Lizzo is using her voice to call out transphobia, racism and fatphobia. The Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter tweeted about transphobia that is rooted “in real racism.”
The “About Damn Time” singer tweeted on Wednesday, March 8, first writing to her 2.2 million followers, “Transphobia is lookin real rooted in racism right about now…” She continued in a series of tweets, “I’ve never heard a person say why they’re racist… Or fatphobic.. I’ve never heard a reason why someone is transphobic.”
“I think if we knew ‘why’ these people felt this way there would way less support for these ideals,” she added, saying that the real reasoning behind hatred and bigotry may be, “more insidious than we realize.”
In her last quote tweet she wrote, “Don’t get it twisted— I don’t care why people are bigoted. That’s a waste of my imagination. I feel like there’s a lot of complicit silence and apathetic participation going on that wouldn’t fly if people knew more.”
Lizzo’s tweets comes at a time when other celebrities continue to use their platform to call out various Republican-backed bills that seem to target the LGBTQ+ community. Specific anti-trans and anti-drag bills have been introduced in various states like Kentucky and Tennessee, with the latter’s Gov. Bill Lee last week signing a bill banning “adult cabaret.”
Gabrielle Union, a long outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, recently spoke out about intersectionality and the importance of speaking up for the Black trans community specifically. She said in a now-viral speech at the NAACP Image Awards, “The intersection of Black rights and the rights of the LGBTQIA trans and gender non conforming people continues to be rough — that’s a huge understatement. Even as we demand equality at the top of our lungs, we consistently fail to extend our advocacy to protect some of our most vulnerable among us.”
Watch the speech below:
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