I’m still transitioning off Substack. My preference is to have people on Patreon rather than Buttondown or Mailchimp or whatever because I’m already set up on Patreon and have some cool rewards for paying readers. The downside to shifting to Patreon is that
Was a very big Green Day fan for a long time, kinda fell off over the past decade or so but I would occasionally hear about Billie Joe’s queerness and it’s great to see that article and his response but the thing that I’ll always remember, which brings so many obvious things together for me is that, in 2001 (per google) they were on an episode of Behind The Music on vh1 and there was a moment where he talked about one of his songs referencing the idea of questioning one’s sexuality, I don’t remember if he said it was specifically about himself, but what I will never forget is when he said he believes that the idea of questioning/exploring your sexuality is completely normal. The quote is something along the lines of “I think every person, if they’re being honest, has questioned their sexuality at some point” and this was, for me as a teen, kind of a revelation? I remember hearing that and thinking, “wait, really?” That was simply a statement and idea I had never heard uttered before, especially by a dude. That you could explore this and not, just KNOW. Also, me not registering that he was actually queer kinda helped in the moment cuz it was like, oh I can consider this and if it turns out I am straight thats cool too. It was like hearing that I had “permission” to do this because having never heard it, I didn’t think I did! Obviously I had no idea he had ever talked about his sexuality before nor did I have any real understanding of bisexuality at the time but that was a moment that would eventually lead to some uh, significant personal realizations so...yea. Thanks, Billie Joe, keep being awesome.
Was a very big Green Day fan for a long time, kinda fell off over the past decade or so but I would occasionally hear about Billie Joe’s queerness and it’s great to see that article and his response but the thing that I’ll always remember, which brings so many obvious things together for me is that, in 2001 (per google) they were on an episode of Behind The Music on vh1 and there was a moment where he talked about one of his songs referencing the idea of questioning one’s sexuality, I don’t remember if he said it was specifically about himself, but what I will never forget is when he said he believes that the idea of questioning/exploring your sexuality is completely normal. The quote is something along the lines of “I think every person, if they’re being honest, has questioned their sexuality at some point” and this was, for me as a teen, kind of a revelation? I remember hearing that and thinking, “wait, really?” That was simply a statement and idea I had never heard uttered before, especially by a dude. That you could explore this and not, just KNOW. Also, me not registering that he was actually queer kinda helped in the moment cuz it was like, oh I can consider this and if it turns out I am straight thats cool too. It was like hearing that I had “permission” to do this because having never heard it, I didn’t think I did! Obviously I had no idea he had ever talked about his sexuality before nor did I have any real understanding of bisexuality at the time but that was a moment that would eventually lead to some uh, significant personal realizations so...yea. Thanks, Billie Joe, keep being awesome.