Jeffree Star has been making headlines recently for spewing harmful rhetoric about nonbinary people and discounting their existence, amid sharing his support for the slain political commentator Charlie Kirk. Earlier this week, he appeared on a podcast called The Skinny Confidential: Him & Her Show, where he continued to weigh in on gender and sexuality discourse. In the episode, the beauty influencer says that he is “not gay” and is “just open and very me,” right before saying that the LGBTQ+ acronym should not include “Q” and “T.”
The makeup artist said, “LGB, that is your preference for what you are attracted to and what you like. Your identity issues and who you think you are is so separate. I don’t agree that they should be together.”
Star is known for an abrasive online personality, controversial takes, and getting himself in the middle of controversy and drama. For years now, he’s been open about his disapproval of the nonbinary community, saying that he’s not into all the other “they and them bullshit,” that he says was made up during the pandemic because people were bored in their houses. He staunchly stated that he identifies as a man and does not believe that nonbinary people exist. Following the death of Kirk, he used the opportunity to attack “they/thems,” telling people in a TikTok livestream that was recorded and shared on social media that if they believe in nonbinary people, they are “part of the problem.”
In this most recent podcast appearance, Star took aim at trans people, particularly parents of trans kids, saying, “Why are we encouraging our kids to be a different gender and feed them false information when they’re so young?”
He continued, “When I grew up and started looking different, my mother encouraged me to just be myself. When I started wearing makeup, being more feminine, and wanting to do certain things… it wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, Jeffree needs, what do they call it now — gender-affirming care?'” He also spread the harmful narrative that trans women are “just men with beards going into the women’s bathrooms.”
Star went on to say that parents who are supportive of their trans kids are “fucking weirdos.” The video was applauded by anti-trans folks in the comments, including, “Jeffree is so sane. It’s sooooo refreshing to have somebody speak the truth without hesitation or fear of cancellation. He is so right. People are dead inside.” And, “As a straight white male, I fucking love it…thank you for standing for the kids. Some people need to take a sanity test before they have children, and sir, you are definitely not one of them.”
Star’s remarks occur in a political climate where the Trump administration has led a campaign to attack, erase, and disparage transgender people. These attacks have had cultural impact, with, just last week, rapper Nikki Minaj sharing a post from the White House touting anti-trans actions.
