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Sam Smith: ever since I was a child I felt restricted with the male gender assigned to me as a kid. I never saw myself as a man, I saw myself as something in between. Queer people used to want to be treated equal to straight people, now we don't want that, we want to be treated
as queer people. Even with my privileged upbringing I was traumatised as a femme, overweight gay person. It was really really hard.
Making himself a victim to feel special. And not being able to say he's a cross-dressing gay man because that's shameful?
Making himself a victim to feel special. And not being able to say he's a cross-dressing gay man because that's shameful?
Firstly, all people should be equal, being gay or having a gender identity does not give you special privileges to do what you want. Secondly, there's real issues for children here. Sam felt he didn't fit in, he describes being gay as traumatising, and he says the record industry
pressured him age 19 into not wearing makeup or women's clothes as he liked to do sometimes, and put him in suits. He says a trans identity makes him feel finally comfortable, and having people use pronouns he wants validates him. For anyone dealing with LGB children finding
comfort in trans identities this is a useful interview. Finding acceptance through trauma, and also feeling like the body makes sense, Sam deals with his weight issues by saying this is a 'female' part of him. It's worrying this could all be taught in schools as normal, whereas
telling children gay is normal, and getting rid of stereotypes around clothing and makeup can help people like Sam who aren't transsexual, but not happy with being LGB and/or cross-dressers. No one should have to create an identity in response to other people's homophobia.
