Lizzo did not mince words when asked about recent Texas legislation restricting access to abortion and targeting trans children during her keynote address at the 2022 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas on Monday.
“I’m proud to rep Houston, but I’m not proud to rep Texas politics right now,” said the 33-year-old pop star. “There are very regressive laws being passed.”
The singer was referring to SB8 (the “Heartbeat Bill”), which prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and places a bounty on anyone “aiding and abetting” those who seek one, as well as to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) demand that Texas Child Protective Services launch child abuse investigations into families receiving gender-affirming care for their transgender children.
“We got a lot of other things y’all need to be handling instead of y’all being in people’s homes, telling them what to do with their body, and being all up in their uterus,” Lizzo said.
“The abortion ban is atrocious. Mind your own business. Stay out of my body. This is not political.”
“This is not political,” she repeated, pointing to herself.
As for Abbott’s transgender investigation order, Lizzo explained, “they’re taking away the right for young children to have a chance to live authentically as themselves.”
Last Friday, the state’s Supreme Court delivered a final blow to abortion providers fighting against the law, which took effect in September. That same day, a Texas judge ordered a statewide halt to Abbott’s directive, ruling that it was unconstitutional to investigate families seeking gender-affirming care for child abuse.
“It’s a violation of human rights,” Lizzo said. “Trans rights are human rights.”
Ultimately, leadership is to blame. “We got a lot of other things that we need,” said the pop star. “There are people in charge who can change things on a systemic level and they’re letting us down.”
“Why are men great till they gotta be great?” she quipped, quoting her 2019 hit “Truth Hurts.”
Lizzo’s keynote also plugged her new Amazon Prime reality competition series Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. The unscripted show came about because growing up, the star had never seen girls that looked like her on TV being uplifted and represented as beautiful, strong, and talented.
She said it took her a long time to learn to love herself (“I used to get called ‘fat ass’ every single day on the bus” she recalled), but the way Lizzo did it was through a self-love exercise.
“I want you to close your eyes and say: ‘I love you. You are beautiful, bitch. And you can do anything!’” She said doing this every day in the mirror made her realize she was, in fact, “100% that bitch.”
“It works, I promise,” she told the packed auditorium.
“Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” premieres on Amazon Prime on March 24.