Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale has published a powerful statement against sexual assault, as New York state prosecutors reopen investigations of the alleged 2024 gang-rape of a woman at Cornell University.
The Nashville-based rocker took to Instagram this morning (Tuesday, October 1) and shared a short yet scathing post, containing an image with text that lambasted “the kind of man who thinks it’s OK to reduce a human being to nothing more than something you can stick your [dick] into”.
“If you are the kind of man who thinks it’s OK to reduce another human being to nothing more than something you can stick your [dick] into, there is something severely wrong with you,” she begins.
The singer/guitarist continues: “You are not a ‘promising young man’, you are a sick monster that needs to be punished and prevented from having contact with other humans.
“And if you are the kind of man who stands idly by while witnessing a rape (yes, even if you saw it in a group chat, you are still a witness to that rape), and choose to do nothing/say nothing, you are not ‘the good guy’; you are an accessory to the sexual assault and also need to be brought to justice, because we don’t want your kind walking among us either.”
Hale’s post follows a Jane Doe filing a civil lawsuit against Cornell University – an Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York – on September 16. The Doe claims that she was gang-raped by seven men at a fraternity in October 2024, while she was intoxicated and unable to consent.
The suit alleges sexual assault and battery, negligence, breach of contract and violations of New York’s Human Rights Law, and Doe says that the men were “afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays”. The 101-page document also contains an image purported to be from a fraternity group chat in which a participant alerted other members, in vulgar terms, to the potential for a sexual encounter with Doe.
In the caption on her social media post, Hale appears to reference the allegation of the men mitigating their conducts with essays. She writes: “And if you are in a position of power to hold these men accountable for their actions and do nothing, take their side, or let them off with a fucking ‘writing assignment’, you should be stripped of your power and privilege of walking among us.”
Hale co-founded Halestorm with her drummer brother Arejay in 1997, and the band are now one of the most commercially successful in the American rock scene, having sold more than three million albums in the US alone. Their 2012 single, Love Bites (So Do I), won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance.
Halestorm are currently touring North America, supporting Babymetal, to promote their latest release, last year’s Everest. They’ll play at the Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre in Phoenix, Arizona tonight. They also have a selection of European festival dates booked for summer 2027. See details and get tickets via their website.