Carlos Santana, Alice Cooper, Barry Humphries and the Terrifying Speed of Social Progress
During a concert last July, Rob Thomas collaborator Carlos Santana decided it was time for him to share his thoughts about the trans community with the five thousand people in attendance, all of whom desperately needed to know what the veteran rock guitarist had to say on the issue.
Santana ranted, “When God made you and me before we came out of the womb, you know who you are and what you are. Later on, when you grow out of it, you see things and start believing that you could be something that sounds good, but you know it ain’t right. Because a woman is a woman and a man is a man — that’s it. Whatever you want to do in the closet, that’s your business. I’m OK with that.”
He closed by insisting, “I am like this with my brother Dave Chappelle.”
#NotSoSmooth
That, to me, is subpar concert banter. If I were Santana, I’d say, “Let’s hear it for the band!” “Atlantic City, are you ready to rock?” or “Here’s “Smooth” instead. That might have gotten a better response.
I wouldn’t use a concert to express my ignorant views that trans people aren’t really trans but rather confused, and God made you a man or woman, and trans people should all live shameful lives in the closet.
Santana later issued a bullshit apology that he then deleted and replaced with the words, “The energy of consciousness generates its own kind. hate begets hate.”
Wow! How profound! That totally means something!
Carlos Santana is not the only member of the AARP set to share their thoughts on the trans community. Before he died, Barry Humphries, who made a good living performing in lady’s garb as Dame Edna Everage, referred to gender-affirmation surgery as “self-mutilation” and repeated the conservative canard that teachers are groomers who can’t wait to twist and corrupt their student’s fragile minds.
“How many different kinds of lavatory can you have? And it’s pretty evil when it’s preached to children by crazy teachers” are Humphries’ exact words on the subect.
Not to be outdone, Alice Cooper, who has similarly made a long and lucrative career out of gender-bending, told Stereogum, “I understand that there are cases of transgender, but I’m afraid that it’s also a fad, and I’m afraid there’s a lot of people claiming to be this just because they want to be that. I find it wrong when you’ve got a six-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him by telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be.’”
The anti-trans brigade simultaneously seems to think that groomers are tricking children into thinking they’re trans because it’s so hot right now, and you get all sorts of cool free shit just for coming out as trans and that the entire trans community is distraught and suicidal because they’re so mentally ill.
From the way people talk, you’d think that you automatically receive a Cadillac automobile, juicy steak, and mansion in California for being trans when we all know those are instead the perks of being an immigrant.
Only someone both cruel and utterly deluded would imagine that the lives of trans people aren’t difficult enough and need to be made harder.
Celebrities like Cooper and Santana said ignorant things about the trans community because they are out of touch but also because the rate of progress has sped up in social media in a way that terrifies and disorients a lot of older folks.
There are multiple generations that see rights as something the majority eventually grants oppressed minorities out of kindness after the oppressed minority asks politely for rights for decades.
This used to be a long, drawn process. Black people, homosexuals, and women agitated passionately for equality and opportunity, and the white, male, straight establishment essentially said, “Nah, we’re not really feeling like giving you rights now. Having all the power has actually worked out really well for us, to the point where we think it’s the natural order. Why not try again next decade? You might have better luck, and we might feel more generous.”
The majority is inevitably more comfortable with minorities getting rights if it is a long, slow, gradual ordeal that takes decades, even centuries. They like progress to be incremental, not speedy.
The fight for trans rights, on the other hand, seems to have exploded seemingly overnight, or at least that’s how it must seem to the sizable portion of the population that hates and fears the trans community because it does not understand them.
People like Cooper and Santana are also used to oppressed minorities asking for rights. So they are insulted and shocked by the idea of a minority demanding change and insisting on being treated with sensitivity and respect.
It’s easy to see how celebrities like Cooper and Santana, who have been treated like Gods for a half-century at least, would be insulted and horrified by the idea of punk kids with green hair and pronouns telling them how to talk and what language they should use.
Americans hate to be told what to say or do or think, particularly by young people. Think of Bill Maher. He is incandescent with rage at the idea that some nonbinary 19-year-old at a liberal arts college could have anything to teach him, a smug asshole convinced that he knows everything.
Of course, the trans community has been fighting for rights and representation for ages, but the mainstream has ignored that struggle, so it only seems like everything is happening all at once.
I’m a middle-aged man who falls somewhere smack dab in the middle of an old white codger like Alice Cooper (if that is even his real name!) and a 19-year-old nonbinary kid out to change the world.
So, I know that social progress can be scary and disorienting if you have tremendous wealth and power and are deeply invested in maintaining a system that has been very good to you.
Progress invariably prompts a backlash and regression. Tremendous progress has been made for the trans community in the last decade, so it is not surprising that the backlash has been just as fierce.
I’d like to think that this reactionary old mindset will die when people like Cooper and Santana do, but that’s giving the public way too much credit.
That’s the great thing about progress. It’s scary and disorienting to some. But it’s also inevitable.
Nathan needs teeth that work, and his dental plan doesn’t cover them, so he started a GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-nathans-journey-to-dental-implants. Give if you can!
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