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Nick Jonas Accused Of ‘Queer-Baiting’ At New York Vigil For Orlando

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He’s performed at Pittsburgh Pride, made several shirtless appearances at gay clubs, acted all sultry-like in the occasional gay sex scene, and claimed he’d be “lying” if he said he’d never had sex with men. A handful of editorials published today pointedly suggest Nick Jonas‘ “queer-baiting” hit a fever pitch with his speech at New York’s vigil for the victims of Orlando on Monday night.

Related: Nick Jonas Doesn’t Deny Hooking Up With Guys; Hope Is Alive.

Op-eds from the likes of Huffington Post and Bullett claim his very appearance at the event was nothing but part of a publicity blitz for his new album Last Year Was Complicated, which dropped three days ago.

Related: New Doc Finds Nick Jonas In His Birthday Suit Acting Sheepish In The Shower

In a column titled “Dear Nick Jonas, There’s A Way To Be A Straight Ally. That Wasn’t It,” The Huffington Post‘s Queer Voices deputy editor JamesMichael Nichols writes:

I don’t want to draw too many conclusions about Jonas’ and his team’s intention with this aggressive “queerbaiting.” But one thing is certain: this is not a time for straight allies to take up space — especially if you’re an ally who just dropped an album three days ago.

Now is a time when we, as a community, are mourning the loss of 49 queer and trans brothers and sisters, many of them people of color.

Writing for Bullett, Justin Moran shared a similar sentiment:

You could make the weak argument, here, about the importance of allies like Jonas, but this vigil was in response to a LGBTQ hate crime—the biggest mass shooting in American history—which took place during a latinx night. So having the archetypal all-American Jonas stand before us and express how he’s “humbled” and “grew up on Broadway” was a total insult to the brilliant minds of those we lost—the survivors who have to now live with horrific memories.

Several attendees took to Twitter last night to voice similarly disparaging opinions about Jonas’ appearance:

 

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