Famed guitarist Carlos Santana is facing scrutiny after declaring sex is unchangeable and telling his audience in Atlantic City, New Jersey, God has a plan for everyone’s life.
“When God made you and me — before we came out of the womb, you know who you are and what you aren’t,” he said, according to a video on YouTube. “Later on, when you grow out of it, you see things, and you start believing that you could be something that sounds good, but you know it ain’t right.”
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“Because a woman is a woman and a man is a man,” the recording artist continued. “That’s it. Whatever you wanna do in the closet, that’s your business. So I’m OK with that.”
Santana was presumably referencing Psalm 139:13-16, which reads:
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
(NIV)
The guitarist further stated he supports his “brother” comedian Dave Chappelle, who has made similar comments about the transgender movement.
As soon as clips from Santana’s concert began circulating online, the entertainer faced condemnation for his “anti-trans” remarks.
Santana appeared to back down from his comments in a statement shared with Billboard.
“Here is my personal goal that I strive to achieve every day,” he said. “I want to honor and respect all persons’ ideals and beliefs, whether they are LGBTQ or not. This is the planet of free will and we have all been given this gift.”
He continued, “I will now pursue this goal to be happy and have fun, and for everyone to believe what they want and follow in your hearts without fear. It takes courage to grow and glow in the light that you are and to be true, genuine, and authentic. We grow and learn to shine our light with love and compliments. Have a glorious existence. Peace.”
Who else has spoken out?
Santana is not the first artist to speak out on the broadening transgender movement.
Hard rocker Alice Cooper, a Christian, said during a recent interview with Stereogum that LGBT ideology has “gone now to the point of absurdity,” comparing it to “a Kurt Vonnegut novel.”
“[It’s] wrong when you’ve got a 6-year-old kid who has no idea,” Cooper said. “He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him[,] telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be.’ I think that’s so confusing to a kid. It’s even confusing to a teenager.”
“You’re still trying to find your identity, and yet here’s this thing going on, saying, ‘Yeah, but you can be anything you want. You can be a cat if you want to be,'” he continued. “I mean, if you identify as a tree… And I’m going, ‘Come on! What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?’ It’s so absurd.”
Cooper then encouraged listeners to look at the issue from a “logical” perspective.
“If you have these genitals, you’re a boy. If you have those genitals, you’re a girl,” he explained, adding that an individual’s desired sex does nothing to negate his or her biological reality.
In mid-June, former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider spoke out against administering puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and transgender-related surgeries to minors, Fox News reported.
Allowing children to make these permanent and potentially dangerous decisions, he told the network, is “irresponsible parenting,” which he said has become “the norm in society.”
While he supports those who identify as LGBT and considers himself an “ally” of those lifestyles, he said pushing such ideologies — and treatments — on minors is problematic.
“I’ve recently stated I do not believe young children are ready to decide their gender allocation,” Snider said. “I believe their choices should be supported and accepted by their parents, but I do not think kids have the mental capabilities to make rational, logical decisions on things of a magnitude that will affect them for the rest of their lives.”
Scripture is clear on this issue: there are two sexes, male and female, designed in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and those core identities cannot be changed.
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