While transgendered people have existed as a community for more than half a century, only in the past few years have their issues been brought to the forefront. Maybe the most visible trans figure, Caitlyn Jenner, has been a lightning rod and topic for conversation and occasional controversy. While it’s true that these men and women have existed as they identify for decades, it’s new to many folks who were unaware. That has brought good, accepting reactions, as well as poor ones like ignorance and hate.
Unfortunately, Waka Flocka Flame fell into the latter category when he decided to bring up the issue while at a stop at The Breakfast Club. While touching on a range of topics like the environment, poverty, violence, lifting up his own community, and staying out of trouble, somewhere along the line he came to speak about his feelings on Caitlyn Jenner and the transgender community. Starting at about the 9:00 mark:
“Women are afraid to be a wife, and young males are afraid to be men. They don’t market families and husbands and wives no more. They’re marketing young girls, transgenders — they’re marketing evil. It’s really evil! Evil is marketed! And I got nothing against that — I ain’t no religious man, but I’m just saying, c’mon man. I ain’t go nothing against nobody’s preferences, but putting it on TV is crazy. And you know kids are the only people watching TV, adults are too busy.”
When Breakfast Club host Angela Yee tried to help Waka explain himself, it really only got worse when suggested that transgender people are mentally gullible.
“I ain’t say nothing against Bruce Jenner, but you are who you are when God made you, not who you became after he did. You’re rebuking God, God ain’t put them feelings in you, that’s the devil playing tricks on your mind. That’s a test from God, if you can’t outbeat that one task and you believe that, then you’ll believe everything else and you’re going down that way.”
In the midst of his diatribe, he goes on to talk about how psychiatry is also for the weak, even if you’re even hearing voices.
While there’s a lot to disagree with about him calling the transgender community evil or misgendering Caitlyn or calling them weak, there are a lot of people who probably agree with him. In fact, sadly, a fair amount of your favorite celebrities, athletes, and other famous folks probably do too. Perhaps that’s exactly why it is on TV and reaching out to kids, so that in 50 years, we’ll look back at older generations like we do now and say “How did we think that way?” Maybe Flocka will obtain that knowledge someday.
(Via TMZ)
