Hayley Kiyoko: Your Lesbian Jesus

LGBTQ&A

Jeffrey Masters

Society & Culture

4.7 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2019

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hayley Kiyoko grew up watching the other girls around her as they'd fawn over pop stars; singers who were always male. Kiyoko resolved to be just like those pop stars one day. "I've always loved the attention of women and I never had the attention of women." She wanted that validation, to experience the unrestrained enthusiasm Justin Timberlake inspires.

And now she's achieved just that. Women throwing their bras on stage are a permanent feature of a Hayley Kiyoko show. The singer, known as "Lesbian Jesus" to her fans — a nickname whose origin is unknown, even to her — joins us to talk about feeling unwanted as a youth, how the music industry talks about her queerness, and why it was her fans that helped her fully come out of the closet.

LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1

Transcript

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0:00.0	So last year the Grammy Award nominations came out, and I was kind of amazed.
0:16.3	Two of the eight nominees for Album of the Year were queer, Janelle Monet and Brandy Carlyle.
0:22.6	Two of eight, that's 25%.
0:25.6	And compared to the number of queer artists nominated throughout the 60 plus years of the Grammy Awards, that number 25% is wild.
0:35.6	Now, whether this one stat is going to prove to be an outlier or not,
0:39.1	the truth is that there has never been more openly queer people
0:43.2	making music in the mainstream than there is right now.
0:47.9	And on top of that, I would also argue,
0:50.2	no one is doing what Haley Kiyoko is doing.
0:53.2	No one is making pop music at that level that she's at
0:56.7	that is so explicitly and overtly queer. It's not hidden or coded in her lyrics.
1:04.5	You listen to one song like Feelings, for example, and you instantly know that this is a lesbian
1:10.7	singing about her love
1:12.2	for girls.
1:13.9	So I am very excited to say that Haley Kiyoko is our guest today.
1:17.8	She is leading a revolution on the pop charts, and I can't wait for you to meet her.
1:22.4	From Luminary Media, I'm Jeffrey Masters, and this is LGBTQ and A.
1:35.1	Thank you. I'm Jeffrey Masters and this is LGBTQ and A. I've been wanting to talk to you because I think that you occupy this space in the music industry that nobody else does.
1:41.3	Thank you.
1:42.2	Do you agree with that?
1:42.6	I love occupying space.
1:44.4	I think it's exciting that more and more artists nowadays are just being brave and more open with
	...

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