It’s been 20 years since Fall Out Boy released their first album, Take This to Your Grave, and somehow people are still surprised to learn about the band’s history of supporting LGBTQIA+ rights.
A Twitter user who describes himself as a “gender critical male” and lists his location as “Terf Island” recently got hold of a Tumblr post from a Fall Out Boy fan describing how, at a recent signing event, lead singer Patrick Stump pointed to their “THIS TRANNY KILLS TERFS” patch on their vest, “saying he really liked it.” In response to the TERF’s outrage, fans were quick to point out that the band has spoken up in favor of queer and transgender rights since they debuted.
In response to the TERFs, one Fall Out Boy fan tweeted, “what people think about the band vs. the band” and included screenshots of the tweet mentioned above and a series of tweets tagging the band’s official account, demanding to know if the story is true.
These are followed by a photo of a fan and drummer Andy Hurley both wearing “Protect Trans Kids” t-shirts, as well as a series of 2013 posts from Stump stating that he’ll block anyone who uses the f-slur and even asking one user to burn their copy of Take This to Your Grave “cause I don’t want your homophobic money.”
The number of people expressing their disappointment over Stump liking this fan’s anti-TERF patch is bizarre at best, considering how many explicitly pro-LGBTQIA+ songs Fall Out Boy has released. Did you miss “Centuries,” which is written about Marsha P. Johnson? Or “Gay Is Not a Synonym for Shitty (G.I.N.A.S.F.S.)” from 2007’s Infinity On High?
But wait! That’s not all.
Bassist and lyricist Wentz is half-Black and he and Hurley once played together in the anti-racist, anti-imperialist grindcore band Racetraitor, which released their debut album in 1998. Fall Out Boy concerts have been protested by the Westboro Baptist Church. They’re one of the early-aughts bands that millennials credit with helping them come out as LGBTQIA+, often citing how safe these bands made them feel in the pop-punk scene.
The band also puts their money where their mouth is. In 2008, Fall Out Boy donated $50,000 to No on 8, which attempted to stop California’s Proposition 8 measurement from going into effect and banning LGBTQIA+ marriages in the state. In 2017, they created the Fall Out Boy Fund, which distributes money to Chicago-based organizations championing causes the band believes in. So far, that includes COVID-19 relief, National Bail Out and Black Visions Collective, food education, and gun control, among others.
Long story, short: Of course Fall Out Boy supports transgender people. The TERFs who are surprised by that information and who are falsely accusing the band of promoting violence against women are doing so as a tactic to make transgender people seem dangerous, which is at the root of the anti-trans legislation currently sweeping the US.
Given the band’s track record, it’s possible they’ll make a sizeable donation to a transgender charity if they catch wind of what’s happening on Twitter. At the very least, they’ll likely address it on stage, so get ready to see a lot of Fall Out Boy concert tickets being sold off by TERFs.
(featured image: Joe Maher/Getty Images For Bauer Media)
