The “Lipstick Lover” singer noted that the same lawmakers trying to limit trans rights are attempting to erase Black history from schools.



Janelle Monáe may be in their “age of pleasure,” but according to the nonbinary pop star, pleasure doesn’t preclude “fighting back” against anti-LGBTQ+ laws and book bans that erase the experience of Black people as well as queers.

...“You respond by fighting back,” they said. “Meaning speaking out against [anti-LGBTQ+ laws], standing with our trans community, my siblings. As a nonbinary, queer, pansexual person, I am proud to be in this community. I will never sit back and be silent about the injustices that are happening against our trans community.”

Monáe also noted that trans people aren’t the only ones under attack. “People need to understand that it’s not just trans people that are getting these sorts of bills passed to erase their existence or to make them feel as though they don’t matter and that they don’t deserve human decency. It’s also Black folks,” they said. “When you think about what’s happening in the schools, we can’t [only] talk about the LGBTQIA+ communities. We also — in some of these same schools, they are restricting us to talk about books and things that speak about Black history.”