Ariana DeBose prefers to identify herself as queer rather than gay. The West Side Story star came out as gay in 2015. She refers to herself as an openly queer woman of color and Afro-Latina who found strength in life through art. Recently, she has officially pushed herself into gay icon status after an awkward performance at the 2023 BAFTA Awards.
Ariana DeBose is an actress, singer, and dancer. She was even a top 20 finalist on season six of So You Think You Can Dance in 2019. She has won several awards, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award nomination. In 2022, Time magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Additionally, she also hosted the 75th Tony Awards in 2022.
Last year, DeBose won an Oscar for her performance in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, but her awkward performance at the 2023 BAFTA Awards recently cemented her status as a gay icon. As a result, fans are curious to know what her sexuality is. Is she gay? Well, let’s find out.
Previously, we learned about the sexual orientation of Sam Smith and Tenzing Norgay Trainor.
Ariana DeBose Identifies Herself as Queer Rather Than Gay: The West Side Story Star’s Sexuality Has Been a Hot Topic Since Her Performance at the BAFTA Awards!
As everyone speculated, Ariana DeBose (@arianadebose) is not straight. However, she prefers to identify herself as queer rather than gay. Gay refers to people who are attracted to people of the same gender. Queer is an all-encompassing term that refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. She is the first openly gay woman and the first Latina to win an individual film award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. She also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first queer woman of color to win an Oscar in an acting category for her role as Anita in West Side Story.
The Schmigadoon! star brought her identity front and center as an actress, referring to herself as an openly queer woman of color and Afro-Latina who found her strength in life through art in her acceptance speech. She has never believed that a label could be used to categorize her, nor has she ever felt the need to claim a label.
But it was in 2015 that the actress first realized she had not had a coming out. However, before coming out into the world, Ariana DeBose wanted to come out to her grandparents. So she called them and told them that, in case they hadn’t noticed, she was interested in both genders.
That also implies she does not identify as a lesbian. When asked how her coming out affected her career, she stated that it had little impact. The only difference was that she was asked to audition for lesbian roles much more frequently. Coming out was a loving and accepting experience for her, and she enjoyed hearing about other people’s similar experiences. Some were sad, but she was glad everyone was trying to live their truth. Her revelation also caused her to be more cautious about what she said in public.
The West Side Story actress had a less-than-ideal prom experience. It happened at a time when she doubted her sexuality. She went to prom with her white heterosexual best friend, Jonathan. While she was there, a girl she had a crush on approached her and asked for a dance. She obliged after Jonathan urged her to. However, as they began to dance together, everyone began to stare at them negatively. This made her feel self-conscious and ashamed, so she stepped back.
Ariana DeBose further attested to the strength of the queer community, sharing that she couldn’t choose just one joyful thing about being LGBTQ+. She also shared her belief that advocacy is joyful, pointing to the way that lesbians and queer women showed up for gay and bisexual men amid the AIDS crisis in the ‘80s. DeBose elaborated on advocacy, stating that those who consider themselves allies must begin to show up in a different, bigger, broader way.
The dancer may have won an Oscar for her performance in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake last year, but after an awkward performance at the 2023 BAFTA Awards, she has officially pushed herself into gay icon status. According to producer Nick Bullen, the Broadway star serve a breathy performance and an original rap saluting this year’s female nominees in an incredible year in film. She had only a few weeks to put everything together. She collaborated with a fantastic musical director and choreographer. She had an incredible team behind her, and she and her team put the puzzle together.
However, the performance did not go as planned, and Ariana DeBose’s rap in particular elicited an immediate social media response. She quickly became a meme, especially the line “Angela Bassett did the thing/ Viola Davis my Woman King/ Blanchett Cate you’re a genius/Jamie Lee you are all of us.”
It’s still unclear whether DeBose is part of the joke or the butt of the joke, but she deleted her Twitter account before finding out. She hasn’t been on Twitter since, but he has commented on a few Instagram memes, including one that says, “Sure grandma, let’s get you to bed.” “Honestly, I love this,” DeBose said in the comments section. We do, too! As one Twitter gay observes, she is quickly becoming the next gay icon.
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