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Lee Ryan has insisted he's not transphobic or homophobic after a heated argument with drag queen Layla Zee Susan.
The former Blue singer, 38, said he would "never disrespect any community" after screenshots of his row with Layla Zee Susan, portrayed by Sammy Shepherd, surfaced online.
Drag artist Sammy shared the screenshots of the heated disagreement with Lee, which took place on Instagram DMs.
Sammy approached Lee after the singer shared a photo on his Instagram story, where he declared he may start identifying as "anything but human" and asked: "Please respect my wishes".
The private message from drag queen Layla read: "Do you think this is a bit insensitive to your fans that do choose to identify as something outside of the gender binary?"
Lee, who previously said he was affected "really badly" after witnessing his friend's dad shoot himself, then responded with a barrage of sweary messages where he branded Sammy an "opinionated c***", "little mug" and "f**king melt".
As the conversation continued, Sammy told Lee: "I hope you can at some point see your insensitivity and educate yourself on why this would be hurtful to your trans and non binary followers".
Later, as Sammy shared the screenshots of the row on their Instagram story Lee messaged the drag artist again. He wrote: "I would slap you in the face if you was in front of me you cheeky little p***k – non binery or gay or whatever the F**k you wanna call yourself – your not a woman.
"I would slap you side ways – cheeky c***". But, now Lee has said the fallout has left him "upset and angry".
He told The Sun: "I’m really upset and angry because I would never disrespect any community – I know what it’s like to be disrespected for no reason and it hurts."
Lee, who welcomed his third child in June, insisted his comments in his first post were misunderstood as he explained: "I don’t really like the human race, I think they’re lost, especially what’s going on in the world.
"It was a harmless thing, I was basically saying I’m an alien. I wasn’t being offensive to anyone, unless you’re an alien. I didn’t say one thing about the LGBTQ+ community."
He then explained his angry reaction towards Sammy's response as he said: "I normally ignore things like that but it’s like somebody calling me racist when I’m not. Duncan’s constantly dressing in drag, he’s gay, Blue has a big [gay] following – so this really upset me.
"Some of my best friends are gay. I didn’t say one thing about him being in drag. People get so comfortable sitting behind a keyboard and being really f***ing rude, f***ing p***k. If you’re going to be rude to me, I’ll be rude back, and if you don’t like it, don’t come at me."
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