Earlier this year during her viral set at Governors Ball, Chappell Roan revealed that she turned down an invitation to perform at the White House during Pride Month. “We want liberty, justice, and freedom for all,” she said while dressed as the Statue of Liberty. “When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.”
Roan initially intended on attending, however, and she had something “way worse” planned. The “Hot To Go!” singer was going to show up but refuse to perform her own songs and instead read poetry as a protest.
“I had picked out some poems from Palestinian women,” she told Rolling Stone. “I was trying to do it as tastefully as I could because all I wanted to do was yell. I had to find something that’s tasteful and to the point and meaningful, and not make it about me and how I feel. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that close in direct sight of the president ever in my life. This is my shot.”
But after talking to her supportive publicist, Roan realized something: “You f*ck with the president and the government, your security is not the same, and neither is your family’s.”
Oddly, some people on TikTok spread the lie that Roan turning down the event — and by proxy, turning down Joe Biden — meant that she’s pro-Donald Trump. “It is not so black and white that you hate one and you like the other. No matter how you say it, people are still going to be pissed for f*cking some reason. I’m not going to go to the White House because I am not going to be a monkey for Pride,” she explained. “And thank God I didn’t go because they just made a huge statement about trans kids a couple weeks ago.”
You can read the rest of the Rolling Stone profile here.
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