The 'Karma Chameleon' singer describes his critics as over-sensitive kids who do not understand past LGBTQ battles after he landed in hot water over controversial remarks.
- May 2, 2020
AceShowbiz - Boy George is angry youngsters tried to 'cancel' him over comments he made about transgender pronouns as they don't understand what it was like for LGBTQ people when he was growing up.
The "Karma Chameleon" hitmaker sparked a social media backlash earlier this year 2020 when he tweeted that those insisting on using their preferred gender pronouns were "attention seeking."
However, George is unrepentant, telling British newspaper The Times that he'll use language however he wants.
"When I was growing up nobody used the term transgender, because it was almost like a medical term," the 58-year-old explains. "So this transgender thing is new, and, for our generation, it's just getting our heads round it."
"But people want to be offended, because they think that whatever's going on for them is much more important than anything else. But I'll call you whatever you want. I've spent years calling people fake names. Boy George. Siouxsie Sioux. Johnny Rotten. Of course, it's not the same as your sexuality."
The androgynous singer, who became a gay icon with his flamboyant cross-dressing persona in the 1980s, says that the younger generation do not understand the battles that he and older gay people fought to be accepted.
"I grew up in the 1970s, where every day you were called f**got, p**f - at home, at school, on the street. Policemen could hit you. You went to school knowing you could get whipped," the musician, real name George O'Dowd, recalls.
"Kids just don't understand. I don't want to sound like an old codger, but they don't get what people went through for them to be so precious, and I don't want to dull myself to the point that I don't have an opinion."
