Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Emily Gwen lesbian flag & donations accusations, Halsey vs. Tumblr + Club Chalamet claps back at fan
Transcript
- 0:00This episode of Mini Scroll is brought to you by The Commons,
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- 0:50Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
- 0:54daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
- 0:57from social media, the creator economy and the digital space.
- 1:00Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
- 1:03I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the Australian
- 1:07youth digital media brand Centennial World.
- 1:11Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
- 1:13All right, the first story that I have for you guys today, we're
- 1:16going right in because this story came to me from actually
- 1:20one of you guys in our discourse.
- 1:21So one of our Patreon members, Megan, sent it to us in our
- 1:24discord and she was like there is some serious stuff going down
- 1:28right now. Allegedly the creator of the
- 1:31lesbian pride flag has been scheming and scamming and she's
- 1:35actually Australian. So it's a bit of a niche
- 1:37Australian story and this is a big one so we need to get
- 1:41straight into it. But before I do, Please remember
- 1:43to rate, review and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
- 1:46It helps us so much. It helps us grow.
- 1:48Subscribe to us on YouTube, all that good stuff.
- 1:52All right, I have tried to compile all of the information
- 1:56for you guys, but if I have missed something in this first
- 2:00story and you guys know that I've missed it, feel free to
- 2:03comment and let us all know. I do need to preface that this
- 2:06is all very speculative. It's not confirmed, it's not
- 2:09unconfirmed, it's all alleged, OK?
- 2:11It's just what people are putting together and speculating
- 2:14has been happening with this person over the past eight
- 2:17years. So Emily Gwen, the
- 2:19self-proclaimed creator of the lesbian flag, is being exposed
- 2:23online for allegedly lying over the past eight years for
- 2:26financial gain. She's been accused of scamming
- 2:28people out of around half $1,000,000 and showing up online
- 2:33across multiple profiles on different platforms.
- 2:36So Emily reportedly came under fire in February after claiming
- 2:39she skips the sex scenes and heated rivalry basically because
- 2:43she finds them icky. This angered the Internet,
- 2:47obviously, and it sparked this Internet investigation into her
- 2:51online behavior over the past eight years, which has resulted
- 2:54in her basically being quote UN quote exposed.
- 2:57I will say the main people involved in putting all this
- 3:00information together, it seems like they have been questioning
- 3:03Emily for a long time. So it's come to a head in
- 3:07February and this 27 page public Google Doc has been put together
- 3:12and I think it was mostly put together in February, but in
- 3:15general, people have been questioning her and her stories
- 3:18and her ethics for a long time. So yes, the main resource that I
- 3:22used to put this story together was this 27 page public Google
- 3:26Doc. So I'm going to break this down
- 3:28based on the controversies because that's how the Google
- 3:30Doc presents everything. So the first controversy is the
- 3:33flag. So the findings argue that Emily
- 3:36didn't actually create the popular sunset lesbian flag.
- 3:40A Tumblr user named at Shapeshifter of Constellation
- 3:43posted an almost identical flag in 2017, a full year before
- 3:48Emily's 2018 post. The Google Doc even includes A
- 3:52hex color code comparison, which shows Emily's flag matches shape
- 3:56shifters colors exactly to the digit.
- 3:59Internet users also claim that Emily has never credited at
- 4:02Butch Space, who created the Butch lesbian flag that was
- 4:05foundational to the entire design.
- 4:07So essentially people feeling like she's been taking credit
- 4:09for something that she didn't actually create.
- 4:12Now controversy #2 is people believe she has been committing
- 4:16donation fraud. So from 2019 to 2025, Emily ran
- 4:20recurring viral donation campaigns using the hook.
- 4:23The lesbian who designed the flag is homeless and needs Your
- 4:26Help, which routinely racked up 100,000 plus likes, millions of
- 4:30views, and the Google Doc estimates that she has received
- 4:34potentially $520,000 over a total of eight years.
- 4:40This is based on Coffee's public donor count of 17,000. 314
- 4:45donations averaged at a conservative $5 each.
- 4:48So coffee, for anyone that doesn't know is like an audience
- 4:51donation platform. It's similar to Buy Me a Coffee
- 4:53but it's KO dash. FII think it's pronounced
- 4:57coffee. I'm pretty sure it's pronounced
- 4:58coffee. So part of what has made people
- 5:00suss on this donation situation is they feel like Emily has a
- 5:03lack of transparency around what she's using the donations for
- 5:08and how much she has received over the years.
