No matter how forward the world wants to move, the past still influences unintentionally our culture and society. For this reason, there are unfortunately some stereotypes on people’s sexuality that make the theme itself a sensitive topic to talk about.
If compared to the 90s the attitude of society and institutions towards the LGBTQIA+ community got better, there is no real legal protection for its discrimination.
We already made a long way, thanks also to all the “famous” people – from singers to actors or tv personalities, whoever has a great following and can be spokesperson of universal messages – who decided to actively take part to the fight against homophobia and sexual discriminations, hiding no more their real being and becoming a sort of model trying to normalize what society wouldn’t define as “normal”.
We talk about coming out, a term that metaphorically refers to the process of a person to accept and share their sexuality and gender orientations.
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The world of the showbiz is full of rumors about celebrities’ sexual orientation, who sometimes use this tactic to grow their popularity.
Other times, especially nowadays, it’s the celebs themselves to openly declare their gender ID and sexuality, surprising the audience.
Recently, Jojo Siwa, previously known on Dance Mom and now an Internet star, came out on her social media as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, but saying that she doesn’t want any label and that she simply loves people for people.
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And so, the issues regarding labels and the misconception of the fact that the coming out would highlight diversity rise.
In this respect, it is interesting to find out what celebrities belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community think.
In December 2020, Elliot Page (previously Ellen Page) posted on Instagram a letter where he considers himself a transsexual non-binary person, meaning he does not identify nor as a male or a female, and that from now on people should call him Elliot and use the pronouns he/they.
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It was Valentine’s Day of 2014 when Juno’s protagonist came out during her speech on the stage of the Time To Thrive conference organized by the Human Rights Campaign.
“I’m here today because I’m gay” says Elliot at the conference. Four years later, she married dancer and choreographer Emma Porter with whom she happily lives.
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Living freely without giving people labels is a topic that has been growing more and more consent in the LGBTQIA+’s world.
Years ago, who did not identify as straight was automatically classified as either gay or bisexual, but today there are more terms that try to embrace every little shadow of our being, but if on one hand we are opening up to diversity, on the other hand there is always more pressure to classify ourselves into something.
Stars like Paris Jackson and Kehlani refuse to have labels. They only state they love people no matter the gender they are.
Former Disney star Raven-Symoné, known for her role in the That’s So Raven show, says “I don’t want to be labeled as gay, I want to be labeled as human who loves humans”, and this sums up the whole concept.
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Kristen Stewart and Cara Delevigne have quite the same position.
Twilight actress Kristen came out during an episode in 2017 of the Saturday Night Live show with the sentence “I’m so gay dude!”. However, years earlier paparazzi published pictures of her with who now are her ex-girlfriends.
She says that coming out in the movie industry is not still that easy and that she felt a huge responsibility, especially because she never cared about letting people know about her sexuality and hopes that in a few years people would feel the need to specify it no more.
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Roughly the same is for Cara Delevigne: the model confessed it hasn’t been easy for her to accept and find out her sexual identity as she grew up in a conservative family, and that she never thought about having to officially express what she feels.
Saying nothing is what actress Ashley Benson, with whom Cara had a relationship, and Victoria’s Secret model Stella Maxwell decided to do. They revealed their sexual orientation simply living their relationships and not stating it to the world.
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Finally, there is also who is more inclined to openly talk about it.
Always a supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community’s rights, after the long relationship with Liam Hemsworth nobody expected Miley Cyrus to come out as part of the community. Although the singer has been knowing she likes girls since middle school, she only revealed she is pansexual in 2015. Miley does not like to be classified as bisexual, because this term puts her in a box.
In 2016 Lauren Jauregui came out on tv in the middle of nowhere defining herself a una “bisexual, cuban-american woman” after the elections of that year, not being afraid to stand up for herself and openly talking about it.
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The following year, it’s Brandon Flynn’s turn. Despite he played the most popular and wanted boy in high school in the 13 Reasons Why series, he naturally came out with a post on Instagram in which he responded to an Australian anti-same sex campaign. Months later, he started a love relationship with singer Sam Smith.
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Last but not least is Lil Nas X. After the worldwide success of Old Town Road remix, the rapper came out as gay on the 2019 World Pride Day, becoming one of the few black artists to openly be gay, a very important role for the community.
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The statement “if you feel the need to express your sexuality, you are highlighting its diversity” on the fact that coming out doesn’t normalize homosexuality has no just one point of view and is definitely questionable.
Coming out means also say “hey, look at me because I exist!” after years of shame. It means tearing down stereotypes and old prejudices – look at Lil Nas X or Lauren Jauregui. It means showing people around us other realities besides what society calls “normal” and that they are not far from us.
All of this means normalizing a situation to make sure that in the next years the pressure around the coming out will fade, until the day we can say “I don’t like Balenciaga’s new collection and I don’t like boys” in the same sentence without shocking anybody or newspaper making titles about it.
And we are looking forward for that day.
Photo by Yoav Hornung on Unsplash
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