Rolling Stone Says We ‘Sincerely Apologize’ for Coloring Charlamagne Tha God’s Remarks As Transphobic

Charlamagne Tha God has condemned violence against transgender people. (Rich Fury/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

Rolling Stone has retracted a story it says “mischaracterized” Charlamagne Tha God’s remarks as transphobic after the radio show host threatened legal action against the music publication.

“On July 31, 2017, RollingStone.com published a story titled ‘Janet Mock Speaks Out Following Charlamagne Tha God’s Controversial Morning Show’ after Mock published a first-person piece on Allure.com that denounced remarks made on “The Breakfast Club” radio show by guest comedian Lil Duval about trans women as ‘deplorable rhetoric,'” the Monday, Aug. 7 statement read. “Rolling Stone mischaracterized Charlemagne’s position in its original search headline, conflating comments by Lil Duval, a guest on his show, with his own.

“We sincerely apologize to Charlamagne Tha God for the error. Charlamagne has since clarified that he believes violence against transgender people is wrong and has declared himself an ally of trans people.”

Charlamagne had reportedly threatened to sue Rolling Stone for defamation regarding an article TMZ reported was originally titled, “Janet Mock on Charlamagne Tha God’s Transphobic Comments.” The co-host of the self-proclaimed “world’s most dangerous morning show” reportedly believed the headline damaged his reputation and wanted an apology, retraction and an undisclosed sum of money. It is unknown if Rolling Stone paid Charlamagne for confusing his statements with Duval’s remark that after unknowingly having sex with a trans woman, he’d have to kill her.

“We don’t condone those [kinds] of hate crimes at all. Not even a little bit,” Charlamange said in a Thursday, Aug. 3 statement to Paper magazine before mentioning that 15 trans women have been murdered this year and all but two were nonwhite women.

“‘The Breakfast Club’ will continue to do what it always does and that [is to provide] a platform for the voiceless,” his statement concluded.

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