Late last month, KISS' Paul Stanley posted a rambling message calling gender-affirming healthcare for youth "a sad and dangerous fad." Here's his full statement:
My Thoughts On What I'm Seeing
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 as though some sort of game and then parents in some cases allow it. There ARE individuals who as adults may decide reassignment is their needed choice but 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 girlf in her brother's, we should lead them steps further down a parth that's far from the innocence of what they are doing. With many children who have no real sense of sexuality of sexual experiences caught up in the "fun" of using pronouns and saying what they identify as, some adults mistakenly confuse teaching acceptance with normaliging and encouraging a situation that has been a struggle for those truly affected and have turned it into a sad and dangerous fad.
Then Dee Snider of Twisted Sister piped up, tweeting:
You know what? There was a time where I "felt pretty" too. Glad my parents didn't jump to any rash conclusion! Well said, @PaulStanleyLive
And then, of course, to nobody's surprise, MAGA-loving Ted Nugent had to chime in. Here's a clip from his talk show, "The Nightly Nuge" where he states that he fully supports Stanley's stance—he says "Paul Stanley just unleashed some beautiful logic." His YouTube channel describes the clip:
For this "Friday Free For All," Uncle Ted salutes Paul Stanley and his stand against non-reversable "trans" treatments for minors, calling the procedures a "dangerous fad."
Since his first statement, Stanley has sorta kinda tried to halfway apologize without really changing his mind. AV Club explains:
Stanley shared that while his "thoughts were clear" in the original statement, his "words clearly were not."
In recontextualizing his initial comments, Stanley wrote that "most importantly and above all else" he wants to be an ally to gender-diverse individuals. "I support those struggling with their sexual identity while enduring constant hostility and those whose path leads them to reassignment surgery," Stanley writes. "It's hard to fathom the kind of conviction that one must feel to take those steps."
Dee Snider has also recently insisted that he's still an LGBTQ ally, despite publicly agreeing with Stanley's original statement. I guess, at least Ol' Nuge is consistent, I'll give him that. And hey, Stanley and Snider, if you want to be an LGBTQ ally, you're absolutely doing it wrong!
