Pop singer Róisín Murphy has apologised after criticising the use of puberty blockers by transgender children.
The Irish musician, formerly the frontwoman of Moloko who has since released a series of acclaimed solo albums, had dismayed swathes of her fanbase – which includes a sizeable LGTBQ+ quotient – with a statement posted on her personal Facebook account.
She wrote: “Puberty blockers are fucked, absolutely desolate, big pharma laughing all the way to the bank. Little mixed-up kids are vulnerable and need to be protected, that’s just true.” She pre-empted criticism, writing “please don’t call me a terf [trans-exclusionary radical feminist], please don’t keep using that word against women”.
After being screengrabbed, the comments trended on Twitter, where Murphy received both praise and opprobrium, with numerous LGBTQ+ fans disavowing their support for her.
Murphy has now responded to the storm, writing a long statement on Twitter. She apologised for “this eruption of damaging and potentially dangerous social-media fire and brimstone. To witness the ramifications of my actions and the divisions it has caused is heartbreaking.”
She added: “I am so sorry my comments have been directly hurtful to many of you … I understand fixed views are not helpful but I really hope people can understand my concern was out of love for all of us”.
She said the issue of puberty blockers, a treatment used by transgender children to delay the development of sex characteristics that don’t align with their gender, “was something that had been on my mind”, but acknowledged she was “stepping out of line” by commenting about them on Facebook. She said she was “uncomfortable” with and “deeply unsuitable” for discourse around the issue, and said she would “now completely bow out of this conversation within the public domain … my true calling is music and music will never exclude any of us”.
Murphy is preparing to release her sixth solo studio album, Hit Parade, on 8 September.