Carlos Santana caused disturbed spectators at one of his concerts:. During his show in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the world-famous guitarist interrupted the program for several minutes to express his lack of understanding for transgender people. Video recordings and eyewitness reports confirm the incident, which took place in July. Now Santana apologized for his statements.
Carlos Santana: “A woman is a woman and a man is a man”
According to reports from various concertgoers, Santana paused after the first song of the evening and turned to the audience. Without context or prompting, he is said to have delivered a nearly 15-minute speech about it, in which he implied that trans and intersex people didn’t exist for him.
“When God created you before we came out of the womb, you already know who you are and what you are,” the guitarist began his tirade. “Later, when you grow out of it, you see things and you start believing you can do something that sounds good, but you know it’s wrong. Because a woman is a woman and a man is a man. Done out. Whatever you want to do behind closed doors is none of my business. That’s OK for me.”
Santana is said to have greeted his “brother” Dave Chapelle afterwards. The American standup comedian caused a stir in one of his Netflix programs because he referred to himself as a so-called “TERF”. The acronym stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”. The “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling can also be counted towards this attitude.
Now Carlos Santana has publicly apologized. The 76-year-old wrote on his Facebook profile: “I’m sorry for my insensitive comments. They don’t reflect that I want to honor and respect all people, their ideals and beliefs. I realize what I said hurt people and that wasn’t my intention. This is my sincere apologies to the transgender community and anyone I may have offended.”
In closing, Santana even voiced his admiration for transgender people: “It takes courage to grow and to shine in the light that you radiate and to be real, to be honest and to be authentic. We grow and we learn to light our light with love and compliments.”
Full text of Santana’s apology
See an excerpt of Santana’s speech here