- 5:10So she reportedly has refused to ever publicly disclose her
- 5:13totals received. And when she promised to use
- 5:16Coffee's goals feature to be more transparent so she can set
- 5:19like a $50,000 goal, a $100,000 goal, whatever, she allegedly
- 5:24simply reset or raised the goal every time it was close to being
- 5:28met. And then controversy #3 is that
- 5:30Emily is also apparently a woman named Julia who she has claimed
- 5:35to be friends with for several years.
- 5:37So this has seemingly broken a lot of things open, but the
- 5:40Google Doc presents evidence that Emily Glenn and at poetry
- 5:43lesbian on Tumblr who is a woman named Julia are the same person.
- 5:48So the alleged story between Emily and Julia was that Emily
- 5:51had always claimed Julia was a close friend.
- 5:53And because Emily's father was abusive and might track her
- 5:57down, the story was that Emily's donations and different things
- 6:02that she was raising money for would go into a PayPal account
- 6:05that was actually Julia's. And Julia had said publicly
- 6:09online at one point that the reason why she set it up like
- 6:12that is because she didn't really use PayPal very much.
- 6:15She had this PayPal account that was kind of sitting there.
- 6:18Basically, Emily needed another way to get donations or get
- 6:23money, and so she was using Julia's.
- 6:25So because of this, they shared the same PayPal, they shared the
- 6:27same shipping address, they shared the same phone number,
- 6:31same birthday and apparently even the same city.
- 6:33Brisbane. And in the Google doc they also
- 6:36compare their writing styles and say that it's very similar.
- 6:39So Juliano's own Tumblr post describe a comfortable, well off
- 6:44lifestyle. Apparently her dad pays her
- 6:46rent, her mother owns a townhouse.
- 6:48So that comparison has LED a lot of their fans to question why
- 6:52Julia would not be helping Emily, and why Emily would
- 6:55constantly need to ask her followers for donations.
- 6:58And of course, the big kind of point here is that she's asking
- 7:02mostly queer people to donate to her, so a lot of people feel
- 7:06like she's exploiting her own community for her own financial
- 7:09and personal gain. The document also knows that
- 7:11Julia had multiple alternative Tumblr accounts from 27, 19 to
- 7:152018, which also appeared to be running similar donation
- 7:19schemes. So those are like the three kind
- 7:22of main quote UN quote scams that this document goes through.
- 7:25I'm going to read an excerpt from this actual Google doc as
- 7:29the conclusion quote. Overall, there are ample
- 7:31evidence that Emily Gwen is untrustworthy since she has
- 7:35repeatedly lied and obfuscated the truth over the past eight
- 7:38years for financial gains, which is estimated to be $130,000.
- 7:43The $130,000 is just since 2024, so the total number is what I
- 7:49said before, which was I believe $520,000 they're estimating.
- 7:53OK, it continues. These evidence include but not
- 7:55limited to repeatedly raising Coffee Gold campaign every time
- 7:59it almost reached completion, insisting on how she's the
- 8:02creator of the lesbian flag despite not even being the first
- 8:05one to create it. Then leveraging this identity to
- 8:08manipulate people into giving her money.
- 8:10Actively avoids showing the total amount of money she's
- 8:13received over the years in an attempt to hide how much money
- 8:15she's been making from online donation posts in the past.
- 8:18People have dismissed these instances as just pure
- 8:20misinformation and hate campaigns.
- 8:22Therefore, as stated in the beginning, these evidence are
- 8:25laid out in a doc format like this to help everyone get a
- 8:28clearer picture of why Emily Gwen has gotten so much infamy
- 8:31over the years and hopefully help people avoid falling for
- 8:33her post further in the future. If your main take away from this
- 8:36document is that you should harass anyone here, including
- 8:39but not limited to Emily Gwen, that's not the point.
- 8:42Do not harass this person. It's expected that people would
- 8:44feel hurt and want to air other grievances after a massive
- 8:47betrayal, but bullying people won't solve any issues.
- 8:50My biggest recommendation is to tell people to stop donating to
- 8:53at the Emily Glenn or poetry lesbian.
- 8:55OK, so this document does go into Emily's background a little
- 8:59bit and her social media, but I wanted to get some more
- 9:02information. You know, I didn't want to just
- 9:04like report on this story straight from this document,
- 9:06although I do believe several people have been contributing to
- 9:09it at this point. But I wanted to read this
- 9:12comment on Reddit from Sea Irvine because I think it gives
- 9:15us a bit more of a background on Emily.
