Billie Eilish's Coming Out Is Giving UWU Lez Energy & I Hate That For Us

Some of the biggest queer news these past few days has been Billie Eilish officially coming out as some form of queer. I...didn't really care to be honest. She said of women in a early November interview with Variety “I love them so much. I love them as people. I’m attracted to them as people. I’m attracted to them for real" then later goes on to say she is physically attracted to them. Great. Awesome.

She has a new album coming out soon and we all know how important the queer dollar is. She has been accused of queerbaiting in the past, and previously said in a TikTok video that she is hella straight, now it seems she has found more of her identity and is on a Sapphic-filled publicity tour which includes being on an episode of Saturday Night Live with Kate McKinnon.

This weekend on the Variety Hitmaker's red carpet, Tiana DeNicola—a queer producer at Variety—asked her about that November cover story. In her response, Billie said she's still scared of girls but thinks they are pretty, that she didn't know people didn't know she was queer 'cos wasn't it obvious, and that she doesn't really believe in coming out.

A few things:

Why are people mad at Tiana? Well, after the event Billie posted to IG and shadily thanked Variety for outing her at 11 AM.

First of all, this is high-key unfair to the journalist. I don't really feel that the November interview was her coming out, but I do think it's unfair to put hate/blame on Tiana who started the line of questioning with something that Billie herself said in her original interview.

She asks if her feelings on whether or not women like her have changed since the response to that interview. Billie's answer included her saying that she thinks "they're pretty" with a giggle. She then asks if Billie meant to come out in the story.

This journalist was not the first one to talk about her queerness since the original story. Publications—especially queer ones (like PRIDE ourselves)—have been talking about it for weeks. This journalist was simply the first one to have the opportunity to ask her directly.

THIS ALSO SHOWS JUST HOW LITTLE ATTENTION Y'ALL PAY TO QUEER MEDIA.

Which gets me into this—Why has queer media been paying attention for weeks? It is not our place to force or demand that celebrities do anything, including announcing their sexuality to the world. But as a community so starved for representation, many celebs know exactly what will happen when they say certain things in interviews. People will speculate, people will write about it, people will drum up a ton of publicity, and some will be hopeful it's true.

When Billie followed her response up with "Wasn't it obvious?" was odd. Shorty, YOU THOUGHT WOMEN DIDN'T EVEN DIG YOU/YOU COULDN'T RELATE TO THEM...SO HOW WOULD WE HAVE KNOWN THAT YOU WERE DYKIN' SOMETIMES?!

Now for my last point—this whole thing with women who are bi saying that they like girls but are so scared to approach them is so fucking tired.

Like—I hate it. I hate it so much.

It's so fucking childish. Using that as an excuse as to why you have never been on a date with, been intimate with, or even said hi to another woman feels like a cop-out, and in some way kind of makes me feel a bit fetishized. It also kinda gives straight cis-men a pass to continue to do the bare minimum in love and relationships, while putting insane expectations on queer women in love and relationships to always do the absolute most.

It also can put masc presenting folks who are dykes or dyke adjacent, to constantly be put in the position of being the chaser instead of also being pursued and romanced. This just sticks us right back on that wheel of patriarchy that white queer women love saying they are so against.

Anyway, welcome to the club Billie your welcome packet is in the mail. Unfortunately, everyone will want to know what L Word character you are and I have to say—it's giving Jenny.

Views expressed in PRIDE’s opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of PRIDE.com or our parent company, equalpride.