Lizzo took to Twitter to address the ongoing silence surrounding transphobia. According to the Grammy award-winning singer, the roots stem from racism.’
“Transphobia is lookin real rooted in racism right about now,” Lizzo tweeted. “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 [be] way less support for these ideals. Because the ‘why’ is more insidious than we realize.”
Her tweets come days after the Arkansas Senate approved a bill on a 19-7 vote, allowing someone to be charged with misdemeanor sexual indecency with a child if they use a public restroom or changing room “of the opposite sex while knowing a minor of the opposite sex is present.” The bill now heads to the majority-GOP House. Six Republican states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah — have already signed bills limiting medical care for trans youth.
The bill also defines public changing facilities as restrooms, bathrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms. It does not include private dressing areas in commercial clothing stores.
Lizzo believes that if more people were forced to explain their reasons for the bigotry, they would be unable to push forward with their skewed agendas.
“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,” she wrote.
So far this year, at least 155 bills targeting trans people’s rights have been introduced, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
