Kevin Hart’s comments regarding Lil Nas X’s decision to come out come off as dismissive and silencing
Photo: Getty Images In a recent clip from an episode of HBO’s The Shop — a show which features roundtable-style discussions between actors, musicians, athletes, and other public figures in barbershops around the country — Paul Rivera asked Lil Nas X to explain his recent decision to come out as gay, while “Old Town Road” was at the top of the charts: “With all that early success,” he says. “You felt it was important to make an announcement recently.
Before Nas could respond, comedian Kevin Hart jumped in to respond, “He said he was gay! So what?” Hart’s question is, I think, intended to display a lack of prejudice, but instead implies that coming out as gay is no longer newsworthy, because being gay is fine — especially with Hart. Putting aside that this is coming from the guy whose homophobic tweets lost him the job as host of the Academy Awards, let’s be clear: It is huge news that Lil Nas X is gay. He has the longest-standing No. 1 hit in the entire history of the Billboard Hot 100, and chose to come out at that peak of his very young career. Like the rest of the world, rap and country music aren’t known to welcome open queerness, and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” stands at the intersection of both.
So. In his diplomatic response to Hart, Lil Nas X explained that his decision was also informed by having been raised to hate [homosexuality]. Hart’s response: “Why?”Like many people, I found Hart’s comments dismissive, even delusional. If Hart was trying to perform his progressivism, he missed the mark. Pretending that everyone is already treated equally is not allyship, it’s ignorance.
On a recent visit home, my mom told me how often her acquaintances react to the news of my wedding with self-congratulatory comments like, “Oh, isn’t it great how easy it is to do that now?” My mom finds this very annoying, and so do I. It’s silencing, in a way — because the person is technically correct, and it is better than it used to be, I feel that the only acceptable response is to agree.
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