A pair of Grammy-winning female artists are under fire from some on the Left after saying the modern transgender movement has gone too far.
Bette Midler, who has been nominated for 14 Grammys and won three, sparked a Left-driven backlash after tweeting on Independence Day that women are losing their "rights," in part, due to a change in modern language.
"WOMEN OF THE WORLD! We are being stripped of our rights over our bodies, our lives and even of our name!" Midler tweeted. "They don't call us 'women' anymore; they call us 'birthing people' or 'menstruators,' and even' people with vaginas'! Don't let them erase you! Every human on earth owes you!"
WOMEN OF THE WORLD! We are being stripped of our rights over our bodies, our lives and even of our name! They don’t call us “women” anymore; they call us “birthing people” or “menstruators”, and even “people with vaginas”! Don’t let them erase you! Every human on earth owes you!
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) July 4, 2022
Gray, who has five Grammy nominations and one win, said transgender women aren't really women.
"I will say this, and everybody's going to hate me, but, as a woman, just because you go change your parts, doesn't make you a woman. Sorry," Gray told Piers Morgan Uncensored, according to EW. "... If you want me to call you a 'her,' I will, because that's what you want, but that doesn't make you a woman just because I call you a 'her' and just because you got a surgery."
She added that she "doesn't think you should be labeled transphobic just because you don't agree."
Midler and Gray each have supported Democratic politicians in the past. Now, though, they are being criticized by some in their own party who have labeled them transphobic.
"SAD NEWS: Macy Gray & Bette Midler have come out as TERFs," said journalist Ernest Owens, referencing the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. "Unfollow, un-support, and unsubscribe."
SAD NEWS: Macy Gray & Bette Midler have come out as TERFs.
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) July 4, 2022
Unfollow, un-support, and unsubscribe.
Others, though, sided with Midler and Gray.
"Bette Midler and Macy Gray aren't receiving pushback because they said something hateful or inaccurate," tweeted podcaster Stephen Knight. "They are being demonized as heretics for rejecting the dogmas of a new religion. This is how blasphemy law works [in] the digital era."
Bette Midler and Macy Gray aren't receiving pushback because they said something hateful or inaccurate. They are being demonized as heretics for rejecting the dogmas of a new religion. This is how blasphemy law works the digital era.
— Stephen Knight 🎙️ (@GSpellchecker) July 5, 2022
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Bennett Raglin/Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
