Brian May Blasts Brit Awards For Adopting Gender-Neutral Categories, Says Queen Would Not Be Woke Enough Today: “We Would Have To Have A Trans Person”
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Queen guitarist Brian May has a bone to pick with the BRIT Awards, which recently adopted gender-neutral categories beginning in 2022, scrapping the male solo artist, female solo artist, international male solo artist and international female solo artist categories. “A lot of things work quite well and can be left alone,” the Queen guitarist tells the Mirror. “I get so sick of people trying to change things without thinking of the long-term consequences. Some of these things are an improvement, some of them are not.”
May believes there is an “atmosphere of fear everywhere because people are afraid to say how they really think… I think so many people are feeling ‘hang on, this isn’t quite right.’ But they don’t dare say anything. Eventually there will be some kind of explosion.”
He says the late Freddie Mercury, who died 30 years ago this week, would’ve found today’s PC culture “difficult.”
“Freddie came from Zanzibar, he wasn’t British, he wasn’t white as such — nobody cares, nobody ever, ever discussed it,” May begins. “He was a musician, he was our friend, he was our brother. We didn’t have to stop and think: ‘Ooh, now, should we work with him? Is he the right color? Is he the right sexual proclivity?’ None of that happened, and now I find it frightening that you have to be so calculating about everything.”
He argues that even Queen would not be considered woke enough by today’s standards. “We would be forced to have people of different colours and different sexes and we would have to have a trans [person]… You know life doesn’t have to be like that. We can be separate and different.”
UPDATE (11/28): May has issued a statement on Instagram:
Yes – I was ambushed and completely stitched up by a journalist at the recent ITV event. And it’s led to a whole mess of press stories making it look like I’m unfriendly to trans people. Nothing could be further from the truth. My words were subtly twisted. I should have known better than to talk to those predatory Press hacks. Sincere apologies to anyone who has been hurt by the stories. My heart is open as always to humans of all colours, all creeds, all sexes and sexualities, all shapes and sizes – and all creatures. We all deserve respect and an equal place in this world. And my grateful thanks to all of you who stepped up to defend me in the last couple of days. It means so much that you have faith in me. With love – Bri
