Azealia Banks had a deeply transphobic response to a fan who told her she needed to convert to Judaism in order to become Jewish
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Libby Torres
Feb 23, 2021, 20:51 IST
Azealia Banks recently came under fire for her comments about Judaism and trans women.Burak Cingi/Getty Images
Azealia Banks faced criticism online after sharing a transphobic response to a fan.
The fan told Banks she didn't automatically become Jewish just because of her new fiancé.
Banks then called trans women "hot gay boys" with plastic surgery and said she was "Jewish now."
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After a fan told Azealia Banks that she needed to convert to Judaism - and not just get engaged to a Jewish man - in order to become Jewish, the rapper shared a series of deeply transphobic remarks on Instagram.
Banks took to the social-media platform on Sunday to announce her engagement to the artist Ryder Ripps and shared a picture of Ripps proposing as well as her new engagement ring, which featured a menorah.
"I said yes!!!" Banks wrote on the image. In the caption, she told her followers: "I'm Jewish now. MAZEL TOV B----ES!"
A post shared by SEA QUEEN ♀️ (@azealiabanks)
But in the comments on Banks' post, a fan pointed out that Judaism "doesn't work like that."
The "212" singer then shared a series of transphobic remarks in a series of replies, telling the fan that gender-confirmation surgery for transgender women was akin to "getting castrated" and that since society does "mental gymnastics" to accept trans women, Banks should be accepted as Jewish.
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"I'm Jewish now... you can't stop me," she wrote.
Banks continued sharing her thoughts on trans people and Judaism in subsequent comments, saying that because she had sex with a Jewish man, she was thereby Jewish.
"Stop trying to exclude black people from everything," she wrote in one comment. (Black people can be Jewish, and many, in fact, practice Judaism.)
In another, Banks said trans women were "just hot gay boys with beat faces and plastic surgery."
"I live for the trans girls but the trans s--- is really a non issue. Just gay boys on hormones using male aggression to force their ways into women's spaces," Banks concluded.
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Banks' statements reflected numerous stereotypes about transgender people, ignoring, for instance, the fact that not all trans women undergo gender-confirmation surgery or hormone-replacement therapy.
Her usage of the word "gay" similarly conflated gender and sexuality - a trans person can be gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, or queer, just like cisgender people.
Representatives for Banks didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.
Following her inflammatory statements, the rapper began trending on Twitter, with numerous users criticizing her transphobic remarks and understanding of Judaism.
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