Jeffree Star doubled down on his controversial comments about nonbinary people and the use of they/them pronouns, writing on Twitter, “I said what I said.”

The YouTuber and makeup mogul, 37, made the inflammatory remarks on Tennessee Titans player Taylor Lewan’s podcast, Bussin With The Boys. Star called people who use they/them pronouns “stupid” and declared that “conservatives like me because I’m just real.”

While Star did receive some support from conservative Twitter accounts for his podcast appearance, he also faced a wave of backlash to his comments, including one Twitter user who wrote in response to the video: “conservatives don’t like you because ‘you’re real,’ they like you because youre a f****** racist, transphobic piece of s*** that just feeds into their confirmation bias, especially as a queer man, i guess some people really don’t change.”

Star stood by his opinion after the controversial comments, tweeting: “I said what I said. It’s not that complicated.”

Nonbinary is an umbrella term used by people “who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the binary gender categories of ‘man’ and ‘woman,'” according to GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group.

During his conversation with Lewan, Star also claimed that the prevalence of nonbinary gender identities is due to people being “bored” while staying home during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m not into all the other bulls***: the ‘they’ and ‘them’ and all that extra s*** we added during the pandemic, ‘cos everyone was so bored in their f****** houses,” he said on the podcast. “That’s why the conservatives like me because I’m just real. You’re not ‘they’ and ‘them,’ you’re trans, you’re male or you’re female. People get so mad when I say that… how are you a ‘they?’ What the f*** does that mean?”

“It’s stupid, is what it is,” he said. “But you need someone like me, who looks like me, to say it. Because if you say it, it turns into: ‘You’re homophobic, you hate trans people, you hate gays.'”

Twitter users responded with disappointment to Star doubling down on his comments. Recording artist Simon Curtis tweeted, “This feels willfully obtuse at best, and deeply, painfully lacking compassion, at worst.”

One Twitter user wrote: “ily jeffree but this makes me sad:( i’m cis but if all i have to do is change my language to be kind to someone then i’ll call them whatever they want. the s*icide rate is high among trans/enby folks & this kind of language can be really harmful. their pronouns don’t harm anyone.”

And another person tweeted at Star: “Shame on you. You represent the face of a cosmetics brand in which everyone should feel welcomed and beautiful and you’re alienating an entire demographic.”

Others stood by Star, with one person tweeting, “Thanks for being brave enough to express your opinion. We need more people like you!”

Star also addressed the issue in a post on his Instagram stories, stating that he won’t back down when it comes to speaking out about “science” and “facts.” He stuck to his belief that he “didn’t even say anything crazy,” as well.

He defended himself against accusations of transphobia, as well, saying he “has five transgender employees” at his cosmetics company and gave a shoutout to the “amazing, beautiful transgender people and the LGBT community in [my] DMs.”

The concept of nonbinary gender can date back centuries, especially within different Indigenous communities in North America, Chile and Taiwan that recognize “Two-spirit people.” Aboriginal Australians recognize “sistergirls and brotherboys,” who are people that identify as a different gender than what they were assigned at birth.

Third gender markers on official identity documents such as passports, are also becoming more widespread including in India, Iceland and Australia, and are for people who do not identify with the male and female gender binary.