Shaffer “Ne-Yo” Smith recently sat down with Gloria Velez of VladTV for an in-depth interview that discussed his work as a songwriter, solo musician and much more. During their lengthy conversation, Ne-Yo and Velez veered away from music and entered into a discussion of parents and minors receiving gender-affirming care. Among other things, the popular singer-songwriter questioned parents who allow their children to receive gender-affirming care.
“I have no issue with LBG — I have no problem with nobody. You love who you love, you do what you do,” Ne-Yo began.
“I just personally come from an era where a man was a man and a woman was a woman. And there [were] two genders, and that’s just how I rocked. You could identify as a goldfish if you feel like, 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, man. We do.”
As clips of the interview made the rounds on social media, Ne-Yo’s comments were met with backlash.
“Ne-Yo giving parenting advice is like getting racial sensitivity training from Paula Deen,” one person commented.
“I love when men, who have created a string of non-traditional households, remind us of the importance of traditional values,” someone else chimed in.
“Ne-Yo has three baby mamas [and] seven children and is so irrelevant that he had to sit down on VladTV for anyone to even mention his name because he hasn’t had a top 10 hit record since Obama was in office. F*ck him and the brim on his tired-ass hats,” another person commented.
