Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) axed from SF Pride lineup for tweet opposing child sex changes

[jmdrake]

Dee Snider axed from San Francisco Pride lineup for tweet opposing child sex changes

"You know what? There was a time where I 'felt pretty' too. Glad my parents didn't jump to any rash conclusions!"

Dee Snider axed from San Francisco Pride lineup for tweet opposing child sex changes

Dee Snider has been axed from the lineup of San Francisco Pride this year over an allegedly transphobic tweet in which he agreed with a statement criticizing child sex changes.

San Francisco Pride had been on the cusp of announcing Twister Sister’s song, We’re Not Gonna Take It, as the “unofficial rallying cry” of this year’s event and Snider was set to perform the song on center stage. But that was before Snider openly supported Kiss member Paul Stanley’s statement calling child sex changes a “sad and dangerous fad.”


“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,” read Stanley’s statement on April 30.


The statement went viral, with an outpouring of both support and outrage. Snider quote-tweeted the message commending the Kiss singer-guitarist.

“You know what? There was a time where I 'felt pretty' too. Glad my parents didn't jump to any rash conclusions! Well said, [MENTION=10892]paul[/MENTION]StanleyLive,” Snider tweeted.


In a press release on May 2, titled San Francisco Pride Distances Itself from Dee Snider, the group noted that Snider had always been a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, and said they were “heartbroken and angry” to learn about the singer’s support for “Paul Stanley’s transphobic statement.”

“The message perpetuated by that tweet casts doubt on young trans people’s ability to self-identify their gender,” the statement continued.

The statement then went on to say that transgender people, “particularly transgender women and children of color,” are disproportionately affected by hate and violence and suggested that transphobia is “proliferating” and becoming enshrined in law.

“We have mutually agreed to part ways, but appreciate Dee seeing this as a teachable moment and a reminder that even allies need to be educated to ensure that they are not casually promoting transphobia,” the statement concluded.

Several European nations have recently conducted systematic reviews of the evidence for child sex changes and found it to be of extremely poor quality. Sweden, Finland, Norway, and England have dramatically altered course in their treatment of young people who believe themselves to be transgender. Each nation has noted that young people are still in a stage of identity development and advises extreme caution when embarking upon irreversible sex change interventions.

Stanley’s statement called out parents who are normalizing the idea of sex changes, “believing that because a little boy likes to play dress up in his sister’s clothes or a girl in her brother’s, we should lead them steps further down a path that’s far from the innocence of what they are doing.”

Stanley’s description matches that of many celebrity “trans kids” whose stories are laden with stereotypes. Jazz Jennings liked princess dresses and wearing a sparkly bathing suit, Kai Shappley’s mother tells of spanking Kai for “stealing girl toys,” and Susie Green, former CEO of disgraced trans charity Mermaids, revealed in a TED Talk how her homophobic husband wouldn’t tolerate her son’s liking for a tutu and a Snow White costume. All three families made the decision to tell their gender-nonconforming male children that they were girls, setting them up for puberty blockers, a lifetime of hormones, and risky and invasive surgeries.
​

And the offending tweet?

 

[jmdrake]

The irony of this is, just a couple of weeks ago Dee Snyder came out against laws relegating drag to adult only spaces. (He like most of the left wrongly called these bills "drag bans"). But apparently there are still some lines most of America doesn't want to cross. [MENTION=3169]Anti Federalist[/MENTION] we may be turning the corner. (I hope so).

https://autos.yahoo.com/twisted-sisters-dee-snider-says-152453813.html

Twisted Sister's Dee Snider says the "stupidity" of US anti-drag mandates are making him want to start wearing makeup again in protest
April 19, 2023·3 min read

Dee Snider has slammed America's attempt to ban drag performances, declaring via Twitter that the "stupidity" of it all is making him want to start wearing makeup again in protest.

During his tenure as Twisted Sister's glamorous frontman in the 80's, Snider would sport eccentric and overtly feminine looks with makeup and clothing, reminiscent of drag artists.

In recent months however, the US has tried to make drag illegal by launching a new legislation, signed in over 30 states, that will make “obscene performances of male or female performers who adopt flamboyant or parodic feminine personas with glamorous makeup and exaggerated costumes" an offence.

The mandate has understandably been faced with backlash, with critics arguing that it obstructs the right to personal expression and freedom, which will lead to further ostracisation of minority groups who do not conform to traditional gender binaries. In addition, it will destroy the livelihoods of countless drag performers across the nation, on the questionable and unfair bias that such behaviours are supposedly not appropriate to be witnessed by children.

