USA TODAY International Edition
JoJo Siwa’s coming out will inspire young fans
There is nothing quite like watching online superstar JoJo Siwa lip- sync the lyrics to “Born This Way.” Though the 17- year- old hadn’t “officially” come out yet as a member of the LGBTQ community – that wouldn’t be until days later – she mouthed the lyrics to Lady Gaga’s queer anthem on TikTok. Her signature bow, this time a white one with rainbows, bounced as she bopped along. The energy and excitement emanated effortlessly.
But it’s not effortless. Her platform reaches millions of followers. She announced, “I’m the happiest that I’ve ever been, and that’s what matters” in a coming- out video, and it was a triumph.
Siwa’s target audience is preteens and younger. That means many children will now see someone they look up to living their true queer selves and happy about it – something I never experienced as a child.
I didn’t have any meaningful LGBTQ role models growing up ( unless you count Spongebob, but that remains up for debate). I can count a handful of characters who were queer – Bianca on “All My Children,” Damian on “Mean Girls,” Marco on “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” to name a few. Lance Bass, who rose to fame in 1995, didn’t come until 2006 at age 27, and Miley Cyrus wouldn’t come out as pansexual until I was in my 20s, for example.
That’s no knock on celebrities themselves. Attitudes about the LGBTQ community have changed for the better since the mid- 1990s, though that doesn’t mean discrimination has disappeared. LGBTQ people still are not legally protected from discrimination; the HIV stigma is still very real; Laverne Cox and a friend suffered a transphobic attack in Los Angeles.
It’s no wonder that LGBTQ celebrities of that era didn’t explicitly come out at a young age – and therefore no wonder I didn’t come out until much later myself. Without such examples of seeing ourselves onscreen, we’re less likely to want to express ourselves in real life.
I can’t help but think back to Kate McKinnon’s speech about Ellen DeGeneres at the Golden Globe Awards last year. McKinnon was coming to grips with her sexuality and Ellen was there to help. DeGeneres came out in 1997 when she was 39.
“The only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV,” McKinnon said at the time. “She risked her entire life and her entire career in order to tell the truth, and she suffered greatly for it. Of course, attitudes change, but only because brave people like Ellen jump into the fire to make them change. And if I hadn’t seen her on TV, I would’ve thought ‘ I could never be on TV. They don’t let LGBTQ people on TV.’ And more than that, I would’ve gone on thinking that I was an alien and that I maybe didn’t even have a right to be here.”
Siwa has not yet put a label on herself, nor must she. This could be helpful for even more kids who may not know what to call themselves.
“Somebody asked, ‘ What label are you?’ You know, I have thought about
this, and the reason why I’m not ready to answer is because I don’t really know this answer,” she said in her coming- out livestream.
“I think humans are awesome. I think humans are really incredible people. I right now am super- duper happy and I want to share everything with the world, I really do, but I also want to keep things in my life private until they’re ready to be public.”
Coming out for anyone can be a difficult process, rife with confusion, anxiety and second- guessing. For a celebrity, the potential backlash is even worse. Siwa in particular has an adoring fanbase: What if these fans or their parents recoil?
Nickelodeon, for its part, is on Siwa’s side: “Never been more proud,” the network’s Instagram page wrote.
Siwa signed a talent deal with Nickelodeon in 2017.
Fans quickly noted the potential impact of Siwa’s coming out. “JoJo Siwa coming out is so important ... her audience is younger and kids being able to look up to someone that’s NOT straight could help them discover themselves and hopefully make future generations even more open- minded,“@ sisterariola wrote.
@ bridgetsrose added: “( Siwa) coming out at what could be considered the peak of her career when her audience is mostly kids is such a power move and I respect her so much for that.”
She’s on the right track, baby, she was born to be brave.
“I want to share everything with the world ... but I also want to keep things in my life private until they’re ready to be public.” JoJo Siwa