Amid online backlash over her recent criticism of the Democratic and Republican parties ahead of the presidential election, singer Chappell Roan said on TikTok on Wednesday that she’ll vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
However, Roan said she wouldn’t endorse Harris, criticizing the Democratic Party’s views on transgender rights and the Israel-Gaza war.
“I’m not settling for what has been offered,” Roan, 26, said in the video.
Roan received backlash after she told the Guardian in an article published Friday that she has “so many issues with our government in every way.”
“I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone,” Roan told the British newspaper. “There’s problems on both sides. I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote — vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.”
Roan, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, added that the government “cannot have cis people making decisions for trans people.”
A lot of the pushback Roan has faced has come online from her fandom and LGBTQ+ activists. On Sunday, activist Charlotte Clymer, who is transgender, wrote on X that Roan’s position was “privileged.”
“Harris will be elected,” Clymer wrote, “and it’s because of the many thousands of staff and volunteers and tens of millions of reasonable adults who understand life under Trump (again) would be horrific for all of us.”
Roan said in a TikTok on Tuesday that her comments were “being completely taken out of context.” She said she wouldn’t vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump but didn’t say whom she would vote for.
“I will always question those in power and those making decisions over other people,” she said in the video. “And I will stand up for what’s right and what I believe in.”
Her comments prompted more pushback, including one Reddit user who wrote: “It’s either Harris or Trump. That’s the reality. What’s there to question?”
On Wednesday, Roan attempted to clarify her comments in another TikTok, revealing that she would vote for Harris but wouldn’t “put my entire name and my entire project behind one” candidate.
“I hope you don’t settle for what we have and put your name behind someone that you don’t fully, fully trust,” Roan said in the video.
Harris has opposed state laws denying transgender people access to bathrooms that match their gender identities, and she and President Joe Biden have opposed efforts by states to ban gender-affirming therapy. Many LGBTQ+ activists have declared their support for Harris. Trump wants to purge anything in the federal government deemed to promote transgender identity, The Washington Post reported.
Harris has expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself in its war against Hamas while acknowledging the plight of Palestinians. More than 41,490 people have been killed and 96,000 injured in Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, and it says 346 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operations in Gaza.
Roan has been vocal about her political views before, announcing at a June concert that she had declined an invitation to perform at the White House that month.
“We want liberty, justice and freedom for all,” Roan said at the time. “When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.”
Roan told Rolling Stone this month that she originally considered protesting the Gaza war during her White House visit, but her publicist talked her out of it.
Roan, whose fame skyrocketed after she performed at Coachella in April, has been vocal about her struggle with fandom. Her real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, but she took on a “drag name” to separate herself from her work.
“Celebrity culture is weird,” she told The Post last year. “I think it’s really bizarre and really unhealthy.”
Pop stars Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish endorsed Harris this month, and some Democrats are hoping Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny will endorse their party. Roan said Wednesday that she wants people to vote for whoever they believe is “the best option.”
“It’s all we can do,” she said.