In a series of tweets in response to one fan's reference of the aforementioned amendment of Montana’s House Bill 359, who adds that the law could "ban glam rock, wrestling [and] Dolly Parton", the frontman shares his view on the situation, revealing his desire to start wearing makeup again.

“You know, I haven’t worn the Twisted Sister makeup in many years,” Snider says. “But now I’m tempted to put it back on!”

In response to one fan who laments over Montana's current political climate, stating how they believe most individuals who live in the state do not agree with the bills their politicians are pushing, the vocalist says: “I’m willing to bet it’s the majority of you. The bullying minority is getting away with murder and it is time for the true majority to start pushing back ... HARD!".
​

 

[Occam's Banana]

[This is] a teachable moment and a reminder that even allies need to be educated to ensure that they are not casually promoting transphobia,” the statement concluded.

This message has been brought to you by O'Brien from Room 101 in the Ministry of Love.

 

[ClaytonB]

 

[jkr]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[Cleaner44]

Dee Snider is still a tyrannical ahole.

Dee Snider Tells Fans Against Vaccine Mandates to Go See Ted Nugent and Kid Rock
https://wmgk.com/2021/08/27/dee-sni...e-mandates-to-go-see-ted-nugent-and-kid-rock/

 

[cjm]

Dee Snider is still a tyrannical ahole.

No doubt. But he's got a fraction of a cent heading his way from me on this (pulled up "This is Twisted Sister" on Spotify). I'll listen to some Kiss later for Paul's comment.

 

[Origanalist]

You can never be woke enough. Maybe if these lunatics cancel enough people sanity has a fighting chance.

 

[cjm]

You can never be woke enough. Maybe if these lunatics cancel enough people sanity has a fighting chance.

One can hope. Wokeness seems to be a perverted game of chicken where, unfortunately, non participants can potentially suffer more than the participants.

 

[Matt Collins]

Dee Snider Tells Fans Against Vaccine Mandates to Go See Ted Nugent and Kid Rock

Well I guess he is, in fact, gonna take it.

 

[jmdrake]

Update. Apparently cancelling Snider cost SF Pride $500,000. And corporate donations are down this year.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politic.../sf-pride-dee-snider-transphobia-18078723.php

SF Pride says Dee Snider flap drove home the pervasiveness of transphobia
There’s a lot of soul-searching — and cash searching — going on at San Francisco Pride, less than two months before the organization hosts one of the world’s largest annual LGBTQ pride celebrations.

Pride is dealing with the financial fallout from ditching its plan this week to have Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider sing the iconic rock anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It” at Pride after Snider tweeted transphobic remarks.

Organizers hoped that the song would serve as a battle cry for a community under siege. Instead, it revealed there’s a larger battle to be fought.

Financially, Pride was counting on the media buzz generated from Snider’s appearance to cover the $500,000 shortfall it faces in funding this year’s event, SF Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford told me. Corporate donations are down this year.

But Snider’s tweet revealed a problem bigger than money: The LGBTQ community and its allies need to do a better job educating Americans about the 300,000 transgender kids in this country.

Snider’s tweet echoed the transphobic disinformation being confected by conservatives that is dominating the political narrative. The right is using fear — and ignorance — about trans kids to fire up its base voters.

GOP-controlled legislatures in 20 states have passed legislation that affect everything from how trans girls can participate in sports to bathroom access — all in the name of, as social conservatives like to say, “protecting children.” The Human Rights Campaign, which supports LGBTQ rights, is tracking 90 bills that the organization says “would prevent trans youth from being able to access age-appropriate, medically-necessary, best-practice health care.”

A March NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found the conservative message is sinking in. It found that 43% of respondents support laws that criminalize providing gender transition-related medical care to minors. While 54% oppose them, support has grown 15 percentage points since April 2021.

“It’s what’s wrong right now,” Ford, a 57-year-old trans woman, told me. The right is ramping up transphobia to raise money and strengthen its political power by, as she said, “framing the story in a wrong way. And then everybody looks at it and says, ‘Well, that makes sense to me.’ But I don’t know how to battle through that.”

Trans community supporters need to educate people like Snider, who Ford said has presented himself as an ally.

That’s why Pride asked Snider, a cisgenderd heterosexual white man, to sing at its center stage this year. Sure, belting out “We’re Not Gonna Take It” would have been kitschy. But organizers hoped that it would show how the community and its allies aren’t going to take any more anti-trans legislation being passed around the country or hate spewed online and in person.

