Kiss star Paul Stanley backtracks after branding gender-affirming youth care a ‘dangerous fad’
Kiss frontman Paul Stanley is backtracking his transphobic statement where he called healthcare for trans youth “a sad and dangerous fad”. (Photo by Francesco Prandoni/Getty Images)
The co-founder of heavy metal band Kiss, Paul Stanley, has backtracked over anti-trans comments he made last month.
In a statement posted on Twitter on 30 April, Stanley criticised gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth, saying it had become “a sad and dangerous fad”.
The post was widely condemned, including by The Offspring guitarist Kevin Wasserman, who said it was “a very disappointing take, especially from someone who wore high heels, makeup and teased up hair his whole career”.
Wasserman – who is also known by the stage name Noodles – added: “As a young kid, your band helped teach me that I could be whatever I wanted to be. I guess it was just gimmickry after all.”
But Stanley now seems to have had second thoughts.
In a tweet posted on 4 May, he wrote: “While my thoughts were clear, my words clearly were not.
“Most importantly and above all else, I support 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 takes those steps.”
He continued by saying that “a paragraph or two” was “far too short to fully convey” his thoughts, so he would “leave that for another time and place”.
In his original statement, Stanley said parents were normalising “participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children into questioning their sexual identification as though some sort of game”, like getting “caught up in the ‘fun’ of using pronouns and saying what they identify as”.
He also said he thought gender affirmation surgery was a “needed choice” for some adults, but not OK for children, claiming parents had turned it into “a sad and dangerous fad”.
However, he did not address the fact that in the overwhelming majority of countries, including the UK and US, no one under the age of 18 is legally able to have gender-reassignment surgery – although some young people may be prescribed reversible puberty blockers.
