When we said, “Hey, we want you to be
on the cover of the New Masculinity
Issue,” why did you say yes? Well, when it
comes to having this conversation, I don’t
necessarily know that the masculinity is
new as much as the conversation is new.
That’s number one. But I think this is a way
that I can speak up at a time where we’re in
the middle of a spiritual plight. A spiritual
war. When people are online, they have
their real identity; then they have, like, a
nickname. Right?
The avatar. Yeah. It gives them this ability
to be whoever they wanna be. That’s a
spirit. Because they’re no longer defined by
the physical—the responsibilities of being
connected to all that is. Online your spirit is
free to be whatever it wants to be. And what
do you see online? Fuckin’ warfare.
I’ve never thought about it in those terms.
I’ll bring God into it. A lot of people pray less.
So now when you ask a question, where do
you get your number one result? Google.
You don’t [makes prayer hands], you [makes
typing motion].
Yeah, it’s hard to pray online. You could,
but you wouldn’t have many Twitter
followers. That’s right. And what did you
just say? Followers. We’re followers. And
we’re not following God. We’re following
men. So that’s spiritual warfare. So when
you offered for me to be a part of this
conversation, I’m like, “Yeah.” Because
think about it. What is happening to a
transgender person? What are they going
through? They feel like their body is not
connected to their spirit. And what kind
of toxic environment do we live in that
they have to justify how they feel? That
must feel incredibly insane. That is
spiritual warfare. So I wanted to be in the
conversation. On the surface, it is an
older-straight-white-male world. But it has
prompted this conversation that I think
is deeper than what the new masculinity
is or what a non-gender-binary world looks
like. I think we’re in spiritual warfare.
And do you feel that it is in some ways
your privilege to lend your voice to
uplifting people who are under attack?
Yeah, but I’m not, like, an activist. And
I don’t think my opinion is everything.
I don’t know anyone else’s plight. I can
just say, for me, the minute that I stopped
worrying about what other people thought,
and stopped catering to the fears that
are taught to you—the minute that I let
all that shit go—that’s when I started, like:
Oh, that Chanel belt? I could wear that.
That Chanel hat? I like it. I could pull
that off.