Like his fellow rock stars Alice Cooper, Paul Stanley, and Dee Snider before him, multi-Grammy Award winning musician Carlos Santana has found himself facing a massive wave of backlash for publicly offering his dissenting opinion on the concept of transgenderism.
Speaking to the crowd in between sets during a July concert at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, the born-again Christian musician declared to those in attendance, “When God made you and me — before we came out of the womb, you know who you are and what you are.”
“Later on,” the rock legend continued, “when you grow out of it, you see things, and you start believing that you could be something that sounds good, but you know it ain’t right.”
Carlos Santana goes on anti-trans rant during New Jersey concert:
“When God made you and me, before we came out of the womb, you know who you are and what you are… a woman is a woman and a man is a man.” pic.twitter.com/fss8d4qukK
— Pop Base (@PopBase) August 24, 2023
“Because a woman is a woman and a man is a man,” the Everybody’s Gettin’ Some singer added. “That’s it. Whatever you wanna do in the closet, that’s your business. I’m OK with that.”
Concluding his statement, the declared solidarity another entertainer whose views have recently been slammed as ‘anti-trans’, Santana asserted, “I am like this with my brother Dave Chappelle.”
Though Santana made his statement in July, it only came to public attention after a recording of his show was uploaded to social near the end of August.
In turn, the guitarist was inundated with backlash from the public, many of whom labeled his speech as ‘anti-trans’.
Facing an unending torrent of outrage, Santana would eventually take to his personal Facebook account to both apologize and offer clarification his statement.
“Here is my personal goal that I strive to achieve every day, the Morning in Marin musician stated. “I want to honor and respect all person’s ideals and beliefs whether they are LGBTQ or not. This is the planet of free will and we have all been given this gift.”
“I will now pursue this goal to be happy and have fun, and for everyone to believe what they want and follow in your hearts without fear,” he added. “It takes courage to grow and glow in the light that you are and to be true, genuine, and authentic. We grow and learn to shine our light with Love and compliments. Have a glorious existence. Peace.”
“Here is my personal goal that I strive to achieve every day, the Morning in Marin musician stated. “I want to honor and respect all person’s ideals and beliefs whether they are LGBTQ or not. This is the planet of free will and we have all been given this gift.”
“I will now pursue this goal to be happy and have fun, and for everyone to believe what they want and follow in your hearts without fear,” he added. “It takes courage to grow and glow in the light that you are and to be true, genuine, and authentic. We grow and learn to shine our light with Love and compliments. Have a glorious existence. Peace.”
In a now-deleted follow-up post, Santana also offered a direct apology to the transgender community, writing , “I am sorry for my insensitive comments. They don’t reflect that I want to honor and respect all person’s ideals and beliefs. I realize that what I said hurt people and that was not my intent. I sincerely apologize to the transgender community and everyone I offended.”
After taking down his initial apology, the musician would publish another Facebook post reading, “The energy of consciousness generates its own kind. Hate begets hate love begets love.”
