Although Caitlyn Jenner has definitely been receiving a mountain of praise after transitioning into a woman, not everyone is happy about her monumental Vanity Fair cover debut. And one of those people seems to be Snoop Dogg, who bashed Caitlyn on Instagram this week.
On Wednesday, Snoop posted a photo of Akon on Instagram with the message that slammed Jenner for being more newsworthy than Akon’s new Akon Lighting Africa, an initiative designed to bring electricity to millions of Africans using solar energy.
“News flash. @akon tune in to ggn for some real news,” Snoop captioned the photo.
Not surprisingly, Snoop’s comments were flooded with both critics and supporters.
“This is the first time in history that trans people have a voice,” said one commenter. “It may be over publicized but it doesn’t justify the amount of hatred. Transphobia is not acceptable.”
While another commenter wrote, “Snoop Dogg is right. This trash news about Bruce Jenner is irrelevant compared to Akon making a difference in the world.”
Granted, Jenner isn’t curing cancer or anything of the like by transitioning. But what she is doing is shining a much needed light on the lived experiences of a community which has long been shunned, attacked and ignored by society and the mainstream media. Not too long ago, transgender people had no voice and extremely little and rarely accurate representation in the media. On top of that, they dealt with unchecked violence and discrimination. But with every growing story of a trans person living their truth in the light, trans lives become more visible, more relatable and more accepted. So there is a lot of merit to Jenner’s story, just like there’s a lot of merit to Akon’s story. And neither need to be put down or bashed for the other to shine.
