Remember that Macklemore song, Same Love? The one about Macklemore growing up and thinking he might be gay?
This Chris Martin story is literally the plot of that song. Let’s see why he used to be “very homophobic,” shall we?
“When I was in the 3rd grade I thought that I was gay ’cause I could draw.”
Nah, that’s a lyric from “Same Love.” But it has the same energy at Chris Martin’s interview with Rolling Stone .
I can’t tell you how much restraint it’s taking to not just copy and paste the whole song into this article.
Anyway…
Chris sat down with Rolling Stone ahead of the release of Coldplay’s new album, Everyday Life to talk about his turbulent teenage years, boarding school, and his “fear” of being gay.
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He talked about his homophobia right off the bat.
“When I went to boarding school I walked a bit funny and I bounced a bit,” he revealed.
I can’t imagine the kind of bullying anyone at a boarding school would have to contend with.
He said he was “homophobic.”
“And I was also very homophobic because I was like, ‘If I’m gay, I’m completely [expletive] for eternity.’ I was a kid discovering sexuality.”
Discovering sexuality and orientation is incredibly confusing, no matter who you are.
He was very hung up on how he used to walk.
“Maybe I’m gay, maybe I’m this, maybe I’m that, I can’t be this’ so I was terrified and then I walked a bit funny.”
I can’t wait until we live in a society where people don’t get bullied for the way they walk .
He was not in good company at school.
“I was in a boarding school with a bunch of quite hardcore kids who were also gone for their thing.”
Aka, he was surrounded by bullies who were determined to gaslight him. For example:
His schoolmates insisted he was gay.
“And, for a few years, they would very much say, ‘You’re definitely gay,’ in quite a full-on manner, quite aggressively telling me that, and it was weird for me for a few years.”
His opinion changed in his mid-teens.
“About 15 and a half, I don’t know what happened,” he said. “I was like, ‘Yeah so what?’ and then it all just stopped overnight. It was very interesting. Once I was like, ‘Yeah, so what if I’m gay.'”
Being around (and seeing) actual gay people opened his eyes.
“Just growing up a bit and having a bit more exposure to the world thinking, ‘A lot of my heroes are gay’ or whatever.”
That just proves that being out and proud helps others accept themselves!
This is true.
“Whatever they are, it doesn’t really matter.”
This kind of acceptance is crucial to making it safe for everyone to live their most authentic lives. It’s a good attitude to have.
That acceptance led to him questioning other areas of his life.
“So what that did was ease a big pressure and then made me question, ‘Hey maybe some of this stuff that I’m learning about God and everything—I’m not sure if I subscribe to all of this particular religion.'”
He figured it out in the end.
“So for a few years, that was a bit wobbly and then eventually I just was like, ‘Okay, I think I have my own relationship with what I think God is’ and it’s not really any one religion for me.”
So…here’s the tea here.
As a gay person, I believe that his thoughts were more focused on how society would treat him if he was gay.
His internalized homophobia was rooted in fear for himself, not fear of the LGBTQIA+ community. In my opinion, anyway.
He’s since become an advocate for the community.
At Coldplay’s 2016 Superbowl Halftime performance, they splashed rainbows all across the stadium. His portion of the show ended with “believe in love” displayed over the audience.
This was especially meaningful given that it took place in San Francisco.
And no, he’s not gay.
Much like our good friend Macklemore, Chris Martin went on to discover that he was straight.
It’s heartening to see that he turned his doubts into advocacy. If only more people had that kind of energy!
