The Wanted star Jay McGuiness blasts ‘wealthy Brits making fun of trans people’: ‘F**k those guys’

A photo of The Wanted's Jay McGuinness wearing a green top and singing into a microphone while performing on stage

Jay McGuiness, member of boyband The Wanted and former winner of Strictly Come Dancing, has taken to Twitter to voice his support for trans lives after an adorable interaction.

Telling the heartwarmingly awkward story about an attempted smile at an individual he assumed to be trans, McGuiness wrote: “I just smiled at a person. I assumed they were trans and just wanted to make the day a little better.

“Then I cringed at myself for doing what I think was a very British ‘person-awkwardly-trying-to-be-supportive’ smile.”

Jay McGuiness didn’t stop there, though, and The Wanted member affirmed his support for the trans community after he remembered some of the “incredibly wealthy Brits who are actively spending time in their life making fun of these people, or scaremongering people about them, or trying to make their existence harder”.

“I felt better about my stupid smile. F**k those guys. Go trans go.”

Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

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The Wanted was formed in 2009 and broke up in 2014 before they reformed in 2021. Jay McGuiness’ bandmate Tom Parker died in 2022 of aggressive brain cancer.

McGuiness then followed up with a few interactions with fans in which he preached the importance of “kindness to strangers”, and clarified exactly which type of “repressed little uk smile”, he had used.

A few fans even wrote their thanks to the pop star.

“It was definitely NOT a stupid smile. Anyone on this journey, either themselves or their families, appreciate small gestures like these. Means a lot to some. Might be just what they need at that time.”

One thing’s for sure, we will be streaming The Wanted’s music!

It is possible that prolific anti-trans mouthpiece and author JK Rowling is one of the “incredibly wealthy Brits”, to whom Jay McGuiness was referring in his second tweet.

Rowling has been vehemently vocal against Scotland’s gender recognition reform, calling it “the single biggest assault on the rights of Scottish women and girls in my lifetime”.

On Sunday (January 22), trans newsreader India Willoughby tweeted: “I’m more of a woman than JK Rowling will ever be.” 

This was screenshotted and shared by the Harry Potter author, who captioned it with “citation needed”.

A photo of author JK Rowling wearing a low cut black dress as she poses for photos at the world premiere of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
JK Rowling’s comments about trans people have led to much online backlash over the last year. (Getty Images/Stuart C. Wilson)

Rowling has continuously denied that she is transphobic and continuously supported vocal anti-trans activist Posie Parker, who recently hosted an event in which one gender critical speaker – UK Guild of Hypnosis Practitioners (UKGH) chair Lisa Morgan – quoted Adolf Hitler’s 1925 manifesto Mein Kampf

Morgan referenced ‘the big lie’ in her speech, an expression coined by Hitler.

“The big lie is that trans women are women. But they’re not are they? They’re men and we know that.”

Again, we will be streaming The Wanted’s music today!

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