Ne-Yo Apologizes To LGBT Community After 'Insensitive' Comments: 'I Lead With Love'

Ne-Yo is going on tour… the apology tour.

The Because of You singer took to X (Twitter) Sunday evening to walk back some comments he made about the LGBTQIA+ community in a recent VladTV interview. If you haven’t watched, during the chat, which was posted to YouTube Saturday, the 43-year-old spoke about gender and trans identities, and, well, it sounded less than supportive:

“I have no problem with nobody. Love who you love, do what you do, I just personally come from an era where a man was a man and a woman was a woman and it wasn’t but two genders, and that’s just how I rock.”

He continued:

“You could identify as a goldfish if you feel like it, I don’t care. That ain’t my business. It becomes my business when you try to make me play the game with you. I’m not gonna call you a goldfish. But if you wanna be a goldfish, you go be a goldfish. We live in a weird time.”

“Play the game”?? Yeah, there ya go. He’s not saying “live your life” he’s saying “live your LIE” but he’s not going to play along. Sigh. Also, why is it always the infantile comparisons to animals?

He later doubled down, digging at parents who, you know, listen to their kids and try to accommodate their needs:

“Parents have almost forgotten what the role of a parent is. It’s like, okay, if your little boy comes to you and says, ‘Daddy, I want to be a girl,’ and you just let him rock with that? He’s 5? If you let this 5-year-old boy decide to eat candy all day he’s gonna do that. When did it become a good idea to let a 5-year-old, let a 6-year-old, let a 12-year-old make a life-changing decision for themself? When did that happen? I don’t understand.”

Obviously there’s a lot of gray area in the time when kids are figuring out who they are. But that’s for the kids and their parents to talk through. It’s a complicated issue, and it’s unique to each individual.

The reason it seems so simplistic in his mind, like a kid just saying something one day and that being the end of it? It’s because Ne-Yo is looking at it from the outside, from a perspective far removed from any of this. In other words… like most of the folks spouting off about it, he has no idea what he’s talking about.

Watch Ne-Yo have no idea what he’s talking about — if you can stand it (below):

Have you ever noticed how much more certain people seem the less they know about a subject?

Anyway, just one day later, the father of seven apologized for his “insensitive” comments, writing on X (Twitter):

“After much reflection, I’d like to express my deepest apologies to anyone that I may have hurt with my comments on parenting and gender identity. I’ve always been an advocate for love and inclusivity in the LGBTQI+ community, so I understand how my comments could’ve been interpreted as insensitive and offensive. Gender identity is nuanced and I can honestly admit that I plan to better educate myself on the topic, so I can approach future conversations with more empathy. At the end of the day, I lead with love and support everyone’s freedom of expression and pursuit of happiness.”