Then, just days before Pride was set to announce Snider’s involvement, came the revelation that Snider had supported a recent transphobic Twitter post by 71-year-old rock star Paul Stanley.

Stanley, who rose to fame more than five decades ago as a member of the band Kiss, tweeted, “There is a BIG difference between teaching acceptance and normalizing and even encouraging participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children … as though (it is) some sort of game and then parents in some cases allow it.”

Stanley chided parents who “mistakenly confuse teaching acceptance with normalizing and encouraging a situation that has been a struggle for those truly affected and have turned it into a sad and dangerous fad.”

Snider nodded along, tweeting, “You know what? There was a time where I ‘felt pretty’ too. Glad my parents didn’t jump to any rash conclusions! Well said, [MENTION=10892]paul[/MENTION]StanleyLive.”

Stanley walked back his original tweet a bit on Thursday, tweeting: “While my thoughts were clear, my words clearly were not.” He added that above all that he supports “those struggling with their sexual identity while enduring constant hostility and those whose path leads them to reassignment surgery.”

Snider responded Friday by questioning Pride’s characterization of his comments as transphobic.

“So, I hear I’m transphobic. Really?” Snider wrote Friday in an online post. “I was not aware the transgender community expects fealty and total agreement with all their beliefs and any variation or deviation is considered ‘transphobic.’ So, my lifetime of supporting the Transgender community’s right to identify as they want and honoring whatever changes they may make in how they present themselves to the world isn’t enough? Why not?”

Politically, Snider said the trans community “needs moderates” like him “who support their choices, even if we don’t agree with every one of their edicts.”

His response shows that there is work to be done in explaining what trans youth endure while trying to navigate their path forward.

“We get lulled to sleep when people support (the LGBTQ community) and many issues that we line up with, and so we assume that they are educated about trans people and trans children,” Ford said. “But they’re not.”

For starters, Ford said, “there is a process. You don’t just stand up one day and say, ‘I’m trans,’ and then have surgery.”

The American Medical Association urged the nation’s governors in 2021 to oppose legislation that would “prohibit medically necessary gender transition-related care for minor patients.” The organization called such laws “a dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine.”

The most important thing to do, Ford said, is to listen to children when they want to identify as another gender “because there’s no litmus test,” Ford said. “There’s no physiological test to say whether ‘I’m a trans woman’ or not. The only thing you can rely on is what I say. And so we will defend that with everything we have. We cannot allow that to be taken away.”

The alternative, Ford said, is for children “to go to a panel of adults like Paul Stanley to determine if an 11-year-old trans boy is really a trans boy.”

Yes, it may be confusing to some adults if a child wants to “try on different pronouns,” Ford said. Her advice: Give them the space to “be who they are.”

This is a complicated and nuanced conversation — one that doesn’t lend itself to Twitter rants or sound bites. It can be confusing for many, as this is the first generation of parents and children who have wrestled with these issues at this scale. A 2022 report from the Williams Institute at UCLA estimated that 1.4% of 13- to 17-year-olds identify as transgender. That’s twice as many as a 2017 report found.

For now, Ford said, the right is dominating the national conversation over trans issues “because they’re yelling louder, and they have a simple argument. The truth is nuanced, and that’s a lot harder to communicate.”

Contemplating changing genders is not a fad, as Stanley said. It’s “arduous,” Ford said. She should know. She grew up in rural Kentucky in the 1970s. There were few role models. She said she “was so scared that I didn’t come out for 40 years.”

That is where SF Pride — and its supporters across the Bay Area — can help. This year’s Pride festival may not have Snider belting out “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Instead, it will be a chance for San Francisco to do what it collectively does best, no matter what kind of “doom loop” the city is in: Show the world a different way to think. To live. And to love.

That is what San Francisco and then-Mayor Gavin Newsom did in 2004, when he ordered the city to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Less than a dozen years later — after overcoming Republicans weaponizing marriage as a political wedge issue for years — same-sex marriage became the law of the land.

Ford believes that trans acceptance will follow a similar path. Eventually.

“We have a responsibility at San Francisco Pride to be educating the world,” Ford said. “And so maybe this is a step in that direction.”​

 

[Anti Globalist]

Least this guy has some degree of decency.

 

[69360]

When they start to eat their own, you know they went too far. What Stanley and Snider said is an average middlle of the road position on the issue and they are name called for it.