After single-handedly bringing back the term ‘It’s GIVING…” (Cher) to the internet mainstream/LGBTQ+ – it pained us to watch Shawn side-step the flowers he’s owed by our community and not being able to fully take credit for it. You DID THAT, Shawny baby!
But in all seriousness, Shawn’s gentle, near-coming-out this week was very sweet and actually quiyte touching. Especially after watching him exist so deeply in the closet for years, and in an era where one might think there’s no need to be…
While performing at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre for his For Friends and Family Tour on Monday evening in Colorado, Shawn Mendes got honest with the audience. “Since I was really young, there’s this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it so long. I think it’s kind of silly, because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes,” Mendes said.
“It always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover it,” he continued. “Writing the song [The Mountain] felt really important to me because it felt like a moment where I could address it in a way that felt close to my heart. And I guess I’m just speaking freely now, because I just want to be able to be closer to everyone and just kind of be in my truth.”
“The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone. And I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times. And it feels really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that. And I’m trying to be really brave and just allow myself to be a human and feel things. And that’s all I really want to say about that for now.”
He then played a new song called, “The Mountain,” where he sings: “You can say I’m too young/You can say I’m too old/You can say I like girls or boys, whatever fits your mold.”
One can only imagine the type of pressure he has faced his whole life, dealing with expectations and weird clauses from record executives, family members, managers, agents the industry built around him, which can often be more concerned about their coin than his wellbeing.
We hope this next step for Shawn shows everyone that embracing yourself truly is the way to go—and the pink dollars is STRONG right now! Check the exchange rate, gurl!—Just look at Troye Sivan! Find the full clip of Shawn address his sexuality with fans below.
Shawn Mendes opens up about his sexuality:
“The real truth about my life and sexuality is that, man I’m just figuring it out like everyone. I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times. It feels really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that” pic.twitter.com/5AvgPePXzp
— Pop Base (@PopBase) October 29, 2024
Straight, gay, bi, ace, pan, we all have things to figure out about our sexuality. If he is gay, I wouldn’t blame him for having a hard time coming to terms with it after the way he’s been treated from day one. With all the, “Come out already,” the “It’s so much different now, your career will be just fine,” and the “Stop queerbaiting us,” I wouldn’t want to come out either.
Also, the entertainment industry is still very homophobic and abusive to the people in it. How about we step up and stop being jerks to everyone who’s and ally or might be somewhere on the queer spectrum? We’ll be better off for it.
Still trying to figure out how to navigate a community that proclaims to “accept everyone for who they are, where they are, as they are”; but actually just prefers to point fingers and “classify” everyone according to their own whims. Like this very article, for example. And categorizing him as another Troy Sivan. Yuch. I’m actually impressed with him for the first time ever.
Leave him alone to live his own life!!
Interesting how he’s been denying being gay for years but now states he’s “figuring it out.” Translation: “I’m preparing you all that I’m getting ready to come out now by claiming I was just confused all this time.”
Still figuring out how to maximize the money he makes by queerbaiting the gay community
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