Bill Maher criticises Chappell Roan for Palestine support, says she’d be thrown ‘off a roof’ in Gaza

Talk-show host Bill Maher has criticised Chappell Roan’s support of Palestine, saying the lesbian singer would be thrown “straight off a roof” if she was in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

On the New Rule segment of Real Time With Bill Maher, on Friday (11 October), the political satirist took aim at the “Pink Pony Club” singer, who has spoken out against the Biden administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The conflict began after an attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 October, which led to the deaths of more than 1,200 people and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. It is estimated that the conflict has already cost more than 40,000 Palestinian lives. 

“New rule to mark the October 7 anniversary: we must launch a campaign to educate young Americans about the Middle East, and the way I’d like to begin is with an open letter to Chappell Roan,” said Maher, whose mother was Jewish.

For his older viewers, Maher went on to explain who Roan was, joking that she was “not the name of one of Trump’s golf courses [but] actually a great new recording artist, who – like a Hezbollah pager – is really blowing up.”

He went on to say: “In just a few months, she went from a struggling artist to getting three billion plays on Spotify, netting her almost 11 cents.

“Chappell, if you think it was repressive growing up queer in the Midwest, try the Mideast. You’re a female drag queen and you sing: ‘I f**ked you in the bathroom when we went to dinner, your parents at the tables’. That wouldn’t fly in Gaza, although you would – straight off a roof.”

In June, Roan who was named best new artist award at this year’s VMAs, said she turned down an invitation to perform at the White House for Pride for political reasons.

Dressed at Lady Liberty, she told the audience at the Governor’s Ball in New York that she’d only perform at Pride events when there was “liberty, justice and freedom for all”.

She went on to say: “I am in drag of the biggest queen of all. But in case you had forgotten what’s etched on my pretty little toes, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’,” quoting poet Emma Lazarus’ sonnet that’s etched into the bronze plaque on the Statue of Liberty.

“That means freedom and trans rights, that means freedom and women’s rights, and it especially means freedom for all oppressed people in occupied territories.”

Maher claimed that Roan and her Gen Z fans didn’t know the history of the Middle East and positioned himself as a “spirit guide” for her because he did not pick up his information from TikTok.

“I know you’re moved when you see the dead Palestinian bodies, but it’s odd that your generation didn’t seem nearly as moved by the Jewish bodies on October 7. You killed at Coachella this year, but when Hamas kills at a music festival, it’s a whole other thing. Doesn’t the sight of so many young women raped at a music festival make it a little personal?” he asked.

“You’re not wrong that oppression is bad or that Palestinian and many other Muslim populations are oppressed and deserve to be freed. You just have it completely a*s-backwards as to who is doing the oppressing. Hamas is a terrorist mafia that took over Gaza. Are you sure this is who you want to throw down with?

“You’re a singer and you’re advocating for a place and a culture you would never want to live under. Gender may not be binary but right and wrong kind of is.”

The singer has also came under fire for comments she made in The Guardian last month, when said she did not feel “pressured” to endorse a presidential candidate in November’s presidential election, claiming that there were “problems on both sides” of politics.

After being accused by some of equating Democrats and Republicans, particularly on social policies such as LGBTQ+ rights, Roan issued a follow-up TikTok where she insisted that her comments had been “completely taken out of context” and that she would not voting for Donald Trump.

“If you come to my shows, if you read my full interviews, if you know anything about me and what I stand for, you know that this is not lip service and this is not virtue-signalling… my actions have always paved the way for my project and the people who know me.

“Actions speak louder than words, and actions speak louder than an endorsement.”

She also told Rolling Stone: “Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community.

“My ethics and values will always align with that, and that hasn’t changed. I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historical time period when a woman of colour is a presidential nominee.”

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