As LGBTQ commentator Leo Herrera pointed out, “The Satan lap dance is going to mean the same for little gay boys today as the hallway walk in ‘ Justify My Love‘ did for us”-or for my generation, when Frankie said “Relax” on the radio and Boy George thanked the Grammys for honoring a drag queen. The repurposing of religious imagery may be considered a healing act.Īnd in context, it’s astonishing: Here is one of the biggest young pop stars in the world, with an unfathomable global platform, doing a fabulous pole dance in hell while sporting thigh high patent leather boots and fuchsia braids. A friend who works for a suicide hotline said that the phones light up after statements like the Vatican’s, with young people feeling worthless and trapped in their homes.
The Pope’s anti-gay words can cause real damage. All of this writhing snakes-in-the-CGI-garden may seem a bit sophomoric rebellion 101, and if it wasn’t for the infectious prankster energy and hilarious social media comebacks the “Old Town Road” singer brings to it all, the familiar queer detournement of Biblical tropes could cause some older gay eyes to roll.īut not all of us have shaken off the shackles of religious oppression, or found a way to live with them.
