Lil Nas X offered an apology that wasn’t entirely well received.
The artist received criticism when he posted a joke on Twitter and Instagram about transitioning.
“The surgery was successful,” the 23-year-old wrote alongside an image of a woman he later shouted out as IG user @glowprincess.
In one reply, when asked why he was “making transitioning a punchline of a joke,” Lil Nas X tweeted and deleted, “im literally just saying she looks like me y’all cannot be fuckin serious.”
He went on to try to make amends.
“Apologies to the trans community. I def handled that situation with anger instead of considering why it was not cool. Much love to you guys. Sorry,” X wrote on Tuesday afternoon.
In response, a user quoted the tweet and argued, “Baby, this apology ain’t it! You need to apologize [to] the trans community in material ways that include money, sharing your platform to raise awareness, and just keep it! This is fake as hell!”
Lil Nas X bluntly replied, saying, “girl eat my ass.”
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The user on the other end answered, “But lol baby I’m trans. Why are you dunking on me? I guess what I said struck a nerve because what’s this?”
The songwriter has not responded.
Lil Nas X has been held up as an advocate of the LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, the “Old Town Road” performer came out as gay and has since played a pivotal role in embracing queerness in the music industry. “This will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist,” he wrote in a 2021 letter to his 14-year-old self.
Over the past couple years, the Grammy winner has gained increasing media attention surrounding his sexuality. In an interview with GQ, he stated, “There’s going to be so many gay rappers. There’s going to be more trans people in the industry and whatnot. Ten years from now, everything that I’m doing won’t even seem like it was shocking.”