Hozier wants you to know that respecting trans people isn’t complicated: ‘A question of decency’
Hozier, singer and unflinching trans ally. (Getty/Twitter)
“Cherry Wine” hit-maker Hozier has a simple but vital message: it’s really easy to show trans people basic respect.
The Irish singer-songwriter has become something of a sapphic favourite since he crash-landed on to the music scene a decade ago. So much so, that there is an entire sub-section of TikTok devoted to working out why his music is so alluring to queer women.
In return, Hozier makes no bones about speaking out for the LGBTQ+ community. He’s been doing it since the beginning of his career.
The music video for his monster debut hit “Take Me To Church” features a gay couple being assaulted, raising awareness of the physical violence that queer people so often face.
Earlier this year, he headlined the “Love Rising” benefit concert in Tennessee, alongside Paramore’s Hayley Williams, raising money for the state’s LGBTQ+ organisations. Weeks before, the Volunteer state became the first in the US to outlaw public drag performances, although the legislation has since been thrown out by a federal judge.
While on stage, he praised “revolutionary” queer culture, and blasted politicians for whipping up “artificially generated fear-mongering” against the wider community.
Stepping up his allyship, Hozier has now specifically voiced his support for the trans community, who are enduring the vast majority of the anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment being peddled by right-wing politicians and media outlets.
In the US, many of the hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed so far this year have targeted trans youth, while UK prime minister Rishi Sunak was recently captured on video mocking trans women.
For Hozier, the anti-trans narrative is “grimly predictable” and a distraction from the cost-of-living and housing crises.
“There are media companies who love picking soft targets,” he told Metro. “Rather than having conversations about the actual, serious, difficult questions of our time, and our collective predicament, [they] will just take less than one per cent of the population and decide the most pressing thing is to talk about them in an existential way.”
While the right-wing commit to using the trans community as a “scapegoat”, Hozier urges everyone else to show an iota of “human decency” by using transgender people’s chosen names and correct pronouns.
“If you believe in a free and open society, part of that is respecting and supporting your fellow citizens’ rights to be who they are,” he said.
“For me, it’s a question of decency and showing up. It’s a very simple question of human decency when you treat someone with respect, you treat them with respect whether that’s their pronoun, their name.
“It’s so simple… it really is. These things aren’t that complicated.”
Hozier joins a growing number of cisgender music stars who are voicing their support for the trans community.
Earlier this month, Grammy-Award-winning band Imagine Dragons declared that their shows are a “safe space” for the LGBTQ+ community.
“We care deeply about human rights, basic human rights, about the ability to love who you want,” lead singer Dan Reynolds told Insider. Meanwhile, the band’s bassist, Ben McKee, who can frequently be seen on stage rocking a guitar in the colours of the trans flag, said that “everybody deserves the right to feel included”.
