sex marriages. This made South Africa the fifth country in the world and the first in Africa to legalize same-sex marriage. Indeed, the act allows both same-sex and opposite-sex couples to contract unions, and allows a couple to choose to call their union either a marriage or a civil partnership. Whichever name is chosen, the legal consequences are the same as those under the "Marriage Act" (which allows only for opposite-sex marriages).


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Prior to the introduction of same-sex marriage, court decisions and statutes had recognised permanent same-sex partnerships for various specific purposes, but there was no system of domestic partnership registration. The rights recognised or extended by the courts include the duty of support between partners, immigration benefits, employment and pension benefits, joint adoption, parental rights to children conceived through artificial insemination, a claim for loss of support when a partner is negligently killed, and intestate inheritance. Rights extended by statute include protections against domestic violence and the right to family responsibility leave.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: A number of High Court judgments have determined that the sexual orientation of a parent is not a relevant issue in decisions on child custody. In 2002, the Constitutional Court's ruling in "Du Toit v Minister of Welfare and Population Development" gave same-sex partners the same adoption rights as married spouses, allowing couples to adopt children jointly and allowing one partner to adopt the other's children. The adoption law has since been replaced by the "Children's Act, 2005", which allows adoption by spouses and by "partners in a permanent domestic life-partnership" regardless of orientation.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In 1997, artificial insemination, which was previously limited to married women, was made legal for single women including lesbians. In the 2003 case of "J v Director General, Department of Home Affairs", the Constitutional Court ruled that a child born by artificial insemination to a lesbian couple was to be regarded as legitimate, and that the partner who was not the biological parent was entitled to be regarded as a natural parent and to be recorded on the child's birth certificate.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In November 2017, the National Assembly passed the "Labour Laws Amendment Act 10 of 2018", introduced as a private member's bill by African Christian Democratic Party MP Cheryllyn Dudley. It was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in November 2018. The law allows same-sex couples, as well as adoptive and surrogate parents, to take parental leave, and fathers will get at least 10 days paternity leave when a child is born or when an adoption order is granted. It also enables the adoptive parents of a child of under two years old to take an adoption leave of two months and two weeks consecutively. If there are two adoptive parents‚ one of them is entitled to adoption leave and the other is entitled to parental leave of 10 days. The same provision is made for commissioning parents in a surrogate motherhood agreement. The law went into effect on 1 January 2019.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: The protection of LGBT rights in South Africa is based on section 9 of the Constitution, which forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation, and applies to government and private parties. The Constitutional Court has stated that the section must also be interpreted as prohibiting discrimination against transgender people. These constitutional protections have been reinforced by the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court and various statutes enacted by Parliament.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In 2012, the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) filed a draft document calling for the removal of LGBT rights from the Constitution of South Africa. The group submitted a proposal to the Constitutional Review Committee of the National Assembly to amend section 9 of the Constitution. The Committee at the time was chaired by MP Sango Patekile Holomisa, who is also president of Contralesa. The parliamentary caucus of the ruling African National Congress rejected the proposal.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: The Constitution prohibits all unfair discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation, whether committed by the government or by a private party. In 2000, Parliament enacted the "Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act" (PEPUDA), which restates the constitutional prohibition and establishes special Equality Courts to address discrimination by private parties. The "Employment Equity Act, 1998" and the "Rental Housing Act, 1999" specifically forbid discrimination in employment and housing, respectively.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: The PEPUDA also prohibits hate speech and harassment based on any of the prohibited grounds of discrimination. South Africa does not have any statutory law requiring increased penalties for hate crimes, but hatred motivated by homophobia has been treated by courts as an aggravating factor in sentencing.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: The "Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill", which is pending within the South African Parliament, would outlaw hate crimes and hate speech on grounds of race, gender identity and sexual orientation, among others. Public consultation on the bill was held between October and December 2016. Following calls that the bill was too vague and threatened freedom of speech, provisions dealing with hate speech were changed, and now read: "Any person who intentionally publishes, propagates or advocates anything or communicates to one or more persons in a manner that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to— (i) be harmful or to incite harm; or (ii) promote or propagate hatred, based on one or more of the following grounds: age, albinism, birth, colour, culture, disability, ethnic or social origin, gender or gender identity, HIV status, language, nationality, migrant or refugee status, occupation or trade, political affiliation or conviction, race, religion, or sex, which includes intersex or sexual orientation". The Cabinet approved the bill in March 2018. It must now pass both chambers of Parliament before becoming law. However, the bill lapsed automatically when Parliament was dissolved on 7 May 2019. In his budget speech, Minister for Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola committed that his Department will revive the bill and introduce it into Parliament sometime in 2020.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Human rights activists argue that, while it is already illegal to assault, murder and rape, the consequences for crimes motivated by hate need to be more severe than ordinary crimes. This is because, they say, hate crimes are "message crimes" that harm entire communities. According to the Hate Crimes Working Group, over a third of all crimes are motivated by prejudice, with most of these committed based on the victim's race, nationality or sexual orientation. On the other hand, many legal experts believe the bill is unconstitutional and threatens freedom of speech. Human Rights Watch has expressed concern over the bill's language and potential to lead to significant restrictions on freedom of expression. Others have likened it to the "Suppression of Communism Act, 1950".