- 9:17So they wrote, OK, so this is all been going on for a decade
- 9:20now. Years and years ago, the lesbian
- 9:23community, first on Lesbook, which is the lesbian community
- 9:26on Facebook and then on Tumblr, grew tired of the only flag that
- 9:29can really be seen as representative of lesbians being
- 9:32the lipstick lesbian flag. Eventually this gave way in
- 9:3520/26/2027 to a bunch of lesbians creating a bunch of
- 9:40flags out of possibilities. Emily Gwen's is the flag that
- 9:44got the most critical mass. I'm saying this as a lesbian who
- 9:47was there that there were many other similar flags that weren't
- 9:50the one that people are accusing her of ripping off because
- 9:52people had been brainstorming other flags for years before it
- 9:55hit Tumblr. Because there were many other
- 9:57similar flags, some people had issues with her claiming herself
- 10:00as the creator of the lesbian flag that is now in current use.
- 10:05Some people had some issues with some other inter community
- 10:08discourse that I frankly never cared about and didn't pay
- 10:11attention to. At times this ruined to
- 10:13accusations of her lying about being homeless considering the
- 10:15frequency of her donation post, which were always easily
- 10:18explained by the fact this was on Tumblr where a bunch of
- 10:21teenagers with no real life experience with poverty thought
- 10:24they could play hero around the flag gaining popularity.
- 10:27Emily Gwen began asking for donations.
- 10:29First because she was attempting to leave an abusive household,
- 10:32then because she was homeless. Emily Gwen has been upfront that
- 10:35Emily Gwen isn't her legal name or even the one she uses in her
- 10:38personal life. Julia is a Tumblr user who was
- 10:41supposedly well off that Emily Gwen befriended, who supposedly
- 10:45let Emily use her PayPal account to access coffee donations.
- 10:49They live in the same city, but it never been person according
- 10:52to Julia's Tumblr. As to why the accusations
- 10:55against Emily Gwen being a fraud have started up again, a bunch
- 10:58of people got upset that she made a post saying something
- 11:00along the lines of why watch Heated Rivalry if you're
- 11:02skipping the sex scenes. And decided to go on a deep dive
- 11:05through her post history and that of Julia's.
- 11:07Including trying to access their PayPal and coffee accounts.
- 11:11Leading to the information that their phone numbers end in the
- 11:13same 2 digits and that Emily's packages were being sent to
- 11:16Julia's house. Leading to the specific
- 11:18accusation of them being the same person this person ends
- 11:21with. But I've come to the point where
- 11:23I hope she has been scamming people because if she isn't,
- 11:26then Twitter decided to cyberstalk and harass a homeless
- 11:29lesbian who was already in danger from an abusive family
- 11:32with stalkers tendencies over show sex scene discourse.
- 11:36And I feel like that actually just ties it up in a bow there.
- 11:39That is a very high level recap of what's going on with Emily,
- 11:43Gwen and the accusations that she didn't actually create the
- 11:46lesbian flag that she has been scamming people for money
- 11:50donations over the years. If you guys want to dive into
- 11:53this document, I will link it in the show notes down below so you
- 11:56can look at it yourself. But again, all of this is
- 11:58completely speculative. This is just what people are
- 12:01saying. All right, the next story that I
- 12:03have for you guys today is Tumblr is feuding with Halsey
- 12:08over its birthday post. So Tumblr had his 19th birthday
- 12:12in February, and it's celebrated with a nostalgic roundup of
- 12:15iconic moments, iconic memes, aesthetics, and celebrities that
- 12:19have defined the platform. And they posted this on X.
- 12:22Halsey was noticeably missing from this roundup, though.
- 12:25Tumblr existed for several years before Halsey came along.
- 12:28Her 2015 album Badlands played a huge role in cementing Tumblr's
- 12:33neo grunge vibe, and she was so influential on the platform that
- 12:37a 2015 interview with Vice called her the new queen of the
- 12:40Tumblr generation. This is directly from that
- 12:42article quote. Her official website is still
- 12:44hosted on Tumblr, where she's putting years of groundwork
- 12:47building a massive online fanbase with people who felt a
- 12:50kindred connection with her long before she got picked up by
- 12:53Astral Works. OK, so she was very influential
- 12:57to Tumblr and I'm sure brought them thousands, if not possibly
- 13:01millions of users to their platform.
- 13:04So Halsey responded to Tumblr's celebratory post writing.
- 13:07I keep your lights on for years and this is the thanks I get.
- 13:11And then Tumblr responded with what can only be described as
- 13:15kind of a classical like Instagram Notes app apology,
- 13:18acknowledging that Halsey has indeed been foundational to
- 13:22their platform and promised it would never happen again.
- 13:24They wrote. Halsey, we are deeply sorry you
- 13:27were not included in our 19th birthday edit.
- 13:29You are and have forever been a pillar of our platform and yes,
- 13:32for lack of a better words, keeping our lights on for years.
