Leave Britney Alone video led to death threats and transphobic hate for Chris Crocker
Internet personality Chris Crocker in the 2007 video, ‘Leave Britney Alone’. (Screen capture via YouTube)
Chris Crocker, the former YouTuber whose teary “Leave Britney Alone!” video drew fame – and infamy – back in 2007, has broken his silence amid the Framing Britney Spears documentary.
Crocker, real name Christopher Cunningham, told his millions of social media followers that the brutal backlash he suffered for the now-infamous attempt to defend the “Toxic” hitmaker was “transphobic”.
His 2007 video, uploaded in the throes of press scrutiny against Spears, was derided and dragged by trolls because, Crocker said, he was a “gender-bending teenager”.
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Chris Crocker received ‘death threats’ after ‘Leave Britney Alone!’ video
Crocker was just 19 when he pleaded for people to stop assailing Britney in a two-part video uploaded to MySpace and YouTube.
It was a searing indictment of the media, as Crocker condemned gossip columnists and the paparazzi for their treatment of Britney – the now-viral clip saw him mainly be composed throughout, only becoming teary at the end.
“When I said it, I had to fear for my life,” the now 33-year-old recalled, who at the time lived in east Tennessee.
“Death threats were sent to my grandmother’s house. I was already living in the south as a gender-bending teenager with no money or ways of feeling protected.”
The adult film performer looked to footage of filmmaker Michael Moore that was included in The New York Times documentary, saying when Moore spoke up: “No one battered an eyelash.
“Maybe people reaching out to tell me, ‘Chris, you were right’, would feel good, if I knew that people could unpack that the reason no one took me serious was because I was a gender-bending teenager and the reaction to me was transphobic.”
“This hate was also directed towards me by other LGBT people,” he continued. “Not just verbal, but physical attacks were made towards me at gay bars and out in the streets.
“(By LGBT+ people who were embarrassed of me because of the way the media made fun of me. Which made them feel I gave them a bad name.)
“This was during a pre-Drag Race time, before everyone and their mom was saying, ‘Yass queen!’ It was a time of only embracing the heteronormative people in media.”
Crocker concluded by hoping that “Britney gets the freedom she deserves” and “that femme queer people are not tortured in the media when showcasing humanity.”
