Sabrina Carpenter performed her song “Tears” from her album “Man’s Best Friend” at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards. During her performance, she paid tribute to the LGBTQ+ community, specifically the transgender community. 

  “Not every drag performer is per se a trans person,” a user expressed online. “It was also pretty underwhelming, and there was absolutely no representation for trans men or drag kings in the performance.” 

Carpenter was accompanied by multiple drag queens from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” as well as ballroom dancers Honey Balenciaga and Deshaun Wesley. Towards the middle of the performance, the queens held signs with LGBTQ+ friendly messages, such as “protect trans rights,” “support local drag,” “dolls, dolls, dolls,” “protect the dolls” and “if you hate you’ll never get laid.” 

 Drag is an art form in gay culture, and its presence during the performance was not representative of the trans community. The lack of representation of trans men or drag kings is deeply upsetting because Carpenter has been a continued ally to the LGBTQ+ community. 

The performance Carpenter put on was not the initial plan , as it was changed just days before. At first, Carpenter was going to pay homage to Dolly Parton’s movie, “9 to 5,” but she wanted to recognize the issues the trans community has been facing such as how many felt fetishized through adult entertainment. 

With this in mind, during the performance, Carpenter welcomed cisgender male strippers to the stage, totally counteracting the purpose of the performance. 

The message conveyed by Carpenter was a powerful one; however, the messaging lacked an accurate representation of the trans community