I am many things, let me assure you, but homophobic is not among them. I freely acknowledge that I do not like Harry Styles, and I particularly do not like the music that he makes. (That was my objection in my Halsey post, btw, that his music sucks.) If that were the extent that I was forced to endure him, I would just roll my eyes and move on, but now I am supposed to worship the ground he walks on and consider him an ally to the LGBT+ community as well. That I will not do.
In 2013, when I joined the One Direction fandom, I was quickly introduced to something referred to as “Larry”. Now, I was never a particular shipper myself (In large part because I didn’t like Harry even then and cared fuck all about his personal life). But, I could buy into the narrative that he was forced to remain in the closet by his management team. But the year is now 2020, and he is no longer in the biggest boy band in the world. If he wanted to come out, he could. Artists with less clout and more to lose have come out, not to mention the many who were gay/bi/gnc and others that were out in far less accepting times. Now, I believe that Harry’s personal life is his own business, and if he chooses not to come out that is his business, but the narrative that he is forced to stay in the closet is tired, played out, and at this point, just plain wrong. Yet, he reaps the benefits of being a “young closeted artist” as you put it. He gets sympathy and clout for doing the bare minimum to the point he can’t even qualify as an ally. He’s like a corporation that suddenly remembers that gay people exist and have buying power come June. And I don’t believe that the LGBT+ community is something that anyone has the right to exploit and use for clout and street cred. He could have used his Vogue cover to address the very real issues faced by gnc people across the globe, but he didn’t. He could come out and be a role model for other gay or bisexual young men (especially if he is bi or pan as there is hardly any representation for young boys who identify as either of those in the public eye), but he doesn’t. He could openly condem the people who call the other half of the ship that gives him all that poor closeted boy cred in the first place homophobic, but he doesn’t do that either. No, Harry wears a rainbow pin and plays dress up in Vogue. And that isn’t good enough. If he wants to protect his private life, fine. But he needs to start at least being a better ally in the future.
