10 Stars Who Talk About Gender-Affirming Care – Billboard

As legislation targeting trans youth began to increase in 2022, pop superstar Ariana Grande made sure to put her money where her mouth was. Launching a fundraising campaign with Pledge called the Protect & Defend Trans Youth Fund, Grande spoke specifically about the harm caused by legislation aimed largely at banning gender-affirming care for trans kids.

“Right now, there are hundreds of bills pending in state legislatures across the United States that target trans youth and aim to curb their rights. The impact of fighting these anti-trans bills and policies is felt all year by trans people, their families and loved ones,” she wrote. “Please join me in donating to this fundraiser which will provide critical funds to organizations providing direct services to trans youth and advocating for the rights of trans youth in states currently targeted by anti-trans policies.”

To date, the campaign has raised more than $3 million, with Grande pledging to match funds raised up to $1.5 million.

Back in 2022, Brittany Aldean — wife of country singer Jason Aldean — shared her opinion about gender-affirming care by spreading misinformation about what this care for children could entail. It started when she posted a makeup video to her Instagram, thanking her parents for “not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase” in the caption.

She then elaborated on her original post through a post to her Instagram Stories, in which she called gender-affirming care “one of the worst kinds of evils” and equating the practice to genital mutilation. “I will always support my children and do what I can to protect their innocence. Some parents want to be accepted by society so badly that they’re willing to make life-altering decisions for their children who aren’t old enough to fully comprehend the consequences of those actions,” she wrote. “Love is protecting your child until they are mature enough as an adult to make their own life decisions.”

Seeing what Brittany Aldean had to say about gender-affirming care, country singer Cassadee Pope was one of the first artists to challenge her point of view. In a subtweet about Aldean’s comments, Pope slammed the influencer for making transphobic comments. “You’d think celebs with beauty brands would see the positives in including LGBTQ+ people in their messaging,” she wrote. “But instead here we are, hearing someone compare their ‘tomboy phase’ to someone wanting to transition. Real nice.”

In a later interview on the podcast Hold My Hair?, Pope elaborated on why she clapped back at Aldean. “If I see something that is being said that I feel is harmful to a community that I care about, I’ll say something,” she said. “Sometimes it’s better to just amplify the voices of that community because they know what they’re talking about way more than I do, sometimes I can’t help it.”

Pope was not the only artist to respond to Aldean’s post about gender-affirming care — country star Maren Morris joined in, responding directly to Pope’s subtweet. “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie,” she said of Aldean’s post. When conservative commentator Candace Owens responded by claiming that the country star was promoting the “castration” of children, Morris unleashed on her as well. “My Grammy is positively sobbing right now. Also, why do y’all always go to ‘castration’ and ‘pedophiles’ to try and shut an argument down? It’s honestly concerning and worth looking into,” she said.

Morris later commented on the rise of anti-trans sentiment while promoting a new shirt for GLAAD’s Spirit Day. “Sadly, there are a lot of people that believe things that are just completely untrue about trans youth and gender-affirming care and what it actually entails,” she told GLAAD. “We talk about having these hard conversations and doing it with a loving heart. Yeah, I think at the core, you’re coming from a good place. But I don’t think that you can do this all the time with, like, sunshine and rainbows. I think you have to have the tough conversations so people understand what’s actually going on, and you could actually save someone’s life having the right information.”

In a cover story roundtable with Billboard featuring drag stars Sasha Colby, Eureka O’Hara, Symone and Landon Cider, Morris went even further, saying she felt the bills being introduced throughout the U.S. attacking gender-affirming care and drag aren’t really about protecting children: “It’s obviously really meant to eradicate the existence of trans people.”

When the state of Tennessee passed legislation in March 2023 that banned gender-affirming care for minors and banned drag performances in public spaces, Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams decided to call out her home state. “Once again our state has passed two regressive and unfathomably harmful bills. We stand in solidarity with our LGBTQIA+ family and local LGBTQIA+ orgs in this fight, not only for inclusion for our friends and family in the queer community, but for radical acceptance and empowerment for each of them,” she wrote. “Gender-affirming healthcare for all, including our youth, is a necessity.”

While some stars saw the legislative moves against the trans community as an infringement of their rights, other saw it as a curtailment to what they perceived as a problem. One such person was Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley, who posted a lengthy note to his Twitter in May 2023 sharing his disapproval for gender-affirming care. “There is a BIG difference between teaching acceptance and normalizing and even encouraging participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children into questioning their sexual identification,” he wrote. “Turning this into a game or parents normalizing it as some sort of natural alternative or believing that because a little boy likes to play dress up in his sister’s clothes or a girl in her brother’s, we should lead them steps further down a path that’s far from the innocence of what they are doing.”

