Azealia Banks’s history of public LGBTQ+ statements revisited

Nobody was prepared for the arrival of Azealia Banks. Aged just 20 when she burst onto the scene in 2011 with breakout single ‘212’, she quickly carved a name for herself with her talent for rapping and her proclivity for becoming embroiled in nasty social media spats which have seen the artist spew venom at everyone from Perez Hilton to Grimes to Kanye to Madonna.

Unfortunately, despite Banks being part of the LGBTQ+ community, various minority groups have frequently got caught in the crossfire of Banks’s feuds, much to the bemusement of her largely queer fanbase. Now, over a decade into her career, we’re still trying to get a handle on just where Banks sits on the LGBTQ+ ally to adversary matrix.

Feb 2012

Banks tells The New York Times she identifies as bisexual. Adding that she does not wish to be defined in this way, she says: “I’m not trying to be, like, the bisexual, lesbian rapper.”

January 2013

Banks goes head-to-head with blogger Perez Hilton after he covers her feud with fellow rapper Angel Haze. Banks takes to what was then Twitter to say: “@PerezHilton does your butthole whistle? Like is your butthole so stretched and raggedy the air whistles when you move?” Hilton replies: “Some of your music is cute, but your attention-seeking ways are pathetic and hurtful. You drag while others choose to uplift.” Banks ratchets up her hate speech: “omg u should just kill yourself… Like for real,” she writes. “lol what a messy f****t you are.” When her heavily LGBTQ+ audience takes extreme offence to her use of the f-slur, she writes: “A f****t is not a homosexual male. A f****t is any male who acts like a female. There’s a BIG difference.” Later, she apologises to her queer fans: “My most sincere apologies to anyone who was indirectly offended by my foul language. Not sorry for Perez tho. Lol.”

February–June 2013

The rapper calls the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) “fucking complete bullshit” when it wades into her feud with Hilton. The rapper tells Australian publication The Music: “Would you agree that homosexuals, and the homosexual community, have bigger problems than the word f****t, you know what I mean? She continues: “For some reason this word f****t is still so offensive, it’s just strange to see why.” She also suggests that her bisexuality absolves her of any fault: “If you’re trying to call me a homophobe, you’re basically trying to imply that I’m insulting you for having sex with men. I have sex with men too – what the fuck?” In June, Banks accuses GLAAD of “picking and choosing when to be offended” because, she says, it hasn’t called out five other celebrities who have publicly uttered the f-slur in previous months.

Feb 2015

When a gay journalist calls her homophobic, she bites back: “Even if i am a homophobe… so wat? [sic] i still make more $ than you… still have an extra hole..” A few days later, she asks on Instagram why it is OK for gay men to refer to a woman as a “bitch” but not OK for her to “colloquially use the word ‘f****t’”.

September 2015

TMZ shares video footage of Banks calling an air steward a “fucking f****t”. Banks claims that she had been hit in the face and refuses to apologise for the incident. Later that month, a fan tweets her, saying: “Imagine the pain young gay fans feel when they hear the vile things you say @azealiabanks.” The rapper responds: “imagine how I wanna spray a gay man in the face with pepper spray everytime he calls me a bitch a slut or a hoe [sic]. Kiss my ass.” Even later in September, Banks tweets that the “LGBT community are like the gay white KKK’s. Get some pink hoods and unicorns and rally down rodeo drive.”

July 2016

In a Facebook post, Banks congratulates her trans brother: “BIG CONGRATS TO MY BROTHER JOVON WHO HAD A SMOOTH AND SUCCESSFUL TOP SURGERY TODAY! You know over here in the Banks family we like to switch up on n****s. TRANFORMATION IN THIS BITCH! #transisbeautiful.”

2019

Banks argues on Twitter with a trans woman who accuses the rapper of pushing a narrative that all trans women are predators after the rapper claimed that a trans woman she hired had made “unwanted advances”. In a private message to the trans woman, Banks says of trans women: “You want access to all of the space and when you get it it just becomes alllllll about you.”

2020

Banks compares gender-affirmation surgery to “castration” and is suspended from Twitter. Commenting on the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, she had posted: “Cancel all these dumbass luxury transgender healthcare ‘rights’ and redirect the castration funds to the Latino farmers working to actually feed any of us through this crisis.”

February 2021

On Instagram, Banks says: “I live for the trans girls but the trans s**t is really a non issue,” and refers to trans women as “just gay boys on hormones using male aggression to force their ways into women’s spaces.”

October 2021

Banks blasts comedian Dave Chappelle over his transphobic stand-up sets, calling him “highkey embarrassing”.

January 2023

In a Guardian interview, Banks supports far-right politician Ron DeSantis over prioritising underprivileged elderly people before trans people seeking gender-affirming surgery, saying: “If we’re talking about divvying up healthcare funds, those situations should take precedence to facial feminisation surgeries and stuff like that. I mean, I get it – but that’s a cosmetic surgery. Like, does your penis work? Can you pee? You’re not as in trouble as the older woman who can’t afford her dialysis.”

May 2023

When US political commentator Candace Owens tells people to boycott Target due to its sale of Pride-themed clothing, including swimwear designed to tuck private parts, Banks accuses Owens of being “obsessed with girl cock,” (wince) before asking “WHY ARE YOU SO PRESSED ABOUT SOME FUCKIN PANTIES”.

2024

Banks criticises JK Rowling on X, for “spreading the transphobia”.

February 2025

Banks continues to criticise Rowling in various tweets, one of which says: “Anti-trans paranoid people like @jk_rowling feel their femininity is threatened for whatever reason and try to mask that insecurity with ‘science’.” In the above exchange, one user reminds Banks of her 2020 remarks comparing gender-affirmation surgery to “castration”. She replies: “Yes. A female and a woman are two different concepts and Munroe Bergdorf [sic] was getting on my fucking nerves trying to cancel females.”

May 2026

Replying to a message on X by OnlyFans creator Corey Jacob, who reposted a picture of two ruggedly handsome men in black Speedos, writing: “Why don’t men look like this anymore,” it’s safe to say Banks offered her controversial opinion. “Because we’ve stopped enforcing heteronormativity. This is why we need to defund the faggots,” wrote Banks. Femme-shaming men who wear makeup, she continued: “Ever since we told them they can wear lipstick in public, gays have let themselves go.”

Verdict:

Azealia’s unique way with words make her, at times, difficult to assess. There’s no doubt that Banks has expressed some truly backward views on the queer community over the past 10-plus years, and yet we must also consider that she is a member of the community herself and has also advocated for the most marginalised among us, the trans community. However, even when defending trans people, she often uses offensive and antiquated language to refer to them, and has more than once pushed damaging narratives about trans women being men who seek to enter women’s spaces. The rapper’s repeated use of the f-slur is also wrong. However, she has tweeted simply: “U know im not a transphobe please.” Anyone who publicly takes characters like Dave Chappelle and JK Rowling to task for their hateful views deserves some kudos, but the balance too often leans into the negative when it comes to Banks’s status as a true queer ally.

This is from a feature appearing in the May/June issue of Attitude magazine.