India  

Troye Sivan Shares His Favorite Queer Icons

Video Credit: THEM - Duration: 05:28s - Published
Troye Sivan Shares His Favorite Queer Icons

Troye Sivan Shares His Favorite Queer Icons

Singer Troye Sivan breaks down his favorite icons in queer culture and their impact on his life.

From Marsha P.

Johnson to Princess Dianna, Troye explains how these people have become beacons of light for the LGBTQ community.

See Troye Sivan in 'Boy Erased' in theaters everywhere.

- Hey, I'm Troye Sivan, andthese are my queer icons.First up is Marsha P.

Johnson.To me, Marsha is thekind of ultimate symbolof queer kind of resilience and resistanceand the ultimate kinda queer icon.Marsha was at the forefrontof the Gay Liberation Movementand the Stonewall Riots in 1969.Every time we celebrate Pride,we're celebrating Marsha and her legacyand her fight for allof us to be able to livemore openly and freely.And I think one of the biggest tragediesabout Marsha's story isthat, for whatever reason,it's sort of been pushed asideand doesn't get spoken aboutnearly as much as it should.She's kind of one of theunsung icons of our community.For people like me to even exist today,there had to be people like Marsha,and I'm just forever in debt.Next up is RuPaul.Drag Race the show haspermeated mainstream culturein a way that I really didn't expect,and I really really just appreciate it.I think that the showhas great intentions.It's just spreading a messageof love and acceptanceand kinda celebratingqualities in their contestantsthat I think a lot of their contestantswould've struggled with growing upand I know I struggled with growing up.To have a show put that ona stage and make that funand so admirable and tosee people being so free,it's really, it's like mega inspiring.Like everyone watches Drag Race.Doesn't matter kind of whoyou are, how you indentify,who you love, whatever.It's a good show,and I think that thathas real value, you know?I think it humanizes the LGBT experiencefor a lot of people.Next up is Peter Staley.I watched a documentary calledHow to Survive a Plague.It's all about thisactivism group called Act Upthat were in New Yorkduring the HIV/AIDS crisis.Peter Staley is kind ofthe lead in the movieand one of the people thatthey profiled in the film.It was honestly like alife-changing moment for mebecause they weren'tjust kinda fighting tobe accepted by their familyor be accepted by the people around them,which is obviously a huge huge deal,but it was literally a matterof life or death medically.They were trying to get the governmentto pay attention to this epidemicthat was tearing apart our community,and no one was paying any attention.There's this really reallygnarly scene in the moviewhere they took the ashesof their past friendsand past loved onesand threw them on thelawn of the White House.I'm just so grateful thatthey were there to do thatand they kind of rose to that challengeso that hopefully mygeneration won't have to.Next up is Princess Diana.She was a huge HIV advocatewhen that was not the done thing,especially not for a royal.There's this moment that'sa super famous momentwhere she went in and she metwith somebody who had HIV,and this was at the pointwhere no one really knew muchabout the disease and peoplewere afraid to touch peoplewho had HIV just in case itwas transferrable in that way.And she went in, andthis was the princess,and she shook this patient's hand.It was just such a gestureof opening her heart upand the country's heartand the world's heartto people who werestruggling with the disease,and I really appreciate her doing that.And then as well, she's a fashion icon,which is a whole separate thing.Elton John, for me,is one of the firstqueer people I remember.I remember being veryconscious of the factthat he was not straight,and that was kind of mind blowing to me.And then I had thiscrazy full circle momentwhere Elton interviewedme for Out Magazine.We just chatted on the phone for an hour.He told me that he reallyliked one of my songs,and I just got to kind of pickhis brain about everythingfrom music to being anLGBT artist back thenversus being an LGBTartist now and family,and he was just super super openand has always just kind of beena loud LGBT voice in my life.And I needed that as akid, so I appreciate him.Next up is Miley Cyrus.This one is for a very specific reason.When I was younger,I used to lock myself in myroom and go on private browsingand Google gay people or whateverand try to kind of educate myselfon who I thought I might be.I also loved Miley Cyrus at the time,and she released this songcalled My Heart Beats for Love.She was very Disney at thetime and said in an interviewthat it was for her gay best friend.She was dedicating itto her gay best friend.I just remember being like, oh my god,she could not be cooler,and I so badly wished that Iwas Miley Cyrus' best friend.Just thinking if thisperson that I so admirewho's so successful, ifshe can be cool with this,then who else can be?It really was just a littlehug and a pat on the backfrom my queen at the time,and I just needed it.It was really nice.I didn't know any queerpeople growing up at all.I think I met my first queerfriend was I was probably 17.It can be extremelylonely as an LGBT persongrowing up in an environment like that,and to have these people to turn toeven through the formof just a Google searchor something like thatis I think imperative tothe survival of our youth.And yeah, they all just kind of helped mefind a sense of self andmade me feel seen and heard,and I'm forever indebted to all of them.I'm Troye.These have bene my queer icons.Let me know who yours are.




You Might Like