Fox News Host’s Transphobic Remarks Help Raise Funds For Trans Youth

Insults made by Fox News host Tucker Carlson have ricocheted into a meaningful cause. Now, it is in indirect thanks to him that the transgender community is more than US$100,000 richer.

It all started when Brittany Kerr Aldean, the wife of country singer Jason Aldean, took to social media to shun gender-affirming care for trans children. She justified that she had once been in a “tomboy phase,” and was thankful that her parents did not change her gender, later dubbing trans support as “genital mutilation” and “one of the worst evils.”

Her husband was promptly dropped by his long-standing PR firm, ending a 17-year business partnership. The agency did not explain why it made the decision to let go of the singer.

Brittany Aldean’s comments, deemed transphobic by some, have been put under scrutiny by some of the industry’s vocal figures, including country musician Maren Morris.

Later, on his political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson brought up the conflict while disparaging Morris and calling her a “lunatic country music person.”

Morris, however, took things in stride and wore the newly-bestowed title like a badge of honor:

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/2JHtpjBVN2

— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) September 2, 2022

She also decided to transmute the negativity into optimism by turning Carlson’s comments into humorous T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan, “Lunatic Country Music Person,” and the number for the Trans Lifeline for transgender youth (877-565-8860).

100% of the proceeds would go to both the crisis hotline and the GLADD Transgender Media Program, with the latter set up to encourage fair representation of transgender people in the media.

Morris announced that, within just 24 hours, over US$100,000 had been raised from Carlson’s mean-spirited comments. A prime example of “you shoot me down, but I won’t fall”—as sung by Sia in Titanium.

[via Boing Boing and E! Online, images via various sources]