'Rocky Horror' Creator Richard O'Brien Doesn't Think Trans People Can Become Women

Richard O'Brien may have made a name for himself as a gender-bending star in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but his latest comments have incensed the transgender community.

The performer told reporters that he agreed with controversial statements from feminist Germaine Greer, who argued that any transgender women lives with the illusion that "he is female." Moreover, Greer argued that gender reassignment surgery doesn't actually change a person's gender identity.

"You can't be a woman," O'Brien told British media. "You can be an idea of a woman. You're in the middle and there's nothing wrong with that."

What makes O'Brien's comments particularly hard to digest is the fact that he has long identified as gender fluid.

O'Brien has advocated for more expansive ways of talking about gender beyond static categories of male and female.

"I wish we would see ourselves as members of a sentient race of beings and be nice to each other as human beings as opposed to male or female," he told the Metro, according to Gay Star News.