A few days after Alice Cooper espoused transphobic views and denounced gender-affirming health care in a Stereogum interview, the shock rocker has been dropped by makeup brand Vampyre Cosmetics.
Cooper had signed a partnership deal with the goth-themed cosmetics company—which describes itself as “proudly women owned, disabled owned and LGBT+ owned”—just two weeks ago, per the New York Post.
In a statement shared on Instagram, the brand said: “In light of recent statements by Alice Cooper we will no longer be doing a makeup collaboration. We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare. All pre-order sales will be refunded.”
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In the Stereogum interview, Cooper said he worried that men would claim to be transgender in order to pose as women and commit sexual assault in women’s bathrooms—an argument that’s long been understood to be a discriminatory anti-LGBTQ myth.
“A guy can walk into a woman’s bathroom at any time and just say, ‘I just feel like I’m a woman today’ and have the time of his life in there, and he’s not in the least bit… He’s just taking advantage of that situation,” Cooper said. “Well, that’s going to happen. Somebody’s going to get raped, and the guy’s going to say, ‘Well, I felt like a girl that day, and then I felt like a guy.’ Where do you draw this line?”
In the same interview, Cooper also lambasted gender-affirming health care.
“I’m understanding that there are cases of transgender, but I’m afraid that it’s also a fad, and I’m afraid there’s a lot of people claiming to be this just because they want to be that,” Cooper told Stereogum. “I find it wrong when you’ve got a 6-year-old kid who has no idea. 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.’”
That wasn’t the only recent interview to land the rocker in hot water. Cooper, a longtime friend and bandmate of Johnny Depp, told Vulture this week that he believes the highly publicized defamation trial between Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard was “so blown out of proportion.”
“I don’t think [the trial] was ever mentioned on the tour because nobody cared,” Cooper said. “I never watched a moment of the trials. It was such a Hollywood thing. I knew Johnny was gonna win because how many people have other exes literally on their side testifying for him? That never happens. I turned it right off and said, ‘Well, you know, Johnny will weather this storm and when he’s onstage, he’s our guitar player.’”