- 13:36We would never, as you once put it, intentionally swerve you.
- 13:39At just 19, we're still learning and growing.
- 13:42We promise that this will never happen again.
- 13:44We hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us.
- 13:46And then they also made a second part to this edit, which just
- 13:49included clips of Halsey. All right.
- 13:51And the last story that I have for you guys today is we have a
- 13:54Club Chalamet update for you. You guys know Club Chalamet.
- 13:58She actually keeps our lights on here at Centennial World.
- 14:01So Club Chalamet has found herself at the center of online
- 14:04discourse after Clap looking back at a follower.
- 14:07This all started when an ex user named Michael Roberts shared a
- 14:10post insinuating that Club Chalamet, whose real name is
- 14:13Simone Kromer, is no longer as invested in Timothy as she once
- 14:17was, he wrote. Quote I cannot believe we're two
- 14:19weeks out from Timothy's best chance at an Oscar and Club
- 14:22Chalamet has completely taken her eye off the ball.
- 14:25This is a nightmare post for Club Chalamet.
- 14:29So she was quick to clap back. She quoted the tweet saying that
- 14:33Robert has not been paying attention because she's been
- 14:36posting quite frequently on sub stack.
- 14:38This is what her response said. Quote, you obviously haven't
- 14:41been paying attention. I put foot to ass in this fandom
- 14:44and only get grief. I'm either stalking or too quiet
- 14:49or not devoted enough. If you're a paying subscriber to
- 14:52my sub stack, you would know exactly what's going on.
- 14:55If you paid attention to my IG post in the past couple of
- 14:58weeks, you would know exactly what's going on.
- 15:00I haven't taken my eye off the ball and I haven't dropped shit.
- 15:04Unlike a lot of people. I can focus on multiple things
- 15:07at once and have multiple interests.
- 15:09I'm condo shopping in Palm Springs.
- 15:11I'm doing an audit at my job. I'm planning 4 trips to
- 15:14Michigan, Vegas, Paris, and Toronto for the next seven
- 15:17months. And you think I'm not doing
- 15:18enough as Club Chalamet? Stay in your lane or pay $6 a
- 15:22month to read my Club Chalamet sub stack.
- 15:25I'm done with this shitty app and the cruel people who have
- 15:29made my enjoyment in this fandom incredibly difficult in the past
- 15:33year. Mic drop Iconic yelling at him
- 15:38to pay $6 a month. Pay me bitch if this is the
- 15:41content that you want or shut your mouth is so funny.
- 15:47Also, I do need to say, I think sometimes when I talk about how
- 15:50much I love Club Chalamet, some people don't realize that I also
- 15:53recognize how problematic she is.
- 15:56You know, she has literally harassed and said some of the
- 16:00meanest things ever about the people that she's a fan of, like
- 16:03the people in their lives. And it started with Michael
- 16:06Fassbender, as we know. Fascinating Fassbender.
- 16:08Like, she was horrible to the people in his life.
- 16:12I think she's actually kind of chilled out a little bit over
- 16:14the past few years. But yeah, in general, her vibe
- 16:17has not been great. So I do want to make that clear.
- 16:19I know that. But at this point, she's become
- 16:21an iconic pop culture figure, like in her own right.
- 16:24I love how she's like, you have no idea how hard I work.
- 16:27You have no idea what I have going on.
- 16:30I'm planning all these trips. I'm trying to buy a condo in
- 16:32Palm Springs. Like, good for you, Queen.
- 16:34Like honestly, how can you afford all of this?
- 16:38I hope that your fan pages are making you a lot of money.
- 16:40I mean I know she has a real job but love this for her.
- 16:43OK so this interaction has since been posted on the FOMO
- 16:47subreddit and tons of people are talking about her response.
- 16:50Many users seem to be shocked that people are paying for
- 16:53Simone's substack, as well as discussing how much fandom has
- 16:56changed over the years, so much so that fans are paying for
- 16:59content by other fans. Meanwhile, other users are
- 17:03saying that they're just so fascinated by her and that is
- 17:07incredibly relatable. I would love to know the
- 17:10percentage of people that are paying for Simone sub stack that
- 17:13are paying for it genuinely because they're also fans of
- 17:16Timothy Chalamet or who are paying for because they're
- 17:20actually fans of Simone. Like that is a split that I want
- 17:23to know. Anyways, guys, that's it for
- 17:26mini scroll and Simone scroll today.
- 17:28Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
- 17:31Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
- 17:33Please Spotify star rate US. We're trying to get to 1000
- 17:36Spotify star ratings. Annabelle will talk to you guys
- 17:38tomorrow for mini tech and I will talk to you on Thursday.
- 17:41Bye.