Maren Morris is enjoying some aspects of the fallout from her small role in the war of words aimed at Brittany Aldean. The wife of Jason Aldean drew the ire of a few folks online, including Morris and Cassadee Pope, after posting a transphobic joke she claims was taken out of context.
The situation continued growing after the news initially broke over the weekend, eventually pulling in husbands Jason Aldean and Ryan Hurd and sending away Aldean’s PR firm later in the week. It eventually expanded to the point that Morris became a topic on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News.
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The title for the segment was “Lunatic Country Music Person,” which pleased Morris quite a bit. So much so that she posted it to her Twitter and teased it as her new profile pic. The post won praise from Pope and Chrissy Teigen on the platform.
Before it became fodder on Fox News, the situation kicked off when the American Idol alum wrote this caption on a makeup video post on Instagram. “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life,” Aldean wrote. This sparked responses from Morris and Pope, with the former writing, “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.”
Aldean then responded with a longer message directly addressing the claims of transphobia. “Advocating for the genital mutilation of children under the disguise of love and calling it ‘gender affirming care’ is one of the worst evils. I will always support my children and do what I can to protect their innocence,” Aldean wrote. “The other day Memphis wanted to be a dinosaur and tomorrow Navy will want to be a cat. They’re children. Some parents want to be accepted by society so badly that they’re willing to make life-altering decisions for their children who aren’t old enough to fully comprehend the consequences of those actions. Love is protecting your child until they are mature enough as an adult to make their own life decisions. Thankful my parents allowed me to go through my tom boy phase without changing my gender.”
After backlash, Aldean stopped in on Tucker Carlson’s show to say her comments were taken out of context, somehow, and that she was just advocating for waiting for more mature ages. “I think that children should not be allowed to make these life-changing decisions at such a young age. They are not mature enough; they should have parents who love them and advocate for them regardless. We have ages on everything. We have it for cigarettes, driving, military, voting … yet for some reason people think that we can let a child choose their gender so young? It’s very baffling to me.”
As other reports have noted, pre-pubertal transgender children can begin social transition activities early on, which include making name changes, pronoun changes, or wearing clothes in line with their identity. No puberty blockers or hormone treatments are given until at least puberty, with most guidelines barring any procedure until age 18.
