Rapper Chingy says he almost stopped taking photos with gay fans after a transgender social media and reality TV personality claimed they had dated.
As Complexnotes, during a recent appearance on the Willie D Live podcast, the “Right Thurr” rapper opened up about how the controversy had impacted his relationship with LGBTQ+ fans.
“Somebody took a picture of me being nice to a fan who came up and was excited to meet me, and saying how much of a fan they was and just wanted a picture because they loved my music and stuff. And I took the picture,” Chingy recalled. “And they based a two-year relationship line off of that.”
The rapper was likely referring to Sidney Starr, a cast member on the first season of reality series Baddies. In 2010, a photo of the two appeared online, and Starr went on to claim that she and Chingy had been in a relationship. Starr later claimed that she had made the whole thing up to advance her career.
“In life people make mistakes – big mistakes – and I’m one of those people,” Starr said in a video in 2012. “And I want to give a huge apology to Chingy for anything I caused to throw dirt on your name I was wrong. I want to say I was wrong 100,000 times and I want to get off my chest.”
In the wake of the controversy, Chingy told host Willie D, “I was going to stop taking pictures with homosexuals — homosexual individuals.”
“And nothing against them, but I thought — now I thought, like, that’s what they going to do,” he explained. “But then, you know what, the type of individual I am, I said to myself, ‘All of them didn’t do that to me. They don’t deserve that.’ And so I still took pictures with homosexual people when they wanted to take a picture with me.”
“That’s the type of heart I got,” he continued. “I ain’t going to stop being me because somebody decides to be evil. That’s going to come back on them at some point.”
Chingy has claimed that the controversy involving Starr derailed his career and led to him being “blackballed” in the music industry. The rapper has only released a handful of non-album singles since 2010, with a 10-year gap between his 2013 EP Chingology (9 Year Theory) and his most recent, 2023’s Chinglish.
In 2024, fans speculated that this apparent ebb in his career was what led Chingy to accept a gig performing at a Long Cabin Republicans event in Nashville, Tennessee, where Donald Trump Jr. and then-partner Kimberly Guilfoyle were scheduled to speak. Ahead of the event, the rapper responded to backlash on social media, writing in one comment, “I’m a performers wether theses [sic] people political, homosexual or whetever they all love music. I have classic records they all love and I will perform them for them.”
He later claimed to have backed out of the performance, but his rep confirmed to TMZ that he would, in fact, perform. An October 11, 2024, post on Log Cabin Republicans’ Instagram appears to show Chingy performing for the crowd at the group’s Red, White & Rock concert at anti-LGBTQ+ musician Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk & Steakhouse in Nashville the previous month.
Out MS Now host Rachel Maddow praised Minneapolis protestors for successfully intimidating the Trump administration into scaling back ICE operations in the city.
News broke Monday night that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino – the face of Trump’s violent ICE campaign – is not only leaving Minneapolis but is also being demoted back to his old job as Border Patrol sector chief in El Centro, California. The administration also reportedly plans to reduce the number of agents in the city, though it is unclear by how much.
The news comes after Minneapolis residents have peacefully and relentlessly resisted ICE’s out-of-control actions in the city, which have resulted in the deaths of two people.
“After months of protest, what happened when they killed Alex Pretti?” Maddow said. “There was a small-d democratic flex against which the Trump administration just crumbled.”
She lauded the fact that even Republicans in the Minnesota legislature are calling for an end to ICE operations in Minneapolis. She also spoke about the shocking withdrawal of leading Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Madel from the race. “I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so,” he said.
He said what’s happening is “wrong” and called ICE actions in Minnesota an “unmitigated disaster.”
“I have to look my daughters in the eye and tell them, ‘I believe I did what was right.’ And I am doing that today,” said Madel, who also provided legal counsel for Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed queer wife and mother Renee Good earlier this month.
I am ending my campaign for Minnesota Governor. I describe why in the below video. Please watch until the end. (It is 10 minutes, 52 seconds.)
Maddow also praised the fact that Congressional Republicans and Republican governors are increasingly speaking out against ICE.
Republicans in Congress are calling for investigations into the administration’s actions, something that was unimaginable even earlier this month. This includes Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) called the situation in Minnesota “a real tragedy.”
“I think the death of Americans, what we’re seeing on TV, it’s causing deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability,” he said. “Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now.” As chair of the National Governors Association, Stitt also spearheaded a statement urging “leaders at all levels to exercise wisdom and consider a reset of strategy toward a unified vision for immigration enforcement. “
“Scenes of violence and chaos on our streets are unacceptable and do not reflect who we are,” it declared.
And Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) also spoke out after Pretti’s death, calling it “not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their god-given and constitutional rights to protest their government.”
“At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership,” Scott said. “At worst, it’s a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans.”
“Enough,” he declared, urging Trump to “reset the federal government’s focus on truly criminal illegal immigrants.” He also called on Congress and the courts to “restore constitutionality” if the president won’t act.
Maddow reported that Senate Democrats, even some moderates who have voted alongside Republicans in the past to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said they will not vote to fund it this week. She said the House resolution to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has garnered over 140 cosponsors and noted that some Democrats who voted last week to fund DHS are now apologizing for doing so.
“This is called political change,” she said, adding that there has even been discomfort with the Trump administration expressed from “the sinkhole of sniveling cowardice that has been America’s business so-called leaders.”
More than 60 Minnesota companies – including Target, Best Buy, General Mills, and Cargill – signed on to a letter calling for “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in the city. It was a significant move because big business has generally been caving to Trump‘s whims since he returned to office. Target, specifically, has received significant criticism for standing by as ICE uses its parking lots as staging areas.
“And yes, that is too little and yes, that is too late,” Maddow said of the statement, “but it is way more than they were willing to do before.”
Maddow went on to remind viewers of the significance of all these developments.
“We are conditioned to expect that the actions of anyone in politics who is not currently the president are just not very powerful actions… but we are conditioned to believe that in a way that is not actually keeping faith with who we are as a country,” she said. “Because what we inherited from the Founding Fathers of this country is a democracy that was explicitly and purposefully designed to be decentralized and divided and responsive to the people.”
“And when the people push in a concerted way, what we are seeing is that the country is working the way its supposed to, the levers of power are moving, there is a political response, a small-d democratic response, and yes, that means the president’s poll numbers sink further into the bedrock, including on immigration, which he really at one point wanted to be his signature issue, and he is now running from it.”
She explained that “political gravity” is starting to work on the Trump administration – and it’s all because of on-the-ground resistance.
“You are seeing a political shift happening,” she said, “and that is because of the people. It starts with the people; it starts with the protests that we have seen. Principled, peaceful, relentless protest – it works. That is the source of this shift: peaceful, powerful, relentless, principled protest works. It uses democratic means to save democracy. That has what has made all of this political shifting happen. That is what has forced the Trump administration to change course.”
She said it was important to be very clear about Bovino’s leaving Minneapolis and why the administration is reducing the number of ICE agents in the city.
“If you were part of these protests, if you were part of the peaceful democratic advocacy to get ICE out of Minneapolis tonight, you are winning.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
Connexion
