Hoods have been facing various show cancellations after being accused of transphobia. As such, vocalist Mikey Hood has now denied the allegations.
“…In 2025 we were on the East Coast, we were on tour with Brick By Brick… And we were in a club one night, and I found some little tampons in the men’s room. So I didn’t have my ear plugs, so I walked out and I had these [tampons] in my ears — [it was a] loud show… And one of the dudes was like, ‘Yo what the f*ck is in your ears?’ I said, ‘They’re tampons. Earplugs, not rearplugs.’ Just making a general joke. Tasteless as it may be, I was trying to be funny.
So hear me out. It just was a little joke. So, months pass, and we get home, that was in June 2025. So here comes August 02nd, probably after a bunch of shows, we got back, this was our first home show back. So we’re at Goldfields in Roseville and again, I didn’t bring earplugs. And there was some f*cking tampons in the men’s room. So I grabbed ’em — we carry scissors with us in our merch box, ya know, cutting tape and stuff — and I cut ’em off and put ’em in my ears.
And right before we got on stage — I never wear earplugs on stage, because I can’t hear very well anyways — I took ’em out, and one of my homeboys was like, ‘Yo, what the f*ck? Are those tampons in your ears?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah’. And he was just like ‘What the f*ck?’. So that was like right before I got on stage. So I told the story about that later — and go watch the video.
And I said, ‘If you put tampons in your butt, that’s just weird to me. And then I said earplugs, not rearplugs, this next song goes out to…’ And we started the song, which is a… well, not to get into that. Go read the lyrics to our f*cking music. Anyway, some kid, local kid, local promoter, whose in a lot of trouble himself right now — no need to elaborate — basically got on the internet and said we were transphobic to that said joke.
In no way, shape or form am I transphobic, nor is my band. And we’ll get onto that in a minute as well. So this video goes out. Then the next tour, we are on tour with Southpaw, and we are getting a lot of feedback, a lot of negative feedback, and we explained ourselves. And mind you, this is in 2025. We’re almost at f*cking 2027 at this point.
So it’s been over a year and a half, so we already went through this in the states, only for it to be rehashed in Europe. And I’m not sure what the f*ck. But so to explain myself, we got a sh*t ton of backlash for that, and that was August 02nd at the ‘Capital City Fest‘. You could go look all this up online. That’s August 02nd, ‘Capital City Fest‘, Goldfields, Roseville, California. That’s when this video is taken, and the local aforementioned person who went and tried to spin his own web for whatever reason. I don’t know why the dude has a vendetta against our band. I know we’re good-looking chaps, but so leading up to that, that was August 02nd.
There was so much backlash from that, from the community. I went up and made a statement, clarified everything, left it up for said 24 hours. You know, we got on with it. We explained ourselves. We went and talked to kids. We we made way new more friends in the trans community than we ever, you know, and honestly, it’s like it’s not something that’s in my head to go after somebody who is born differently than me. That’d be like attacking somebody if they had multiple sclerosis, and I was like, ‘Oh, you got multiple sclerosis?’ Well, you know, I’m just not that person. We don’t have that bigotry or hatred in our hearts. We go out and party and sh*t.
So getting back to the August 02nd ‘Capital City Fest‘, 2025. We left for Colombia on August 18th to 25th, I believe. And during all this horrible sh*t, our beloved drummer of six-and-a-half years got so much pressure from his friends in Reno that he quit the band. Brian, we love you, by the way, and I hope you’re doing well. And one day, I’ll talk to you. I love you, man, Brian. We all love you. We miss you, but we’re doing good. I hope you’re doing well.
So, 20 days later, we had to find a drummer at the last minute, And so we went to Colombia, did these shows, and ironically, we have fill-in members. One of our fill-in members is non-binary. Think about that. Do you think that person would ever fathom the idea of going or playing with the band that he’s been friends with for years now, and knowing that they were in that mindset of hatred, it’s not logical, and it’s… there’s no sense to be made there.
So, getting past that, if I did offend somebody, hey man, I don’t know what to say. Really, it’s like to my friends who are non-binary. Thanks for a lot of you who contact me. I have a lot of non-binary friends all over the world, Germany, US, everywhere. And I live in Sacramento, California. We’re an hour from San Francisco. You think our 30-year-plus agenda doing so much for the these local bands, putting albums out, putting zines out, helping people book tours, letting people stay in my house. You think after 30 plus years, our grand plan was to come out as transphobic? That in itself is deeply hurtful and upsetting to begin with.
So, with that said, I will apologize. I apologize to all the people I didn’t get to see. All my Belgian friends, all my Dutch friends, all my German friends that we were coming back to see, all my friends in the United Kingdom. I’m not gonna say any names, but I’ve got 30 years of touring under my belt with people I love all over the world, and I cherish you guys so much. And it was nice to reconnect with a lot of you.
And after this, I’m not going to post anything for a while because I just got back to California, and I get to do the beautiful things. I got to see my mother. I’m here reacquainted with my dogs, I made so many new friends. We’ve had so many people at us and give us just heartfelt messages. And keep the positivity coming on both sides of the equation.
And also, if you’re going to post a picture of me in 2020 wearing a f*cking Trump shirt, get over it. At this point, I don’t care who you voted for, nor should you give a f*ck who I voted for. I’m not that important. And at the time, it’s like you got to think of it. It’s the same f*cking bird. They both suck. But no way in f*cking hell was I gonna vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. So, with that said, I stand by who I vote for. And if you don’t like it, grow up. That’s petty.
And other than that, we f*cking love you. And to the communities far and wide, I don’t care what flavor you are, as long as you’re cool, as long as you give each other respect — and keep in mind — all these years we’ve been protectors of the people who are different than us in the hardcore, and that’s why we became hardcore kids in the first place is to protect each other. The strong in hardcore always protected the weak.
Now you get the the cancel culture shooting themselves in the foot, because at the end of the day, if anybody messed with somebody trans at our show, we would really f*ck them up. So, bless you, and I hope with all my heart you have enough common sense and logic and empathy to see it from our side of the mirror.”
Metal Anarchy 
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