The guitarist later walked his comments back, saying that “while my thoughts were clear, my words clearly were not.” He added that he ultimately supported “those struggling with their sexual identity while enduring constant hostility and those whose path leads them to reassignment surgery. It’s hard to fathom the kind of conviction that one must feel to take those steps.”

One person who supported Paul Stanley’s comments about gender-affirming care was fellow glam-rocker Dee Snider of Twisted Sister. The “We’re Not Gonna Take It” singer retweeted Stanley’s comments and added a few of his own thoughts. “You know what? There was a time where I ‘felt pretty’ too. Glad my parents didn’t jump to any rash conclusions,” he wrote. “Parents need to be less reactionary; Right and Left. No need to steer the child in either direction. Let the kid figure it out for themselves knowing their family is supportive.”

Snider later reacted to the backlash he received — especially after being dropped from San Francisco Pride’s roster in response to what he said. “Why did the San Fransisco Gay Pride Parade invite me, Dee Snider, to be a Grand Marshal in their parade and sing ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ on the center stage at what could possibly be the most important LGBTQIA+ gathering in the organization’s long history,” he wrote in a lengthy note on Facebook. “I was not aware the Transgender community expects fealty and total agreement with all their beliefs and any variation or deviation is considered ‘transphobic.’ So, my lifetime of supporting the Transgender community’s right to identify as they want and honoring whatever changes they may make in how they present themselves to the world isn’t enough? Why not?”

In an Aug. 5 interview with Gloria Velez of VladTV, R&B star Ne-Yo shared misinformation regarding gender-affirming care, repeating common claims that children lack the maturity to know what their gender is. “If your little boy comes to you and says, ‘Daddy, I want to be a girl.’ And you just let him rock with that? He’s 5 … If you let this 5-year-old boy decide to eat candy all day, he’s gonna do that,” he said.
“When did it become a good idea to let a 5-year-old, let a 6-year-old, let a 12-year-old make a life-changing decision for themself? When did that happen?”

The following day, a statement was published to Ne-Yo’s X account, where the singer appeared to apologize for “comments [that] could’ve been interpreted as insensitive and offensive,” vowing to “better educate myself on the topic, so I can approach future conversations with more empathy.”

However, Ne-Yo later revealed in a video posted to his Instagram that he was not the one who shared the apology, and that he was not sorry. The singer said that he will “never be OK with allowing a child to make a decision that detrimental to their life,” and added that while he planned to read up on gender-affirming care, “I doubt that there is any book anywhere or any opinion that somebody’s gonna tell me that’s gonna make me OK with letting a child make a decision like that.”

In an interview with Wired published Aug. 8, Grimes broke down how she approached a difficult conversation with her ex-boyfriend Elon Musk, after the X owner shared a slew of anti-trans tweets, including one claiming that “consenting adults should do whatever makes them happy, provided it does not harm others, but a child is not capable of consent, which is why we have laws protecting minors.”

The “I Wanna Be Software” singer said that she explained to her now ex why she disagreed with what he said. “Getting to the heart of what Elon says helps me get to the heart of what other people’s issues are, because it’s this über guy situation. And it came down to pretty much every way that you transition can cause fertility issues,” she said. “I was like, ‘OK, you don’t hate trans people, you hate woke culture. I get that it can be annoying, and you have concerns about the fertility thing. So let’s figure it out, because there’s a lot of fertility tech that could be innovated that would help trans people have kids, which would be great and would solve a lot of problems.’ He’s just on Twitter, and he’s unhappy with woke people, and the arguments happened.”

During an Aug. 23 interview with Stereogum, shock rocker Alice Cooper was asked about gender-affirming care for trans youth. After saying that he was “afraid that it’s also a fad,” he went on to describe what he saw as the “absurdity” of the transgender movement. “I find it wrong when you’ve got a 6-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be,’” he said. “I mean, if you identify as a tree … I’m going, ‘Come on! What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?’ It’s so absurd, that it’s gone now to the point of absurdity.”

Cooper went on to also comment on public restrooms, claiming that allowing trans people to use the bathroom that corresponded to their identity was wrong. “A guy can walk into a woman’s bathroom at any time and just say, ‘I just feel like I’m a woman today’ and have the time of his life in there,” he said. “He’s just taking advantage of that situation … Somebody’s going to get raped.”