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In August 2011, the Department of Justice established a National Task Team (NTT) to address the issue of hate crimes against LGBT people. In April 2014, Minister of Justice Jeff Radebe launched a National Intervention Strategy for LGBTI Communities developed by the NTT to address sex-based violence and gender-based violence against members of the community. The NTT has established a rapid response team to attend to unsolved criminal cases as a matter of urgency and produced an information pamphlet with frequently asked questions about LGBTI persons. Radebe stated that the Department of Justice acknowledged the need for a specific legal framework for hate crimes and that the matter would be subjected to public debate.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: South Africa does not possess a specific anti-bullying law. However, the "Protection from Harassment Act 17 of 2011" brings widespread relief for all victims of harassment, including children. The "Child Justice Act 75 of 2008" aims to rehabilitate and to reconcile children under the age of 21. Depending on age, a bully can be held criminally liable for a myriad of criminal acts, including assault, intimidation, murder, culpable homicide, crimen injuria, theft, malicious injury to property and arson, depending on the facts of each case.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: According to the South African Department of Basic Education, South African pupils are the "most bullied kids in the world". In a 2015 survey from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, 44% of participating Grade 5 students (age 10-11) reported being bullied weekly, and 34% monthly. This was the highest among the 38 countries surveyed. 48% of students in public schools reported being bullied weekly. Grade 9 students (age 14-15) were the third most bullied, behind Thailand and neighbouring Botswana, with 17% bullied weekly and 47% monthly.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: LGBT people are allowed to serve openly in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). In 1996, the government adopted the "White Paper on National Defence", which included the statement that, "In accordance with the Constitution, the SANDF shall not discriminate against any of its members on the grounds of sexual orientation." In 1998, the Department of Defence adopted a "Policy on Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action", under which recruits may not be questioned about their sexual orientation and the Defence Force officially takes no interest in the lawful sexual behaviour of its members. The "Defence Act of 2002" makes it a criminal offence for any SANDF member or Defence Department employee to "denigrate, humiliate or show hostility or aversion" to any person on the grounds of sexual orientation. In 2002, the SANDF extended spousal medical and pension benefits to "partners in a permanent life-partnership".


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: The "Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act" allows people to apply to have their sex status altered in the population registry, and consequently to receive identity documents and passports indicating their gender identity. The law requires the person to have undergone medical or surgical treatment, such as hormone replacement therapy (sex reassignment surgery is not required).


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: A number of Labour Court rulings have found against employers that mistreated employees who underwent gender transition.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Conversion therapy has a negative effect on the lives of LGBT people, and can lead to low self-esteem, depression and suicidal ideation. The South African Society of Psychiatrists states that "there is no scientific evidence that reparative or conversion therapy is effective in changing a person's sexual orientation. There is, however, evidence that this type of therapy can be destructive".


