Fans online reacted quickly, criticizing Kelly for disregarding Smith’s identity.
“Not Lorraine misgendering Sam Smith over and over!!” one user wrote, as reported by The Independent. Another added: “I guess Lorraine didn’t get the memo about Sam Smith and their chosen pronouns, awkward.”
Others, however, said “[Kelly] fell into the trap of thinking he’s a bloke because he is.”
“How can you misgender someone that is obviously a man?” a second tweeted.
A third joked, “What a bigot, she knows they are not a he but a chubby them or they…I forgot what we were talking about.”
‘Everyone messes up’
In a conversation with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Smith explained what the pronoun change has meant for them. “Since changing my pronouns, it felt like a coming home,” they said, according to the Independent. “I wish I knew what the words were when I was in school, because I would’ve identified as that in school. Because it is who I am and it’s who I’ve always been.”
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