La’Porsha Facebook

It hasn’t even been a full week since La’Porsha Renae was crowned the runner up on the American Idol series finale, and already the singer has encountered her first “controversy” and is receiving a little backlash over some comments she made recently regarding the LGBT community.

Friday, April 8 the singer did a series of interviews where she dished on her post Idol plans including working on her new album and moving to Los Angeles from her hometown of Mississippi. It was then that things went left after she was asked if she has been following the controversy regarding the state’s new anti-LGBT law, which essentially allows for gay and transgender people to be discriminated against as long as the would-be offender has a “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”

Via Gossip Cop:

Renae said she hadn’t “heard about it,” noting, “The only thing that I’ve been aware of is that there was also controversy about the Confederate flag.” In response, she was then asked if that is influencing her decision to move out of Mississippi. The aspiring star said she was actually intending to leave due to the abusive relationship she endured with the father of her young child, something she spoke about at length on “Idol.”

But after saying she simply wanted to “start” over” with her daughter, Renae added, “This is how I feel about the LGBT community: They are people just like us. They’re not animals as someone [Manny Pacquiao] stated before. They’re people with feelings. Although all of us may not agree with that particular lifestyle for religious reasons, whatever the reason is, you still treat each other with respect. Everybody is a human being. We should be able to coexist with one another.”

Renae went on, however, “I am one of the people who don’t really agree with that lifestyle. I wasn’t brought up that way. It wasn’t how I was raised.” Still, she added, “But I do have a lot of friends and a lot of people that I love dearly who are gay and homosexual and they’re such sweet, nice people. We should just respect each other’s differences and opinions and move on.”

Naturally, the singer received a slew of tweets regarding her comments from fans who were not happy with her statement. As a result, she took to Twitter to respond with the tweet below.

We don’t have to agree with each other’s life choices to love/respect one another. Live and let live. #RENAETION #RespectThatWeAreDifferent

— La’Porsha~Renae (@laporsharenae) April 9, 2016