It’s Pride Month #20GayTeen and there’s no better way to celebrate Pride Month than to read about celebrities who have recently opened up to the world about their sexuality. Following an interview with Wonderland, Amandla Stenberg wrote a lengthy Instagram post about the beauty of her sexuality—and we stan Stenberg’s personal Pride moment (and Stenberg in general).
In her Insta post, she writes, “ OUT & PROUD. So happy to say the words Yep, I’m Gay in official print. Interviewed for @wonderland by someone I stan infinitely—the fiercest garbagio pop queen @kingprincess69. Thank you to KP for providing me with such a safe space to come out. We talk about gay sobbing, first encounters with lesbian masturbation, queer icons, Toni Morrison, disillusionment as a critical step, the art I’ve been working on, and the films that I have coming out this year. Full interview on newsstands now and available online Monday.”
Honestly, we can’t decide if we’re crying because Stenberg’s post about her sexuality is bringing up some nostalgia from when we first came out to ourselves (and practiced coming out to our poster of Casey Ventura before we told any of our friends) or if we’re sobbing because Stenberg’s rainbow-toned hairstyle coupled with her unique post is the perfect Pride moment. But we’re ecstatic that Stenberg felt comfortable enough to share this moment will all her fans and followers.
BET notes that during the actual Wonderland interview (which came out online today), Stenberg said, “I’m grateful for how being gay has afforded me this ability to experience and understand love and sex, and therefore life, in an expansive and infinite way.” Can we please have more positive conversations about gay sex, please and thank you?
After all, talking candidly about gay sex and LGBTQ+ sex education will help destigmatize the unnecessary stigmas around gay and queer sex. Stenberg’s interview will likely drive more mindful discussions about gay sex, which is vital. According to a long-term study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), young people who identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, statistically, have more sex than their straight peers. While sex and sexuality can be important, there are limited sex education resources for LGBTQ+ teens, which can have obviously harmful consequences on their sexual health, sexual literacy and overall self-esteem. After all, sex education can lead to safer sex, but the LGBTQ+ community kind of needs to know how to have safe sex for us to get to that safer part. (Which would've been nice to have a lesson on how sex actually works that doesn't involve men and women genitalia, or penetration in general. Because sex isn't a universal language, and it shouldn't be treated as such.)
In her Wonderland interview, Stenberg adds, “The continual process of unlearning heteronormativity and internalized homophobia can be difficult, but one of the biggest blessings lies in the magic that comes from having to understand love outside the confines of learned heterosexual roles.” Unlearning all the ignominy that heteronormatively innately puts on members of the LGBTQ+ community can seem like a never-ending crash course on how to be shamelessly gay that nobody gave you notes or study guides for. However, you can love your sexuality and every ounce of your identity once you realize that you can have your own version of The Notebook’s iconic love story—that isn’t simultaneously fetishized and underrepresented because of your sexuality (seeing as it’s your love story after all).