CONTENT WARNING: The following article discusses transphobic comments and incidents of alleged hate speech
CJ McMahon is no longer a member of extreme metal band Thy Art Is Murder. The band announced his departure on social media and revealed they’ve recruited a replacement singer, who appears on their new album, Godlike.
McMahon came under fire last month for his perceived anti-trans views. He then posted a video apology in which he claimed his “intentions weren’t to be transphobic”. McMahon has now shared a follow-up video and stated, “I didn’t want to apologise as I didn’t have anything to apologise for.”
Thy Art Is Murder: “Chris McMahon is no longer a part of Thy Art Is Murder”
Thy Art Is Murder released Godlike on Friday, 22nd September, just days after their new vocalist finished re-recording McMahon’s original vocal parts. “This decision was made to preserve the band’s integrity and direction,” the band said regarding McMahon’s departure.
McMahon stirred controversy by sharing a video from right-wing commentator Matt Walsh. The video showed a mother asking her child whether they identified as a boy or girl, to which the child replied “both”. McMahon captioned the video with, “She should be burned to death”.
In their post, the band described McMahon’s actions as “just another symptom of the drawn out breakdown in his character in judgement.” They said they’d been “lobbed with threats to destroy Thy Art Is Murder from the inside if we did not capitulate to various ideologies that [McMahon] holds.”
McMahon withdraws apology, says his aim is to “protect children”
In the caption on his latest video post, McMahon said “the apology video you all saw I was forced to make.” He continued, “I didn’t want to apologise as I didn’t have anything to apologise for, the band said that if I left the band would be done so for the band I made the apology video you saw but this is the video I meant. I was shut down about posting this.”
In the video, McMahon accepts responsibility for offending the trans community but says his primary intention was to “stick up” for children. “My issue with the video is you have a child that’s six months to one year old that can verbalise a word that is, ‘Yeah.’ And that is it.”
He went on, parroting some familiar right wing talking points. “This woman could’ve said anything to this child. She could’ve said, ‘Do you want to be an Islamic terrorist and blow up cities around the world?’ The baby would’ve said, ‘Yeah.’ ‘Do you want to identify as a dinosaur and live as a dinosaur for the rest of your life?’ And the baby would’ve said, ‘Yeah.’”
McMahon emphasised that “the people I will always stick up for first and foremost before anybody is people that can’t stand up for themselves, and that’s children.” He then pointed the finger at “the LGBTQ+ family” for taking kids to burlesque shows.
“I’m sure some of you if not all of you have seen videos of the LGBTQ+ family doing burlesque-slash-stripping shows in front of children,” McMahon said. “Whether it’s at a daycare centre or a centre that’s been hired out for mothers to bring their infant and extremely young children to these events, I also feel that this is highly inappropriate.”
McMahon acknowledged that calling for the woman in the original video to be burned to death wasn’t necessary. But he quickly tempered the non-apology, saying, “I was infuriated. I’m sure if I wrote that about a police officer or a politician or a priest or something like that it wouldn’t have gained any traction and everyone would’ve backed me.”
He also said, “The two most things I can’t stand in this world are rapists and fucking paedophiles. And I believe they all deserve to burn in fucking hell. I’m not calling anybody from the trans [community] paedophiles or rapists or any of these sort of things.”
In their post, Thy Art Is Murder said, “Everyone has their own right to free speech and to seek their truth; they are also free to receive the consequences that come with it.”
Further Reading
Thy Art Is Murder’s CJ McMahon Shares Apology: “My Intentions Weren’t to Be Transphobic”
Thy Art Is Murder Post Trans Flag to Social Media Following Singer’s Transphobic Outburst
Thy Art Is Murder Frontman Quits Social Media Following Backlash Over Anti-Trans Post
