Chris Taylor Brown has taken to YouTube to clarify his views on underage sexual encounters between teenage boys and adult women. In late 2020, Brown’s tweets on the subject of a 15-year-old having sex with his 24- or 25-year-old teacher resulted in Trapt’s Twitter account getting suspended.

Brown discussed the controversy in a segment he shot for Trapt’s YouTube channel. In a video called Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction (sounds like that’d be an awesome YouTube series) the singer jumped right into the subject of statutory rape.

“Did I defend statutory rape?” Brown begins, referencing a Loudwire article. “No, I have not defended anybody engaged in any illegal activity, ever. Do I think there’s a double standard between how men need to treat women versus the other way around? I do. I think size, strength has a lot to do with it, aggression. Men have been told a lot the last few years that we can be intimidating and that we should hold each other accountable in how we treat women. I don’t think any good dude has a problem with that.”

“Somebody was making the example that female high school teachers preying on their male students came up to show [that] women can be just as bad. Let me say, I would never excuse the actions of a teacher preying on a student, no matter what sex they are. I never have, I never will. I’ve always maintained that teacher would be judged by a jury of their peers and should expect whatever punishment that jury or judge feels is appropriate. I’ve never said anything to the contrary.”

“What I did do is make a joke in bad taste," Brown adds. "Answering the question, ‘Well, what if it was your kid, your 15-year-old?’ In the spirit of ‘Too Hot for Teacher,’ I said, ‘Oh, I’d high-five him.’ It was a total joke. It was meant to have fun with the other person, trigger them a little bit … I shouldn’t have made that joke. I would never do that in real life.”

For reference, you can view multiple screenshots of Brown’s tweets below, along with a Facebook post from 2014 where he questions the same subject:

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Facebook: Trapt
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After speaking of famous rock songs that deal in age disparities and the idea that society has seen a double standard for a long time, Brown spoke about the post that got Trapt’s Facebook and Instagram accounts suspended. The post depicts a Proud Boy in a Fred Perry shirt, carrying Lady Liberty in his arms, with the caption, “Don’t Worry Girl We Got You.”

“We do!” Brown wrote. “POYB! (Proud of Your Boy).”

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“It was a meme,” Brown says. “Of a group that Facebook doesn’t like and they don’t want you to say the name. They told me not to say the name and I didn’t. It was a patriotic meme … I thought it was pretty harmless, but people complained and said that it was hateful. I don’t know what’s hateful about the statement, ‘I got you girl,’ and caring about liberty and freedom of all that, but I think Facebook just didn’t like the things I was saying.”

“I tried to respect the rules and they said that I posted hate,” Brown elaborates. “I don’t know how they can just decide that things that I say are hateful. I think it was a blessing in disguise. I think all of us can do with some time off Facebook or Twitter or social media, fighting for what we believe in. I know I’ve benefitted greatly, just going through a lot of emotion last year, and then having a lot of time on my hands all of a sudden because I’m not engaging online with people, pushing what I care about.”

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