Macy Gray discussed the backlash she felt following controversial comments she made about trans identity and womanhood on a recent episode of daytime talkshow, the Tamron Hall Show.
After Hall read the singer’s previous comments from an interview with Piers Morgan, Gray then spoke about the controversy and what she learned in the wake of it.
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“Well, honestly, what I meant by being misunderstood is, what I was talking about was womanhood,” Gray said. “Like, my mother always said, you know, ‘You’re not a woman yet.’ So it’s just like when a boy becomes a man, so I was talking about maturing into a woman. I have two daughters, I don’t consider them women because they’re like two 20-year-old dummies. They’re not on my level yet. So, originally, that’s what I was talking about.
“And, but of course, it got turned into, me being a ‘transphobe’ which couldn’t be further from. Honestly, what I did learn was pure acceptance. I thought I was accepting before but it was good for me because I’ve grown into just really, like, truly seeing someone and accepting them for who they are and who they want to be and their opinions. And that’s what makes the world what it is, is that everybody is different. So if you get into putting people down or canceling people or cutting people off because they don’t agree with you then then … you no longer live in the world that you want to live in.”
Several months back, the Grammy-winning songwriter and performer drew criticism for comments about the trans community in an interview with Piers Morgan. In the July 4 interview, during Morgan’s Uncensored, the 54-year-old “I Try” singer talked about the “confusing” issue of gender identity, referencing issues she has with “the whole he, she, they” pronouns.
Gray said she supported trans rights for “fairness and equality,” Gray also said that women who are “born to obvious superior physical bodies” should not be allowed to compete against cis women in athletic competitions.
“I totally agree,” Gray said, finding herself in line with Morgan’s stance. “I will say this and everybody’s going to hate me, but, as a woman, just because you go change your part doesn’t make you a woman. Sorry.”
Gray added, “If you want me to call you a her, I will, because that’s what you want, but that doesn’t make you a woman just because I call you a her and just because you got a surgery.”
The singer explained in the Morgan interview that her position came from the personal and “completely unique experience” of growing up as a woman. An experience, she says, that must be lived, not created.
“Surgery or finding yourself doesn’t change that,” she told Morgan. “Being a little girl is a whole epic book, you know? And you can’t have that just because you want to be a woman.” Gray added that she “doesn’t think you should be labeled transphobic just because you don’t agree.”
Gray later got more support from Morgan on Twitter, who wrote, “If there’s one thing worse than the vicious trans activist mob coming for women who defend women, it’s virtue-signaling men like this fuelling the pile-on. Repulsive.”
Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns