KISS band co-founder Paul Stanley appears to be solidly in the camp of a growing number of parents and others who are fed up with the far-left cultural shift towards sexualizing children.
On Sunday, Stanley, the lead singer and co-founder of the band, took to social media to express his opposition to gender reassignment treatments for children. In a lengthy post, Stanley criticized parents for encouraging their children to question their sexual identity, referring to it as “a sad and dangerous fad.”
“There is a BIG difference between teaching acceptance and normalizing and even encouraging participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children into questioning their sexual identification as though some sort of game and then parents in some cases allow it,” Stanley wrote.
“There ARE individuals who as adults may decide reassignment is their needed choice but turning this into a game or parents normalizing it as some sort of natural alternative or believing that because a little boy likes to play dress up in his sister’s clothes or a girl in her brother’s, we should lead them steps further down a path that’s far from the innocence of what they are doing,” he added.
— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) April 30, 2023
Recently, there has been increased attention on gender reassignment surgeries and other medical treatments for children, as Republican lawmakers in some states have sought to pass legislation to ban the practice.
In March 2022, the White House seemed to show support for gender reassignment surgeries for minors through the release of several documents. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs released a document titled “Gender Affirming Care and Young People” while the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network featured one titled “Gender-Affirming Care Is Trauma-Informed Care.” Both promoted “top” and “bottom” surgeries, as well as puberty blockers, as part of gender-affirming care for children and adolescents.
“With many children who have no real sense of sexuality or sexual experiences caught up in the ‘fun’ of using pronouns and saying what they identify as, some adults 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,” Stanley concluded.
Stanley has a history of getting involved in controversial cultural issues. He previously made headlines in 2017 when he seemed to criticize former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick during a concert for disrespecting the national anthem.
“In case you didn’t know this tour is called the ‘Freedom to Rock [tour],” Stanley said. “A lot of times people that are born free think that freedom is free and it’s not. Freedom is only free because there are people willing to sacrifice to keep us free.”
