Kiss’ Paul Stanley Treads Lightly in New Statement After Controversial Gender-Affirming Youth Care Comments
Kiss guitarist and front man Paul Stanley made new comments on those who choose gender affirmation surgery after previous comments criticizing gender-affirming youth care.
“While my thoughts were clear, my words clearly were not,” Stanley said in a statement on Twitter Thursday that didn’t touch on children but addressed a broader group. “I support those struggling with their sexual identity while enduring constant hostility and those whose path leads them to reassignment surgery. It’s hard to fathom the kind of conviction that one must feel to take those steps.”
— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) May 4, 2023
In a previous tweet, Stanley expressed criticism of adults who “mistakenly confuse teaching acceptance with normalizing and encouraging a situation that has been a struggle for those truly affected and have turned it into a sad and dangerous fad.”
That led to blowback from others who felt he had mischaracterized and undermined the importance of gender-affirming care for youth.
Political commentator Keith Olbermann was among Stanley’s critics: “It’s not a ‘game,’ you a–hole. What you do is a GAME. What they face — internally and now externally due to stupid panicky fascists like you, externally — is an excruciating ordeal.”
Multiple medical groups, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, have stated that gender-affirming care is necessary and in many cases lifesaving.
Stanley ended his newest statement with a seeming promise to later explain his thoughts more thoroughly in a different platform.
“A paragraph or two will remain far too short to fully convey my thoughts or point of view,” he wrote, “so I will leave that for another time and place.”
