Kamala Harris may have used a Chappell Roan song to soundtrack a viral TikTok, calling for a “Femininomenon” at the polls this November, but fans shouldn’t hold their breath for a public endorsement anytime soon.
While discussing the upcoming U.S. presidential election in an interview with The Guardian, published Friday, Roan said that she had “so many issues with our government in every way. There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone.” It’ll take more than that sought-after Harris-Walz camo ballcap reminiscent of Roan’s own The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess album merch to win her public support. “There’s problems on both sides.”
Roan, who is a lesbian, has been vocal about her support for trans rights and other issues. In June, dressed as her take on the Statue of Liberty, she announced from the stage of the Governor’s Ball music festival in New York that she’d declined an invite to perform at the White House, before dedicating her song “My Kink Is Karma” to the Joe Biden administration. “We want liberty, freedom, and justice for all,” she said from the stage. “When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.” This month, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Roan revealed that she’d originally planned to accept the invite and read poems by Palestinian women instead of performing one of her songs as an act of protest, but was talked out of it by her publicist.
“I’m not going to go to the White House because I am not going to be a monkey for Pride,” she said. She then criticized the Biden administration for walking back stances on gender-affirming surgery for transgender youths. “Thank God I didn’t go because they just made a huge statement about trans kids.”
In the Guardian interview, she doubled down on trans rights as one of her top issues this election. “They cannot have cis people making decisions for trans people, period,” she said.
Instead of joining the growling list of celebrities in endorsing a specific candidate this election, Roan encouraged fans to “use your critical thinking skills, use your vote—vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.”
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