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Queen of Bounce aired on Fuse from 2013 to 2017], I was educating
the masses as well. All you can do is go out there and be the best
you. I get DMs all the time: kids who don’t know how to come out
to their parents, parents who don’t know how to deal with their kids
who are gay. I try to give the best advice I can. That’s all I can do.
LAMBERT Leading by example is a form of activism.
QUIN I felt a lot of pressure to be more political. Back in the late
’90s/early 2000s when Sara and I started, not a lot of women in
our age group were out. We used to joke that only one queer female
group was allowed to be popular at a time. It was like the Indigo
Girls handed [the baton] to Tegan & Sara: “Go forth and be our
lesbian ambassadors.” But even when I sometimes felt deeply
irritated and resentful, there would
be these incredible moments
when parents packed all their kids
into a car and drove nine hours so
they could meet us because their
youngest had come out and used us
as an example: “Look at Tegan &
Sara, they’re well adjusted-ish and
normal-ish!” You think to yourself,
“That’s why we’re doing this.”
KIYOKO I was one of those! I
would listen to Tegan & Sara in
my car on a road trip and be like,
“If they can do it, I can do it. They
have short hair, I have short hair.
I look just like them.”
QUIN Representation!
KIYOKO Sometimes you get
overwhelmed: I’m not doing
enough, I’m not saying enough.
I just focus on keeping people
alive. If you can inspire hope and give light when people are in that
darkness, they will help you make this world a better place.
MAKONNEN Yeah. I don’t really feel a pressure — more like a
responsibility. [My fans] look up to me and support me, so when
they ask for advice or anything, the least I can do is respond in a
Snapchat message or Instagram. We owe those people. They’ll
come out [to shows], they’ll buy your merch, they’ll sing all your
songs. They really listen to you.
The language around queerness has changed so much over
the years. Many younger artists coming up today embrace
fluidity — they don’t feel the need to label their sexuality or
gender. Does that speak to any of you?
LAMBERT It’s a full-circle thing, because in the ’70s, that was
all over the place. In the ’80s, there was a moment where
androgyny [was trendy] and it was cool to be in the middle.
Look at Boy George in the early ’80s. In the ’70s, look at David
Bowie, look at Freddie Mercury.
FREEDIA Everything circles back around.
LAMBERT [Then] in the late ’80s into the ’90s, people were scared.
We had the AIDS crisis, we had a lot of conservative forces in our
country that freaked everybody out. And then in the ’90s, it started
to explode again. It just does this. So I’m excited about where we’re
at. It’s creating a lot of freedom for people.
QUIN It has made it feel more like a community, too. For a lot of
my career I felt very separate. When Sara and I started identifying
as queer, we took a lot of heat from the lesbian community
because they felt like we were rejecting that word, but for me, it
embodied not just my sexuality, but my gender. I don’t feel super
feminine. It doesn’t mean that I don’t identify with my female
side, but to me, “queer” was a less female-sounding word. And
now it’s so cool to see all these people talking about “smashing
the binary” and “the future is fluid.” I’m all for it — we’re stronger
when we’re not so siloed.
Makonnen, in interviews before you came out publicly, you
embraced that ambiguity: “I don’t want to say I’m gay, I’m
straight, I’m bisexual ... who cares.” Was that easy for you?
MAKONNEN Yeah, because I’m still living and learning. Like, if I
had an experience with a girl last night and I say I’m gay, then what
am I? I didn’t want people to start labeling. Because [if someone
says], “Oh, my friend’s gay,” then it’s, “He can’t come over.” Or:
“She’s a lesbian,” [then others might say], “Well, we don’t want to
hang out.” None of that really matters.
LAMBERT I agree. The fact that your sexuality doesn’t necessarily
indicate your entire identity — it’s an important step that we’re
taking as a society.
FREEDIA They always ask me, “What’s your preferred pronoun?”
And I’m like, “It don’t matter. You can call me ‘he,’ you can
call me ‘she.’ I’m comfortable with who I am, and I’ll answer to
either.” Sometimes I want to be Freedia, sometimes I want to be
Freddie — just depends on how I feel that day. I never let no one
put a label on me. I just live.
KIYOKO I didn’t want a label at all, but once I released my music,
there was this outpour of support for the fact that I did like girls.
I learned that by embracing my label as a lesbian, I was helping
normalize that for so many other people.
Some of you have been out from the beginning of your
career, and some of you came out later. Walk me through
what those decisions were like.
MAKONNEN I came out Jan. 20, 2017 — the day Donald Trump
got inaugurated. [The person] who really inspired me was my
friend Marcus. He passed away in 2017; he was an older gay guy
in Atlanta, and he was black, and [he had] always been out. He
was just so strong and fearless. He was like, “Whenever you’re
ready, I’m here to support you to get your wings and fly.” That’s
what really made me come out in my career, and also a lot of
my fans. I felt like they’ll see a mirror in me. My music goes [to
places] where it’s not supported to come out as gay, [where] your
family will turn their back on you. I just wanted to be the change I
wanted to see in the world.
Adam, you had a very orchestrated coming out in a Rolling
Stone cover story.
LAMBERT It was so weird because I was out already, but that
wasn’t part of the conversation because on American Idol, at
least back then, they weren’t letting you interact with the press.
All I was being asked was: “Why did you choose this song this
week? Who’s your favorite singer?” I look back on it now, and
maybe it would’ve been cool to make a stand and proclaim it,
but it just didn’t come up. After the show ended, all of a sudden
there was all this talk. That’s when [my team and I] decided,
“Why don’t we do this with a responsible journalist who won’t
steer it the wrong way, who’ll ask the right questions?”
You bring up a great point: There’s the personal coming out,
and then there’s often the career coming out. Tegan, did you
and your sister decide to be out from the beginning?
QUIN Sara and I actually didn’t ever come out to each other, and
we didn’t ever talk about being gay. So our coming out was kind
“ THAT YOUR
SEXUALITY
DOESN’T
NECESSARILY
INDICATE YOUR
ENTIRE IDENTITY
— IT’S AN
IMPORTANT STEP
WE’RE TAKING.”
—ADAM LAMBERT
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