Thy Art Is Murder vocalist CJ McMahon quit social media a few days ago after posting some transphobic content, which received quite a bit of backlash.
To recap – McMahon shared content framed as anti-trans commentary posted by far-right personality Matt Walsh. In Walsh's post, a woman asks her child if they're a boy or a girl, to which the kid replies "both." McMahon wrote in a caption that the woman asking the child in the video "should be burned to death." Upon the post being reported and taken down, McMahon stated he was "going off social media for good" thanks for the blowback and would only be promoting Thy Art Is Murder on the band's social media.
Now Thy Art Is Murder has posted a transgender flag on their Instagram with the caption "Setting the record straight, we stand with you." Which is all well and good, but it doesn't feature any actual apology from McMahon or any clear statement by Thy Art Is Murder's members on how they feel about their own vocalist saying what he said. Thy Art Is Murder also turned off comments on this post and their last post.
I'm not saying there needs to be some grand, massive apology here, but an actual acknowledgement with a real statement would've been nice. Doubly so considering McMahon ran away from social media and doesn't seem to have any intention of elaborating on how he feels.
As previously mentioned, Thy Art Is Murder has a new record called Godlike due out September 15. No word on how this situation will affect the band or their future plans, if at all. It seems like some fans have taken the conversation over to previous posts on Thy Art Is Murder's Instagram, with predictably results – some support McMahon, others are disgusted.