Not backing down. Maren Morris didn’t hold back when she slammed Brittany Aldean (née Kerr) — the wife of country singer Jason Aldean — for her comments about transgender children.
“I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life🤎✌🏼,” the beauty blogger wrote via Instagram in August 2022, alongside a makeup tutorial that she shared with fans at the time.
The “Dirt Road Anthem” singer — who married Brittany in 2015 — responded, “Lmao!! I’m glad they didn’t too, cause you and I wouldn’t have worked out 😂.”
Not everyone was as amused by Brittany’s comments, however, with many critics slamming the comments as transphobic. “You’d think celebs with beauty brands would see the positives in including LGBTQ+ people in their messaging,” Cassadee Pope wrote via Twitter a few days later, referencing both Brittany’s post and her hair extensions line. “But instead, here we are, hearing someone compare their ‘tomboy phase’ to someone wanting to transition. Real nice.”
In response to the “Wasting All the Tears” singer’s post, Morris wrote that it was “so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human,” before adding that Brittany should just “sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie,” referring to the January 2021 riot at the Capitol following the presidential election.
The YouTube personality later addressed her controversial remarks via her Instagram Story, arguing that parents should not allow their transgender children to transition until they are legally adults. “I will always support my children and do what I can to protect their innocence. The other day, [my son] Memphis wanted to be a dinosaur and tomorrow [my daughter] Navy will want to be a cat, they’re children,” she wrote at the time, later adding, “Love is protecting your child until they are mature enough as an adult to make their own life decisions.”
Morris, for her part, explained the next day that she was infuriated by Brittany’s post and felt a need to say something to remind LGBTQ+ youth that they have support. “Y’all have been so sweet and supportive today of me and Cassadee,” the “Circles Around This Town” singer said in a video shared on her own Instagram Story. “I will say we can handle this s–t. We’ve dealt with idiots, you know, for years saying insanely stupid stuff [to] us. … I’m just so sick of looking at absolute horses–t on the internet and people getting away with it, much less being celebrated for it.”
She continued: “But I would say check on your trans friends. Check on your gay friends. Anyone that is in country music and had to look at that bulls–t today and feel subhuman. Check on your friends.”
The Grammy winner also shared links to LGBTQ+ support resources from The Trevor Project on her Instagram Story, as well as an article from Scientific American magazine that contains “actual medical information and stats on gender affirming care in case you were interested :).”
Keep scrolling to learn more about the pair’s ongoing social media feud: