In 2023, a number of rock stars decided to speak out about transgender children and why they objected to being given access to best practice healthcare to help with their transition. In 2024, Green Day Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong would like to break this trend.
In a new interview with The Los Angeles Timesshouted the 51-year-old singer conservatives under the leadership moral panic around transgender children accessing gender-affirming care, criticizing those who would stand in the way of progress; “I just think they're close,” she told the publication. “It's like people are afraid of their children. Why be afraid? Why don't you let your child be the child he is?'
Armstrong chimed in at another point, saying that seeing kids celebrate their identity earlier in life is a net positive, especially considering his generation didn't have the same luxury. “Today it's more common for kids to be LGBTQ and there's more support,” she said. “But for us, back in the day, it was like the beginning when people could openly say things like that.”
When talking about the band's upcoming song “Bobby Sox” (in which he nods to his own bisexuality by singing both “Do you wantna be my boyfriend?” and “Do you wantna be my girlfriend?”), Armstrong said that it felt “liberating” to be in a place where he could sing about his sexuality. “It became more of a queer singalong.”
While 2023 was a record year for anti-LGBTQ legislation in the US, 2024 is already on track to break that record again. As of press time, the ACLU is already monitoring over 200 anti-LGBTQ accounts; in the 2024 legislative session, with 71 of those bills focusing on “health care cuts.”
Green Day, meanwhile, are gearing up for the release of their 14th studio album Saviors on Friday (January 19). In their interview, the band said the new album focuses more clearly on America's current political strife ahead of the 2024 election, returning to the socially conscious themes of some of their previous albums such as stupid american and Revolution Radio.
“We deliberately stayed away from politics [on 2020’s Father of All…] just because everything was such an easy target,” Armstrong said. “We didn't want to be like that CNN band. And I think in the back of our minds, we knew MAGA and the split was going to be there anyway four years later.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/culture/pride/billie-joe-armstrong-slams-transgender-panic-1235584370/