In the wake of Alice Cooper‘s comments last week concerning gender affirming care, cosmetics company Vampyre Cosmetics has decided to cancel their partnership with the rocker.
Cooper had only recently signed a deal with the company to market gothic-themed makeup, which would be particularly timely with Halloween on the horizon.
Through their Instagram site, Vampyre Cosmetics explained in a statement, “In light of recent statements by Alice Cooper we will no longer be doing a makeup collaboration. We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare. All pre-order sales will be refunded.”
What Did Alice Cooper Say?
During an interview with Stereogum that was posted last week, the singer was asked about sexual identity with Paul Stanley and Dee Snider‘s comments from earlier in the year referenced. Speaking specifically about gender affirming care, Cooper commented, “I’m understanding that there are cases of transgender, but I’m afraid that it’s also a fad.”
READ MORE: Dee Snider Responds After Split With SF Pride Parade
He continued, “I’m afraid there’s a lot of people claiming to be this just because they want to be that. I find it wrong when you’ve got a six-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be.'”
“I think that’s so confusing to a kid. It’s even confusing to a teenager. You’re still trying to find your identity, and yet here’s this thing going on, saying, ‘Yeah, but you can be anything you want. You can be a cat if you want to be.’ I mean, if you identify as a tree… And I’m going, ‘Come on! What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?’ It’s so absurd, that it’s gone now to the point of absurdity.”
After veering off into woke culture for a bit, Cooper returned to the topic, adding, “I say let somebody at least become sexually aware of who they are before they start thinking about if they’re a boy or a girl. A lot of times, I look at it this way, the logical way: If you have these genitals, you’re a boy. If you have those genitals, you’re a girl. There’s a difference between ‘I am a male who is a female, or I’m a female that’s a male’ and wanting to be a female. You were born a male. Okay, so that’s a fact. You have these things here. Now, the difference is you want to be a female. Okay, that’s something you can do later on if you want to. But you’re not a male born a female.”
When the interviewer suggested that they didn’t think parents were encouraging doubt in their kids identities and just hoped that parents would listen to their children to find appropriate care, Cooper responded, “Well, I can see somebody really taking advantage of this, though. A guy can walk into a woman’s bathroom at any time and just say, ‘I just feel like I’m a woman today” and have the time of his life in there, and he’s not in the least bit… He’s just taking advantage of that situation. Well, that’s going to happen. Somebody’s going to get raped, and the guy’s going to say, ‘Well, I felt like a girl that day, and then I felt like a guy.’ Where do you draw this line?”
If you are interested in learning more about how you can be an ally when discussing transgender people there are many resources online to educate yourself, including GLAAD.