Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | August 25, 2023
A couple of months ago, I was having a conversation with a conservative relative in his 70s, and he asked me if the teachers in my kids’ school were forcing them to learn about gender identities. He inquired if I was worried about trans women assaulting the twins (one of whom identifies as non-binary) in the bathroom. I told him that wasn’t a thing—that it has never been a thing, that it’s a myth. And he said that there was nothing stopping boys from faking it to gain access to the girls’ restroom. I reiterated, again, that it wasn’t a thing. This relative, in his 70s, suggested that if he were a teenager, he’d definitely take advantage of that loophole to sneak into the girls’ bathroom, and I thought, Wow. That’s why Republicans are worried—not because trans people are an actual threat (forcing a trans person into the bathroom of their biological gender is more dangerous for the trans person), but because it’s what conservatives might do if given the opportunity.
Transphobes are worried not about the actual threat posed by trans folks but about their own deranged ideas. They live in echo chambers constructed by their own twisted minds, and assume that everyone else is as depraved as they are.
75-year-old glam rocker Alice Cooper, unfortunately, is no exception, as he suggested in an interview with Stereogum.
“I’m understanding that there are cases of transgender, but I’m afraid that it’s also a fad, and I’m afraid there’s a lot of people claiming to be this just because they want to be that,” he said. “I find it wrong when you’ve got a six-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him by telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be.’” That’s not a thing, Alice. No one is encouraging their six-year-olds to be trans. “You’re still trying to find your identity, and yet here’s this going on, saying, ‘Yeah, but you can be anything you want. You can be a cat if you want to be.’” Who is saying this, besides the alternative reality that Fox News has constructed?
When the interviewer at Stereogum pushed back, suggesting that parents weren’t encouraging their children but listening to them, Cooper went full Ron DeSantis.
“Well, I can see somebody really taking advantage of this, though,” he said. “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, and he’s not in the least bit … He’s just taking advantage of that situation. Well, that’s going to happen. Somebody’s going to get raped, and the guy’s going to say, ‘Well, I felt like a girl that day, and then I felt like a guy.’ Where do you draw this line?”
Don’t project your own sh** onto the trans community, Alice.
Seventy-six-year-old Carlos Santana is no better, strangely going on an anti-trans rant during a concert, saying that he agrees with Dave Chappelle.
Carlos Santana goes on anti-trans rant during New Jersey concert:
— Pop Base (@PopBase) August 24, 2023
“When God made you and me, before we came out of the womb, you know who you are and what you are… a woman is a woman and a man is a man.” pic.twitter.com/fss8d4qukK
At least Santana had the sense (or the financial concern) to apologize afterward on Facebook, writing, “I am sorry for my insensitive comments. They don’t reflect that I want to honor and respect all person’s ideals and beliefs. I realize that what I said hurt people, and that was not my intent. I sincerely apologize to the transgender community and everyone I offended. I want to honor and respect all person’s ideals and beliefs whether they are LGBTQ or not.”
I’m starting to think that Alice Cooper was right when he said in a different interview this week that rock stars should not talk about politics.