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Despite this, conversion therapy is believed to be performed in the country. In February 2015, owners of a conversion therapy camp were found guilty of murder, child abuse and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm after three teens were found dead at the camp. The teens, reportedly, were punched, beaten with spades and rubber pipes, chained to their beds, not allowed to use the toilets at any time and were forced to eat soap and their own feces, all with the aim of "curing" their homosexuality. The three teens were between 15 and 19 years old.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: During apartheid, Dr. Aubrey Levin led The Aversion Project, a medical torture programme designed to identify gay soldiers and forcedly "cure" their homosexuality. This included forced castration and shock therapy. "Vir Ander" ("For Others" in Afrikaans, also a pun of the word "Verander" meaning "Change") premiered on 2 September 2017 at the South African State Theatre. The play is based on true events, where young Afrikaner men were subjected to conversion therapies. It deals with manhood, sexuality and acceptance, and shines a light on the horrors and atrocities of the practice.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Until 2014, the South African National Blood Service imposed blood donation restrictions on men who have sex with men, requiring that they abstain from sex for at least six months before donating blood. This was replaced with a gender-neutral policy that disallows donations from any prospective donor who has had a new sexual partner in the last six months, or who has more than one sexual partner.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In 1998, the then National Party leader denied accusations that he had paid a man for sex, by stating that he was a "Boerseun" (farmer's son), implying that homosexuality was not something to be found among Afrikaners. South African gay rights organisations called for an apology.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: There have been a number of cases in which gay women have been the victims of murder, beating or rape. This has been posited, in part, to be because of the perceived threat they pose to traditional male authority. South Africa has no specific hate crime legislation; human rights organisations have criticised the South African police for failing to address the matter of bias-motivated crimes. For example, the NGO "ActionAid" has condemned the continued impunity and accused governments of turning a blind eye to reported murders of lesbians in homophobic attacks in South Africa; as well as to so-called corrective rapes, including cases among pupils, in which cases the male rapists purport to raping the lesbian victim with the intent of thereby "curing" her of her sexual orientation.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: In May 2011, Professor Juan Nel told Amnesty International that according to studies of three of the nine provinces of South Africa, gay men are victims of homophobic sexual assault as frequently as gay women are, and suggested that under-reporting by male victims and the media has created the perception that they are at less risk of the crime. As with female victims, gender non-conforming gay men are thought to be at the highest risk of violence, and activists have accused the police of negligent handling of incidents, including a series of nine allegedly related murders of gay men between 2010 and 2013.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Despite the occasional incidents of homophobia, gay people in major urban areas, such as Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, are fairly accepted, and all of these cities have a thriving gay nightlife. Cultural, arts, sports and outdoor activities play a major part in everyday South African gay life. Annual Gay Pride events are held in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria and Soweto. Smaller cities such as Bloemfontein, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Mbombela, East London, Pietermaritzburg and Knysna, too, host LGBT-related events, clubs and bars. Knysna hosts the yearly Pink Loerie Mardi Gras, which attracts gay people from all over the country.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Television and film produces programmes which also focus on gay life. Multiple soap operas showcase/have showcased LGBT life, some of the more notable have been the long-running and now cancelled soap opera "" which featured a long-term gay relationship.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: SABC 1 has shown itself to be comparatively representative of the LGBT community in South Africa in its programming. The sitcom "City Ses Top La" features a gay character for which Warren Masemola received a SAFTA Award. One of the highest-rated soap operas on SABC 1 to feature LGBT characters was "Generations", with the characters of star-crossed lovers Senzo (played by Thami Mngqolo) and Jason, who later married and had a child. In the soap opera's current reincarnation as "", there is a transgender woman character by the name of Wandile and her host of LGBT friends and associates. The telenovela "Uzalo" also features a gay character by the name of GC (portrayed by Khaya Dladla), who was embroiled in a church dispute about his sexuality, illustrating the rural and urban demographic perceptions about sexuality in South Africa. The channel has also seen other successes in shows with LGBT characters such as "Society", "Intersexions", and "After 9" amongst others. Other soap operas to feature major LGBT characters have been: Steve (played by Emmanuel Castis) in "", Thula (played by Wright Ngubeni) in "Rhythm City" and Jerome (played by Terrence Bridget, a gay actor) in "7de Laan". The 2016 Mzansi Magic telenovela "The Queen" features Sello Maake Ka-Ncube playing a gay character.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: "Somizi and Mohale: The Union", which began streaming on Showmax on 24 February 2020, is a four-episode special focusing on the wedding of Somizi Mhlongo and Mohale Motaung. The first episode broke Showmax's viewership record as the show for the most views ever on its first day.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: The LGBT community in South Africa has a varied history of activism and representation in civil society, and all that pertains to social justice and the struggle for human rights as celebrated in February through LGBT History Month; Edwin Cameron and Kathy Satchwell being prominent judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the High Court of South Africa respectively, including leading legal scholar Pierre de Vos.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: There are active and visible LGBT student organisations at South African universities, including the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Cape Town, the University of Stellenbosch, the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Western Cape, amongst others.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: Simon Nkoli, Zackie Achmat and Funeka Soldaat are some of the more prominent LGBT rights activists in South Africa.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: There have also been a number of LGBT politicians in the Parliament of South Africa and cabinet: Lynne Brown as Minister for Public Entreprises in Jacob Zuma's Cabinet (and also served as interim Premier of the Western Cape in 2008-2009), Zakhele Mbhele as Shadow Minister of Police, Mike Waters as the Opposition's Deputy Chief Whip from 2014 to 2019, MP Marius Redelinghuys and Ian Ollis as Shadow Minister of Labour from 2014 to 2017.


title: LGBT rights in South Africa

text: South Africa, due to its reputation as Africa's most gay-friendly destination, attracts thousands of LGBT tourists annually. The official South African Tourism site offers in-depth travel tips for gay travellers. Gay-friendly establishments are situated throughout South Africa and may be found on various gay travel websites.