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Mauve · 2 answers · 6y

Are there any authors, artists, etc, who were important to you as a child or young person, who you only found out were gay as an adult?

I wrote up a long answer because, at first, I didnt think I could think of one. most lgbtq artists that I like are people who I knew were queer and got into partly as a way of unlearning my internalized homophobia. but I just remembered a couple

when I was young I was a fairly stereotypically masculine person, to the point of over-compensation, and also someone who like was confused/doubtful about the concept of a broader queer community. basically I was kind of a shit. but I did really like the band Judas Priest, and the band Against Me!, which both fell comfortably within the acceptable limits for """masculine""" musical tastes. since then, rob halford has come out as gay, and laura jane grace as trans.

in my later teen years I started intentionally seeking out queer artists. it went slowly at first, and now it's a big deciding factor into who I'm willing to give a chance, but it used to be that the first whiff of gender non-conformity would repel me (unless it was couched in some real toxic masculinity like Korn or MSI or Brett Easton Ellis or whatever)

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