Even allies need to be educated
San Francisco Pride has dropped Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider from its June event over support for Paul Stanley’s trans post.
On Wednesday, SF Pride announced that Twisted Sister and its hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” were supposed to have major parts in its June festivities — until a recent social media post from Snider.
“When we were notified about the tweet in which Dee expressed support for Kiss’s Paul Stanley’s transphobic statement, we were heartbroken and angry,” SF Pride in a statement on Facebook.
On Sunday, Stanley called discussions about gender identity and pronouns a “sad and dangerous fad.” A day later, Snider shared Stanley’s tweet and wrote, “There was a time where I ‘felt pretty’ too. Glad my parents didn’t jump to any rash conclusions! Well said, @PaulStanleyLive.”
Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” was supposed to be the “unofficial rallying cry” of this year’s two-day Pride event in San Francisco, and Snider was meant to perform, but the parties “mutually agreed to part ways,” the statement said.
Though Snider won’t be among the performers at the SF Pride event, set for June 24 and 25, the organization said it sees the singer’s misstep as a “reminder that even allies need to be educated” to ensure they are not sharing transphobic rhetoric.