In an effort to build a space for queer people like myself, every Saturday (switching things to Saturday) I’ll be posting interviews, opinion pieces, listicles, reviews, and more focused on the LGBT community from a Latina perspective. Welcome to Queerly Not Straight! Enjoy and leave a comment below if you have a suggestion for what I should cover next.
P.S. I, Lyra Hale, do not give any site permission to copy or repost my work in any form. If you are reading this on any site besides Fangirlish, it has been stolen.
Troye Sivan has come far from his “Happy Little Pill” and “Blue Neighborhood” days. And I feel like a proud gay auntie who gets asked about her family and then she whips out her phone to show off pictures of her queer nieces and nephews. But my gay nephew is Troye Sivan. And watching his music video for “Rush” made me so happy and proud of the artist and young man that he has become in the face of a world like the one that we live in today, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ individuals.
Admittedly, I didn’t expect “Rush” to make me cry. I mean, the first scene of this music video is a spanked red ass cheek. That’s not enough to make me cry. It is enough for that person to cry because there is pleasure in pain. But that’s a whole other conversation. And even as the music video went on and you saw Sivan in his tighty whities which ended up being a jock strap I didn’t cry. But once the celebration started and the dancing got into full swing, I couldn’t help but cry at the liberation and joy that I could see Sivan experiencing but also everyone else in this music video.
In a way it made me self-reflect. Twenty years ago something like this would have never been possible. This wouldn’t have aired on MTV and studios might have never given it a chance. Now, even in the midst of a world that is still trying to crush who we are as LGBTQ+ people, here comes Sivan with a music video that is unapologetically queer and filled with so much joy, love, and freedom of self-expression. You could see it in the clothes worn, the dancing together between all sorts of couples, and the way they came together to just relax, drink, and laugh together.
Now, there will be some people who will call out this music video or Sivan’s behavior as degenerate. But what the fuck is Sivan doing besides dancing with a bunch of friends, wearing whatever the fuck he wants, and hanging out with people that light him up from the inside out. There is no degeneracy here. There is freedom and love grounded in an acknowledgment that we are here to stay and are real. And there is nothing that those complaining can do to destroy our spirit or our joy.
Whatever Troye Sivan is going to do next, I really hope that he keeps this exact vibe in his work. A vibe where he isn’t toeing the line of being a queer man. I hope he continues to catapult over that line and brings everyone along with him. Because we need artists like him to keep us grounded in who we are and the fact that who we love isn’t wrong. It’s absolutely right and we are more than ready to explore how this love changes us for the better and how in a lot of ways we’re just like everyone else. We want to do that bullshit where we live, laugh, and love. And if we do that while wearing a sparkly dress, a jockstrap, or chaps. That’s no one’s fucking business but ours.
Still having watched Troye Sivan’s new music video “Rush”? Watch it below!
Queerly Not Straight posts every Sunday with opinion pieces, listicals, reviews, and more focused on the LGBT community (and occasionally about the Latinx community since I am Latinx.)
Like, goddamm! I am exactly with you. I felt so happy seeing him like this since I’ve been with him for quite a while. :)))
I found this article fortuitously and I’m beaming cheek to cheek )and I’m the guy that NEVER writes comments on anything.
:))) I feel the rush!