The fallacy? Do you not know what words mean?
Whitlock’s example of this allegedly terrible trend: Lil Nas X’s faux pregnancy photoshoot “to promote the fallacy that he’s having a baby.” Meanwhile, here in America, we’re celebrating it. The Chinese Communist Party is pushing back against the feminization of men. Whitlock’s post is a masterpiece of incoherent spew that somehow manages to suggest that the rapper is a secret cultural agent for the Chinese Communist Party working to sissify the United States.Ĭhina’s lawmakers announced a ban on television programming with incorrect political positions, including shows featuring effeminate men. Consider the post ’s Jason Whitlock wrote in response to Lil Nas X’s photoshoot with People magazine. Lil Nas X came out early in his career during Pride Month in 2019, which Kennedy said is important because he “is a young Black man navigating his sexuality in front of the entire world and he’s doing it as one of the biggest pop stars on the planet at the same time.” He added, “That is no small feat by any measure.”ĭespite being excluded from BET’s nominees, Owens said, Lil Nas X is successful because he’s achieving his own career milestones while being “true to who he actually is.” Owens also said that the fact Lil Nas X has support from fans worldwide on Twitter “is just another sign of how we’re winning.When gay-as-hell rapper Lil Nas X announced the upcoming release of his debut album by saying he was pregnant with it - and posed for pictures with a fake baby bump - he no doubt knew it would cause some less enlightened folks to blow a gasket.īut I’m not sure anyone could have imagined just how blown out some of these gaskets would be. While Lil Nas X gained popularity with the success of “Old Town Road,” Kennedy also said many queer artists cannot find broad success while openly embracing their identity, which is “why so many people stay in the closet.” He added, It “is a shame but it’s also a matter of survival.” “And yet, he’s still being forced to a different set of standards, not just by the white industry … but by his own peers in the Black music scene.” “He’s broken so many barriers in music and continues to, not just as a gay artist, but as also a Black artist,” Owens said. While he is successful, as a young, Black queer artist, Owens said, Lil Nas X simultaneously deals with racism and homophobia in the music industry.
His success continued with other hits like “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” which earned him accolades from the American Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards in 2021. The single also earned him a Grammy for best music video and best pop duo/group performance. Lil Nas X’s star rose with his 2019 breakout hit, “Old Town Road” with country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, later breaking the record for the longest consecutive run song to remain No. They see us winning these awards … Billy Porter was still only able to tell us that he had HIV last year.
“When you think about the acceptance of us, yeah, of course there’s progress,” he said, “because they see us on these shows. While the acceptance is visible for some Black queer artists such as Lil Nas X, Frank Ocean and Janelle Monae, Kennedy said, progress is slow because the LGBTQ community was “not meant to be accepted.” He said that societal acceptance of Black queer men, in particular, tends to only last until people are reminded of their sexuality and that support quickly dissipates. “It’s just blatant homophobia,” Owens said. “There’s no way to rationalize it,” said Owens, author of the upcoming book, “ The Case for Cancel Culture.” “It was a homophobic decision.” No one cheered louder that night than BET.”Įrnest Owens, an editor at large for Philadelphia Magazine who is gay, said BET’s statement is “hollow” and that it suggests that there is lack of LGBTQ+ individuals involved in the decision-making process within BET’s Voting Academy. “He was nominated for a Best New Artist BET Award in 2020, and we proudly showcased his extraordinary talent and creativity on the show twice: he performed ‘Old Town Road’ with Billy Ray Cyrus at ‘BET Awards’ 2019 and his ‘BET Awards’ 2021 performance was a highlight of our show. Following Lil Nas X’s released teaser video, BET said in a statement Wednesday that the nominees were chosen by BET’s Voting Academy - a group of 500 professionals in the entertainment industry - and that “no one from BET serves as a member of the Voting Academy.”