TL;DR
- Trans singer Ethel Cain has addressed past racist and inflammatory posts made as a teen.
- Posts resurfaced showing her using slurs and making Trump-era jokes.
- Cain called the behavior “deeply shameful” and offered a full apology.
- She slammed what she calls a “transphobic smear campaign.”
- Cain plans to “make right” with her platform and close the chapter on Ethel Cain after her next album.
Cain in the Hot Seat: Past Posts, Present Reckoning
Ethel Cain, the hauntingly ethereal voice behind queer anthems like “American Teenager,” is stepping into the harsh spotlight of her own past. Old social media posts by the 27-year-old transgender singer have resurfaced, revealing what she now describes as a “deeply shameful” phase marked by racist slurs and inflammatory remarks that have left fans—and critics—shaken.
In her pre-fame Tumblr days, Cain—real name Hayden Silas Anhedönia—admitted to dropping the N-word and echoing Trumpian rhetoric like “build that wall” in response to jokes mocking Latinx people. Another post appeared to show her wearing a shirt that read “Legalize Incest.” The receipts were ugly. The reaction? Swift and fiery.
Now, Cain is speaking out. On a podcast interview and in a written statement, she didn’t dodge. She didn’t sugarcoat. Instead, she met the moment head-on, calling her behavior hateful, embarrassing, and driven by a cocktail of teen rage and deep personal despair. “It was intentionally inflammatory,” she confessed. “I won’t make any excuses for that.”
Cain explained that back then, her sense of self-worth was non-existent. “I had no friends, no followers, no nothing,” she said, painting a picture of an isolated teen shouting into the void. “Any surface level attention was good attention. I do not matter and therefore I can be incendiary.”
@popcast After offensive social media posts were resurfaced online, the singer and songwriter Ethel Cain responded in a detailed letter to her fans. On Popcast, she addressed the controversy at length for the first time. For the full interview, visit YouTube.com/popcast 📺 or wherever you get your podcasts 🎧. #music #ethelcain #popcast ♬ original sound – Popcast (Deluxe)
But the singer isn’t just crawling through the ashes—she’s trying to build something from them. Cain says she wants to “make right” and use her platform for healing. And that hits differently coming from a trans artist who has turned personal trauma into art that’s saved others from their own dark spirals. “To then have things that you have done that are shooting down and hurting people… it’s one of the worst things you can do.”
Still, she’s not ignoring the backlash that came from the screenshots being resurfaced. Cain lashed out at what she called “a transphobic brigade” aiming for her emotional annihilation. According to her, the online sleuthing behind the posts involved “hacking” and was more about tearing down a trans woman than about holding someone accountable.
LGBTQ+ Commentary: The Thin Line Between Accountability and Targeting
This scandal hits a nerve, especially in a cultural moment when trans people—particularly trans women—are under relentless attack from both trolls and political institutions. Cain’s past words were undeniably harmful, and her apology seems sincere and layered with remorse. But the dogpile that followed wasn’t just about justice—it veered into cruelty, fueled in part by transphobia disguised as virtue.
What matters now is what Cain does with the platform she still holds. For many in the LGBTQ+ community, especially young trans people who have fumbled in public or private, her journey could be one of hard-earned redemption. Or it could be another example of how quick the internet is to destroy what it once celebrated.
Cain’s next album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, drops August 8. She hinted it may be the swan song of the Ethel Cain persona. Whether that’s a retreat or a rebirth, one thing’s clear: she’s not disappearing quietly. And maybe that’s exactly the kind of mess and growth we need to keep talking about.