Paul Stanley, co-founder and lead singer of the legendary American rock outfit Kiss, has spoken out against what he calls the “dangerous fad” of gender reassignment treatment for children in a lengthy Twitter post published on Sunday.
Stanley sharply criticized parents who would consider permitting their offspring to engage in gender-reassignment care. He wrote that 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.”
Stanley, 71, added that he believes some children are being swept up in the “fun of using pronouns” and that, while there are people who may legitimately seek gender reassignment in adulthood, their “struggle” has turned the topic “into a sad and dangerous fad.”
Stanley’s objections come amid a wave of legislative moves in at least ten Republican-led US states to impose restrictions on acquiring puberty blockers or seeking transition surgery in the past few months, according to The Telegraph.
At least 385 bills relating to LGBTQ issues have been introduced in the United States this year up to March 7, according to data analyzed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The same organization noted that just 306 had been tabled in all of 2022.
Speaking in March, US President Joe Biden called prospective laws seeking to impose restrictions on transgender rights as being “close to sinful.” “It just, to me, is, I dunno, it’s cruel,” Biden told CNN, without elaborating on which transgender rights issues he was referencing.
The White House also appeared to signal its approval of gender reassignment treatments in a series of documents released last year, including one released by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs. This included a study called ‘Gender Affirming Care and Young People’, which promoted “top” and “bottom” surgeries, as well as a puberty blockers for children and young adults.
Stanley has waded into contentious public topics in the past. In 2017, he rebuked former NFL player Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during pre-game renditions of the US national anthem.