Róisín Murphy responds to backlash surrounding puberty blockers comments
The Irish artist has drawn criticism after describing use of the treatment by trans and gender-nonconforming children as "absolutely desolate"
Róisín Murphy has shared a statement addressing controversial comments that she recently made on social media about the use puberty blockers by young trans people.
Murphy's comment, in which she described the use of puberty blockers as "absolutely desolate", were made via her private Facebook account, but was shared on a public page on the social media platform. They subsequently came to light on X, formerly Twitter, last week.
In the same comment, Murphy said the use of puberty blockers would have large pharmaceutical companies "laughing all the way to the bank", while young trans people, in her view, were "little mixed up kids" who "need to be protected". Puberty blockers are used by trans and gender-nonconforming young people in order to delay the effects of puberty.
In the same comment, Murphy asked that people not describe her or other women as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist). TERF is a term frequently applied to people whose idea of feminism actively excludes trans and non-binary people.
Following a wave of criticism that came after the comments first surfaced, Murphy has released a statement via X/Twitter, in which she apologised "for being the reason for this eruption of damaging and potentially dangerous social media fire and brimstone".
She added: "For those of you who are leaving me, or have already left, I understand, I really do, but please know I have loved every one of you. I have always been so proud of my audience and understood the privilege of performing for you all through the years.
"I am so sorry my comments have been directly hurtful to many of you. You must have felt a huge shock, blindsided by this so abruptly. I understand fixed views are not helpful but I really hope people can understand my concern was out of love for all of us.
"I will now completely bow out of this conversation within the public domain. I'm not in the slightest bit interested in turning it into ANY kind of 'campaign', because campaigning is not what I do."
You can read Murphy's full statement below.
Research by LGBTQIA+ charity GLAAD shows that puberty blockers have been used safely for decades on cisgender children who experience early puberty. The organisation's studies also show that their use has significantly reduced suicidal ideation in a majority of young trans people who have used them.
You can read Murphy's full statement below.
