Janelle Monáe said they aren’t willing to “sit back and be silent” as lawmakers introduce anti-LGBTQ+ bills in record numbers around the country this year.
Monáe, who is nonbinary and goes by both she/her and they/them pronouns, told Washington’s NBC affiliate that the best response to efforts to pass anti-LGBTQ+ bills is to be “fighting back” against them.
“As a nonbinary, queer, pansexual person, I am proud to be in this community,” Monáe said.
“I will never sit back and be silent about the injustices that are happening against our trans community. ... They’re trying to erase our history, which is American history. If we’re erasing history, how are we supposed to correct the mistakes that the past has made and create a better future?”
The U.S. has experienced nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ bills so far this year, according to American Civil Liberties Union data.
Monáe previously spoke out against “an agenda for erasure” during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour last year in which the singer addressed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) “Don’t Say Gay” law and efforts from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to restrict lessons on race in his state’s schools.
“These are real experiences for our ancestors, real experiences for us,” they said. “And erasure is happening right underneath our noses. And it’s being done through lawmaking.”
Monáe, who is set to release the album “The Age of Pleasure” on Friday, told The Sydney Morning Herald that it’s important to create “safe spaces for brown and Black people to experience joy, to be and to exist, free from oppression and fear.”
“You can’t even talk about certain things in school any more. Those who are trans, they’re literally trying to erase their existence and not treat them with human decency,” Monáe said.
“So, of course we fight, but even in the middle of the fight we take time to find joy.”