Paul Stanley, the co-founder and frontman ‘70s band Kiss, famed for its platform shoes, makeup and elaborate costumes, has stoked controversy after posting an elaborate message surrounding his thoughts on gender identity in children. “There is a BIG difference between teaching acceptance and normalizing and even encouraging participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children into questioning their sexual identification as though some sort of game and then parents in some cases allow it,” Stanley wrote in a post titled “My Thoughts On What I’m Seeing” on Sunday. “There ARE individuals who as adults may decide reassignment is their needed choice but turning this into a game or parents normalizing it as some sort of natural alternative or believing that because a little boy likes to play dress up in his sister’s clothes or a girl in her brother’s, we should lead them steps further down a path that’s far from the innocence of what they are doing,” he continued. “With many children who have no real sense of sexuality or sexual experiences caught up in the ‘fun’ of using pronouns and saying what they identify as, some adults mistakenly confuse teaching acceptance with normalizing and encouraging a situation that has been a struggle for those truly affected and have turned it into a sad and dangerous fad.” Rolling Stone criticized the guitarist and co-vocalist for “conflating sexuality and gender identity, which develop independently.”
