The Lil Nas X Controversy is Ridiculous, Not Transphobic
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We can’t afford to alienate allies.
My fellow trans siblings. I have a message.
Lil Nas X is not the enemy. In fact, he could not possibly be any further from being the enemy.
On March 14th, Lil Nas X posted the tweet above, playfully noticing the resemblance that he and the woman in this photo share by saying “The surgery was a success.” Inexplicably, this got twisted into him being transphobic. A clear reasoning behind this thinking, aside from “It’s hard to be trans, and people are targeting us!” — which does nothing to explain why one should be offended by this tweet in particular — has not been presented. One Twitter user even suggested that he pay money to make up for his supposed misstep. Lil Nas X responded in a way that you might call…colorful.
I can’t really blame him.
In a time where there are hundreds of bills being introduced in the US that seek to strip away trans rights and make trans children signficantly more at risk of suicide, this is what we focus on. Interestingly, some have used the point about rising anti-trans legislation to claim that his tweet was harmful in light of that legislation…as if posting this was somehow stoking anti-trans resentment. This argument makes no sense. He, a very attractive young man, posted a photo of a beautiful young woman, and joked that she would be what he would look like if he were to transition.
That’s it.
Not that trans women are not women, or that they’re men; not that this woman is ugly or looks like a man; not that surgeries are botched or unsuccessful in some way; not that people who need gender affirming care are silly; none of this. When asked why he even mentioned surgery, he clarifies by saying “because she has titties.” Not “because you need to have surgery to be a woman,” not “because the only difference between a man and a trans woman is surgery,” or any other hateful, transphobic argument that would have to be made in order to warrant this backlash.
