I also feel like he chose Joe Budden because despite Budden’s past homophobic statements, he teased that comment about being bisexual, and in more recent exchanges has seemed somewhat more ambiguous or even queer-affirming, like when he basically recently turned the tables on the homophobic guy in the barbershop. So I don’t fault Isaiah and wish him the best on his journey. We all witnessed the huge backlash, and not just from fellow hip hop artists, against Lil Nas X, just for coming out and being himself. It’s wonderful his fans affirmed and celebrated him. Lots of people out there are still extremely homophobic and transphobic and anti-LGBTQ, and violently so, especially these days, and I’m sure he’s been dealing with this his whole life. He’s not at the self-affirming stage yet. So my read is he was DL, he was outed by the video, he’s still not fully comfortable in terms of being an out(ed) public figure, he chose the term “sexually fluid” (while still mentioning his “girl” etc.) and vague constructs and terms like talking about who was dating in high school, college, etc., or being into someone because of their “intelligence” as a way of somewhat hedging, when the reality is that he clearly likes to have sex at least with men, and probably women.
But I do understand that a lot of people lean on these cliches because they don’t really know how to express themselves or because they don’t want people to know too much. The dependence on cliches kinda impede people being real about their dimensions and struggles and preferences and journeys and often keeps people from really understanding the makeup of their psychology and the gender, sexual, affection, romantic, emotion, commitment. We don’t have to suddenly start trying to make everything about “intelligence”. You can be real about simply having some fluidity or contradictions or contending with hyper-sexuality or fetishes/paraphiliacs or having some attractions to a certain kind of person but having more romantic attachment, relationship fulfillment, commitment ambitions toward another type of person. While the same folks talking about “intelligence” will often end up seriously dating basic arm candy that’s dumb as box of rocks. But it really is starting to feel like a bunch of people just repeating the same lines as each other. Like, yes, intelligence or wit can be attractive. I am getting a lil tired of this “I’m attracted to intelligence” stuff that’s become popular these last few years. Of course, no one has any control over their attractions, and we should all know by now how individual sexuality is. But one thing insecure DL/in the queer spectrum black men are gonna do is stay trying to get “straight presenting” black male approval. It is disappointing that he decided to give this interview to a “straight presenting” guy who’s been known to say a lot of misogynistic and sometimes homophobic and queer-shaming shit throughout the years. It’s very cliche and aligns with a lot of the same old stuff we get from guys “coming out”, especially ones attaching to something non “gay”, but it is what it is. However, he honestly just sounds like he’s mirroring what some people around him have told him rather than actually speaking about his dimensions and struggles and journey.
While everyone has their own thing when it comes to sexual dimensions, general preferences, struggles, motivations, insecurities, the gender, sexual, affection, romantic, emotion, commitment spectrum. Plain ol’ bisexuality or pansexuality is still a thing).
(But also, some people are just using “fluid” for anything. Of course, as I’ve said many times, fluidity is a real experience for many folks.