Shock rock legend Alice Cooper has been dropped by makeup brand Vampyre Cosmetics a few days after he espoused transphobic views and denounced gender-affirming health care in a controversial interview with Stereogum.
In a statement posted on social media, the goth-themed cosmetics 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.”
According to the New York Post, it was just two weeks ago that Cooper signed a partnership deal with the company, which describes itself as “proudly women owned, disabled owned and LGBT+ owned.”
Cooper repeated a discriminatory anti-LGBTQ myth during the Stereogum interview, saying he feared that men would claim to be transgender in order to gain access to women’s bathrooms and commit sexual assault, saying: “A guy can walk into a women’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. 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?”
The Detroit rocker also criticized gender-affirming health care in the same interview.
“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,” said Cooper. “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.’”
As far as hot-button topics go, this hasn’t been the only recent interview of Cooper’s to stoke the ire of the public, as he told Vulture earlier this week that he believes the defamation trial between friend and bandmate Johnny 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.’”