Sen. Ted Cruz is the latest conservative figure to criticize Kim Petras and Sam Smith for their fiery performance at the Grammy Awards on Sunday evening (February 5).
Cruz responded yesterday to a Tweet by conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler, who tweeted a video of Smith and Petras playing “Unholy” at the Grammys and said, “They say you shouldn’t fight the culture wars. Demons are currently teaching your children to worship Satan. I could vomit, according to Business Insider.
The Texas legislator shared Wheeler’s tweet with the comment, “This…is…evil.”
The “evil” performance began with Smith clad in red leather and surrounded by a ring of dancers with flames erupting behind them. Later, Smith donned a crimson top hat with devil horns, while Petras performed from a cage surrounded by dancers wielding whips.
We suspect the fury stems from the gender identification of the singers — Petras is openly trans, while Smith is non-binary and utilizes they/them pronouns — yet the bulk of people are claiming “Unholy” promotes devil worship.
Backstage, when speaking to the press, Petras elucidated the performance’s inspiration.
“I think a lot of people have labeled what I stand for and what Sam stands for as religiously uncool,” Petras told Variety. “I grew up wondering about religion and wanting to be a part of it, but slowly realizing that it didn’t want me to be a part of it.”
She said, “So it’s a commentary on the inability to choose one’s religion. And not being able to live the way that people may want you to live, since as a transgender person I am already sort of unwelcome in religion. We were performing a parody of this, and I was sort of the devil’s advocate, Kim.”
According to Showbiz 411, before the Grammys aired, a rumor claimed that Smith and Petras’ performance would “make a lot of people very upset,” notably “outraged Christians.”
Cruz and his team are doing their utmost to incite outrage over Smith and Petras’ message, but the two artists have already won. As the first openly trans woman and nonbinary performer to win the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance on Sunday night, they created history.
»Ted Cruz considers Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” performance at the Grammys to be “evil.”«
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