Can Y’all Just Leave Chappell Roan Alone?

The pop supernova has been deemed "an embarrassment to lesbians" for *checks notes* rightfully pointing out that this country's current political system is profoundly flawed.

By Audra Heinrichs  |  September 23, 2024 | 2:00pm
Photo: Noam Galai, Getty Images Notable/Quotable, Chappell Roan
Can Y’all Just Leave Chappell Roan Alone?

On Friday, the Guardian published a profile of Chappell Roan that was as raw as, well, all other recent profiles about pop music’s newest, shiniest, star. In it, Roan was candid about growing up closeted in the Midwest (“I was very, very lonely.”), longing for human connection and a deserved diagnosis to explain her daily grapples with her mental health (“I was very mentally ill–suicidal for years–and not medicated, because that’s just not a part of midwest culture. It’s not: ‘Maybe we should get you a psychiatrist.’ It’s: ‘You need God. You need to pray about that.’”); and the ways in which fame has marred her life (“Going to the park, pilates, yoga–how do I do this in a safe way where I’m not going to be stalked or harassed?”).

Unfortunately, it wasn’t Roan’s thoughtful–at times, wholly heart-wrenching–revelations about her past and present that’s been of any concern to certain subject of the public, though. Instead, it seems every other liberal with a lukewarm IQ on X (formerly known as Twitter) has glommed onto Roan’s solitary quote about the upcoming presidential election. When prompted about an endorsement of either current Vice President, Kamala Harris or former President, Donald Trump, she replied:

“I have so many issues with our government in every way,” she says. “There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides. I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote – vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.” 

Now, before I continue, it’s important to note that in an August Rolling Stone profile Roan did–in fact–all but confirm she would not only be voting in the election despite “hate” for “both sides” but would be supporting Harris:

“Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community,” Roan said. “My ethics and values will always align with that, and that hasn’t changed with a different nominee. I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historical time period when a woman of color is a presidential nominee.”

Past comments and identity (out lesbian) aside, her actions, too, should be proof enough of how she’ll be voting in the 2024 election. On tour, Roan has shared the stage with local drag artists at every date, and as The Guardian reported, “For every U.K. tour ticket sold, £1 goes to the LGBTQ+ rights charity Kaleidoscope Trust. Clearly, this is not a person who would co-sign a bigot, fraud and an accused sexual predator. Even still, scores of people took to X to rail against the quote without any of this needful context.

“Chappell roan is an embarrassment to lesbians,” one user wrote. “You can’t borrow from drag aesthetics and embrace your sexuality and then pretend the party that would criminalize our happiness is the same as the one who protects it.”

“This is about ten million times worse than Taylor Swift hugging a Trump supporter,” tweeted another. “‘Problems on both sides’ is the most cowardly uneducated and down right embarrassing thing you could possibly say about this election.”

Of course, these are only a small sampling of the ill-informed, resistance boomer-esque backlash. Scroll X and you’ll find a disquieting number of people too busy feigning bad faith outrage to recall that during the 2020 election in which Harris was a candidate, the former prosecutor was known only as a “complicated choice” by countless queer and trans people–namely, queer and trans sex workers who were criminalized by the same system that promoted the “Top Cop.” Take Chase Strangio, the transgender rights activist and renowned attorney that won the watershed Supreme Court employment cases, who wrote the following in an OUT Magazine op-ed:

“As a prosecutor, Harris’s work has been as an arm of the state fighting to lock people in cages and defending policies that destroyed lives and communities. Now attempting to position herself as a criminal legal system reformer and an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, Harris seeks to rewrite her past rather than own it.” 

Harris’ “complicated” history aside, the Democratic Party are (to put it politely) a deeply flawed, hypocritical body of people who are actively aiding and abetting a genocide in Gaza–so much so, in fact, that Roan didn’t feel comfortable accepting an invitation to perform at the White House during Pride month. Lest anyone forget that she told RS that she considered saying yes only to read the poetry of Palestinian women but her team warned against it due to potential safety threats.

“You fuck with the president and the government, your security is not the same, and neither is your family’s,” she recalled them telling her. If one can’t read a poem at a Democrat-occupied White House, is that not confirmation of–for lack of a better term–“problems on both sides”???

Though the backlash is utterly unsurprising (folks were just as enraged by Roan setting very reasonable boundaries with fans, after all), it’s thoroughly disappointing to know that even one of the most famous people in the world can’t express very deserved disillusionment with the two-party system without an onslaught of reactionary disparagement. And that that person also happens to be a queer woman who’s dedicated her entire platform to the well-being of LGBTQ+ people and loudly protesting the government’s host of harms? Well, that requires the kind of mourning that Roan described in the Guardian profile. Not that anyone appears to have read that part…

 
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