“What does it mean to come out?” This question was asked of openly gay rapper Lil Nas X by child actor Dilan Patton on a recent episode of the YouTube show ‘Arts and Raps’.
The Grammy-winning musician had a simplified answer.
“It means you’re like, ‘Hey guys, I’m this thing, and you didn’t even know that, but now you know’,” he said.
Co-host Zaria Kelley was quick with a follow-up question, asking the “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and “Old Town Road” singer, “Why are there people in the closet at all?”
“Once we tell someone we’re this or that thing, their mind changes completely, and it doesn’t matter how close you are to them,” commented Lil Nas X, who came out as gay in 2019.
Patton followed up with his own unintentionally comedic ‘closet story’ about how he and his cousin literally pushed Patton’s brother into the closet and convinced him he was seeing a demonic ghost.
Laughing, Lil Nas X said jokingly, ‘That’s exactly what happened to me. … That’s exactly what I meant when I said I came out. “
Later in the nine-minute episode, as the co-hosts continued to paint portraits of their special guest, Kelley asked the rapper what it means to be “ unashamedly you. ”
“It means doing yourself at all costs, no matter who’s watching,” he said. “It gets really difficult because everyone in the world is always thinking about what everyone thinks about us. Sometimes we forget to think about what we think of ourselves, you know? “
Kelley responded by telling Lil Nas X that he ‘really inspired’ her because ‘you’re not afraid to be yourself’.
However, the best-selling children’s book writer was not always so comfortable in his own skin. In response to Christian right criticism of his new Satan-themed music video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” Lil Nas X turned to religious conservatives for the anti-gay messages he was subjected to as a teenager.
“All my teenage years I hated myself for the shit you all said would happen to me because I was gay,” he wrote on Twitter last month. “So I hope you’re crazy, stay angry, feel the same anger you teach us to have towards ourselves.”
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