Rock Legend Loses Honored Position After He Refused to Stay Silent on 'Transgender' Children
You can never be woke enough for the hyper-woke crowd — something Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider is finding out the hard way.
Last month, Snider was the hero of the cultural left after telling an interviewer, rather erroneously, that under “drag bans” Twisted Sister “would not be allowed to perform in Texas.” It doesn’t matter if it was true or not, Snider — whose band’s gimmick was drag cosplay, something that wouldn’t even turn a head at today’s preschools — was briefly hailed as a brave truth-teller.
“So, do I stand with the [LGBT/drag] community? One-hundred percent,” he said during the interview. “I heard the community has reached out about using ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ as their battle cry, and I said, ‘With my blessing, brothers and sisters! Go for it!’ I stand with them.”
San Francisco Pride, the premiere LGBT pride event in the unofficial capital of the LGBT community in the West, was poised to use Twisted Sisters “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as the event’s anthem this year. Snider was also, to hear him to tell it, set to be one of the grand marshals in this year’s parade.
Not anymore.
According to KGO-TV, Snider has been dropped from SF Pride after he retweeted KISS singer Paul Stanley on “gender-affirming care.” Stanley’s comments were chalked up as “transphobic” by many in the media.
“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,” Stanley said in an April 30 tweet.
“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 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.”
“With many children who have no real sense of sexuality or sexual experiences caught up in the ‘fun’ of using pronouns and saying what they identify as, some adults 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.”
— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) April 30, 2023
Snider retweeted this and also responded with his approval: “You know what? There was a time where I ‘felt pretty’ too,” Snider said in a retweet. “Glad my parents didn’t jump to any rash conclusions!”
You know what? There was a time where I “felt pretty” too. Glad my parents didn’t jump to any rash conclusions! Well said, @PaulStanleyLive https://t.co/G80uNyzD7M
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) May 1, 2023
Well, cue the damage control.
“Why did the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade invite me, Dee Snider to be a Grand Marshal in their parade and sing ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ on the center stage at what could possibly be the most important LGBTQIA+ gathering in the organization’s long history?” Snider said in a statement, according to music site Brooklyn Vegan.
“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?” [Emphasis in original.]
“I’ve recently stated I do not believe young children are ready to decide their gender allocation. I believe their choices should be supported and accepted by their parents, but I do not think kids have the mental capabilities to make rational, logical decisions on things of a magnitude that will affect them for the rest of their lives. I do not believe they are mentally developed enough.”
For what it’s worth, Snider’s reaction was more principled than Stanley’s, who essentially just capitulated, saying that “[w]hile my thoughts were clear, my words clearly were not.” Right:
— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) May 4, 2023
Neither is going to be enough, however, as SF Pride announced Friday that the two parties had mutually agreed to part ways.
“Dee Snider was not dropped from this year’s San Francisco Pride celebration; it was a mutual decision after a productive, educational conversation with him,” SF Pride President Nguyen Pham said, KGO-TV reported.
“Like any ally, we’re glad that Dee wants to continue learning about the issues that affect the transgender community. As a trans woman, I can tell you that no two stories are alike — this isn’t a black-and-white conversation, which is why educating the public is so critical. By donating to SF Pride, you’re creating a safer space for that scared trans child who was brave enough to stand up and tell the world who they really are — receiving the support they need from their parents, a medical professional, and their community,” said Suzanne Ford, SF Pride’s executive director.
Again, right. Snider, meanwhile, continued to function under the misapprehension that there was some kind of rear guard that was going to step up and support him on the issue — despite the fact he was right and the evidence demonstrates that.
“I am a proud moderate,” he wrote in his statement, Brooklyn Vegan reported. “I drive a Tesla and a Hummer. I have too many guns but strongly support intelligent gun control. I have four children yet fight for a woman’s right to choose. I am a motorcycle riding environmentalist. I am a heterosexual who proudly supports LBGTQIA+ rights. To me (and I believe to many of you) none of these things are mutually exclusive.”
Snider’s Twitter feed, meanwhile, was filled with him fighting a gaggle of people who definitely believed these things were mutually exclusive.
They should. Our daughter wanted to be “covered in tattoos” since elementary school. We like tats but refused to allow her to get any before she was 18. That’s when she started “loading up”. Now 26 she regrets tattoos she first got. Realizes she didn’t know what she wanted. 🙁 https://t.co/9S8zVEOAIo
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) May 7, 2023
C’mon, people. Look beyond what they are fighting for & see the similarities in how they are fighting.
Sadly none of them are wrong about their fear of giving in at all.
History shows that human nature is to keep on taking.
With that…I’m going to leave and enjoy my Sunday! https://t.co/jgVf8DjVAa
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) May 7, 2023
I’m not on YOUR side. I’m not on THEIR side. I’m on the true majority side: the middle.
There’s no Right and Left. It’s only right or wrong.
Your disappointed? Imagine how I feel. https://t.co/79hF0PoiMD
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) May 8, 2023
It’s not about Left and Right…it’s about right or wrong.
Okay…now I’m going out for bagels!https://t.co/lkjnPhoYHF
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) May 7, 2023
Bagels, huh? Just what a transphobe would be eating.
This is the thing: Snider doesn’t realize that when he said he was “with the [LGBT/drag] community … One-hundred percent,” that’s not actually what he meant — because, in 2023, that means abandoning all independent thought to the woke hive mind. And the woke hive mind has decided that children are able to claim to be whatever gender they want to be. Therefore, we all have to agree that kids can decide to be a different gender and receive medical care to “transition” them. Point out that these horrific procedures have lifelong consequences that minors aren’t aware of, and you’re “transphobic.”
Forget that Snider was opposed to the “drag bans” last month. That’s old news! Besides, the “drag bans” wouldn’t affect Twisted Sister in the slightest, considering they only involve minors and the last time anyone under the age of 18 has been interested in the hair metal band was sometime in the 1990s, I suspect. Big deal. That was April, now it’s May, and Snider won’t commit to allowing minors to choose “gender-affirming care.”
Again, he was right, and we should encourage celebrities who don’t back down. But now, the woke mob is basically saying: “Get him, everybody! And don’t even stop to check his pronouns are he/him, either! He doesn’t deserve it.” Still want to believe you can reason with the pitchfork-carriers, Mr. Snider, by telling them being an ally is “mutually exclusive” from believing an 8-year-old boy can decide he’s a girl?
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