Maren Morris has spun a lot of good out of the ugly spat with Brittany Aldean over her posting of a meme and later comment many deemed transphobic. It led to Morris being labeled a “lunatic” by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson during a segment with Aldean. The label was one Morris loved and she used it to help out trans groups and other LGBTQ charities by selling t-shirts.
Morris shared a look at the shirt on Twitter and linked it to her shop, splitting proceeds between Trans Lifeline and GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program. The shirt itself reads, “Maren Morris, Lunatic Country Music Person, 877-565-8860.” The phone number goes to Trans Lifeline.
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After posting the shirt and opening the sale on Friday evening, Morris was ecstatic to reveal on Saturday that the fundraiser crossed a momentous threshold. “Over $100K raised,” she wrote punctuated with a rainbow emoji. “Have a great Labor Day weekend, lunatics.”
The shirts won’t ship until “mid to late September,” but you can’t argue with that turnaround given the entire dustup started about a week prior. Aldean posted a short makeup video where she thanked her parents for “not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase.” Her love for her girly life was taken as a transphobic stance, earning derision from Cassadee Pop and Morris on social media.
Aldean would then double down on her view, saying she would always defend the innocence of children before shifting to her kids specifically. “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,” Aldean wrote on the Instagram posting. “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 [sic]. Until then. Leave children alone!”
Morris continued to criticize Aldean, adding in a later post that it “sucks when Karens try to hide their homophobia/transphobia behind their ‘protectiveness of the children.’” This led to Aldean saying her words were taken out of context, Jason Aldean being dropped by his PR firm, and much more criticism online. Morris, despite all the venom, actually spun the entire situation into a positive for people.
