Azealia Banks faces blistering backlash after yet another disgustingly transphobic rant
Rapper Azealia Banks performs at Club Nokia on April 16, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Chelsea Lauren/Getty)
Azealia Banks went on a transphobic rant mere moments after she announced she’s getting hitched to Jewish conceptual artist Ryder Ripps.
The rapper took to Instagram to confirm her engagement Sunday (23 February), showing off her ring as she declared she is “Jewish now”.
But after a follower told her she she needed to convert to Judaism to become Jewish, the “212” musician hit back by sharing transphobic remarks.
Across multiple comments, Banks said trans women “are just hot gay men” and compared gender affirmation surgery to “castration”.
Society, she said, does “mental gymnastics” to validate trans people before concluding: “Cis women don’t exist. There are women and then there are transwomen [sic].”
(Instagram/@azealiabanks)
Her comments immediately became a lightning rod for criticism, prompting Pose star Angelica Ross to call out Banks for the “trash that comes out of her mouth”.
Banks has courted criticism in the past for her comments on trans people. While she once sought to raise awareness of the rising violence trans women face in 2020, she was later suspended from Twitter for a graphic rant against gender affirmation surgery.
Azealia Banks calls trans women ‘hot gay boys with beat faces and plastic surgery’
Banks first faced criticism when a fan commented “doesn’t work like that” after the 29-year-old announced: “I just got engaged, k**ts.
“I’m crying… I’m Jewish now. MAZEL TOV, B****S!”
She responded to the user by doubling down on how she is “Jewish now, you can’t stop me”. Seemingly saying that since “society can do mental gymnastics” for trans women, her 704,000 followers should accept she is Jewish.
(Instagram/@azealiabanks)
Backlash brewed, prompting Banks to, again, comment on trans women. She wondered why “can you chop ur c**k and say ur a girl, but I can’t catch the Jewish nut and be Jewish?”
(Instagram/@azealiabanks)
Banks then said trans women are “just hot gay boys with beat faces and plastic surgery”.
(Instagram/@azealiabanks)
“I live for the trans girls but the trans s**t is really a non issue,” she continued.
“Just gay boys on hormones using male aggression to force their ways into women’s spaces,” before imploring people to, er, “accept yourselves”.
Her comments failed to take into account how not all trans people undergo gender affirmation surgery or hormone replacement therapy.
Moreover, gender and sex are different, with Banks seemingly equating the two while making sweeping generalisations – invalidating trans people in the process.
Angelica Ross criticised rapper for the ‘trash that comes out her mouth’
Fans fumed on Twitter, accusing Banks of transphobia. Ross waded into the controversy on Monday (22 February), tweeting: “Transphobia from Azealia Banks.
Transphobia from Azealia Banks. My heart hurts for her too much for me to be bothered by any of the trash that comes out of her mouth. I’ve been mourning her for a while. All I see is a dead woman walking. To me her Black life matters too even though I don’t agree with her.
— A N G E L I C A (@angelicaross) February 22, 2021
“My heart hurts for her too much for me to be bothered by any of the trash that comes out of her mouth. I’ve been mourning her for a while.
“All I see is a dead woman walking. To me her Black life matters too even though I don’t agree with her.
https://twitter.com/schxleo/status/1363847660298461190
Can y’all let Azealia Banks go now, the music ain’t THAT good pic.twitter.com/864L3Qa8Ic— corbin bleu’s tether (@ericthulhu) February 22, 2021
https://twitter.com/serenajazmine/status/1363980502106054656
PinkNews contacted representatives of Azealia Banks for comment.
