Singer Lizzo is slamming the new Texas laws and policies that restrict access to abortion and target transgender children and their families.
During a keynote conversation at South By Southwest (SXSW) in Texas on Sunday, Lizzo said that the controversial moves unfairly target women and the LGBTQ community. A recent ban against transgender youth in Texas, according to Lizzo, violates their human rights and prevents them from being themselves.
“I’m proud to rep Houston, but I’m not proud to rep Texas politics right now,” Lizzo said. “And there are very regressive laws being passed. They are taking away the right for young children to have a chance to live authentically as themselves. And it’s a violation of human rights. Trans rights are human rights.”
When discussing the Texas legislature’s ban on abortion after six weeks or at the detection of a fetal heartbeat, the singer was equally passionate, blasting conservative politicians for not minding their own business.
“We got a lot of other things Y’all need to be handling instead of being in people’s homes telling them what to do with their bodies and all up in their uterus,” Lizzo said. “Get your motherf**king—mind your business. The abortion ban is atrocious as well. Mind your business. Stay out of my body. This is not political.”
Last month, Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, signed an order directing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate cases of gender-affirming care among youths in the state. Abbott affirmed that such procedures among underage people will be considered “child abuse.”
He was also highly criticized last year when he signed a bill prohibiting abortions as early as six weeks in the state, encouraging citizens to file lawsuits against anyone involved in an illegal abortion.
People magazine reports Lizzo attended SXSW partially to promote her new Amazon reality show, “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” next Thursday, but also to talk about how she did not have role models with similar body types when she was growing up.
“I used to get called fat a– every single day on the bus,” Lizzo said. “they don’t set us up to see our value and our worth, especially as Black women, especially as big Black women.
She hopes to do that on her show, where she’ll search for “thick” dancers and models.
“I want to lift these women up,” she said. “I hope they all become superstars after this.”
