Alice Cooper loses cosmetics deal after remarks about trans people

Rock singer Alice Cooper has lost his deal with an LGBTQ-owned cosmetics company after he called “cases of transgender” people a “fad.”

Cooper’s comments were published last week in an interview with Stereogum in which the singer was asked his opinion on gender-affirming care. The interviewer brought up Cooper’s 1974 interview with SPEC in which the singer said “everyone in the future will be bisexual.” 

“I’m understanding that there are cases of transgender, but I’m afraid that it’s also a fad and I’m afraid there’s a lot of people claiming to be this just because they want to be that,” Cooper said.  “I find it wrong when you’ve got a six-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be.’” 

Cooper argued people should “at least become sexually aware” before they start considering their gender and claimed genitals are the “logical way” to determine gender.  

“If you have these genitals, you’re a boy. If you have those genitals, you’re a girl,” Cooper told the music blog. “There’s a difference between ‘I am a male who is a female,’ or ‘I’m a female that’s a male’ and wanting to be a female. You were born a male. Okay, so that’s a fact. You have these things here. Now, the difference is you want to be a female. Okay, that’s something you can do later on if you want to. But you’re not a male born a female.”

A day after the comments were published, Vampyre Cosmetics announced it was ending its makeup collaboration with the singer, less than two weeks after the deal launched. 

“In light of recent statements by Alice Cooper, we will no longer be doing a makeup collaboration,” Vampyre Cosmetics wrote in a statement Aug. 24. “We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare.” 

According to its website, Vampyre Cosmetics is a women-owned, disabled-owned and LGBTQ-owned cosmetics brand that sells vegan, cruelty-free and talc-free products. 

Presale for Cooper’s collaboration with the company, titled the “Alice Cooper Makeup Collection,” launched Aug. 14, 10 days before Vampyre Cosmetics terminated the deal. 

In the company’s initial announcement, Vampyre Cosmetics said the collaboration was inspired by Cooper’s “distinctive look and style.” The collection included guitar- and amp-shaped makeup palettes, microphone-styled lipsticks and Cooper’s Whiplash mascara, which the company described as a “unisex product originally created to ‘Liberate Your Eyes.’” 

The Hill reached out to Vamypre Cosemtics and Cooper’s representatives for additional comment.