“Ooh, she’s fierce. I feel like I’m in New York in the ’80s…you’re doing something to me…This is life!”
It’s not easy to elicit the above reaction from Queen Latifah — especially if you’re a 15-year-old boy.
But leave it to internet queen du jour Brendan Jordan to do just that, and then get Raven of RPDR to say, “He’s too much for me.”
Next she’ll be getting Ru to say, “could you just tone it down a bit?”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Who are we kidding? This queen has Drag Race season 18 written all over her.
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middleagespread
This kid owns his personality. smh
Kieran
Nothing the media loves better than a flaming gay stereotype. Gotta keep those stereotypes alive. So now any boy who prances and sashays before a camera is considered a celebrity?
AtticusBennett
this kid is pure radness.
awwww, look. Kieran is all butthurt! Whats’ the matter Kieran? Upset that this kid is embraced and loved and you were barely tolerated by your own shi**y family no matter how hard you tried to butch it up? You’re the worst kind of gay stereotype: the wimp with no balls who slanders others via anonymous internet comments. We get it – your crappy family and shi**ty friends make fun of “gay stereotypes”, and you never grew the balls to stand up to them. Thanks for sharing.
this kid, this flamingly awesome young kid, is more man than you’ll ever be.
aliengod
@Kieran: I couldn’t agree more. It’s repulsive that this is what we’re constantly portrayed as on television.
Kieran
Calm down Attiticus. We don’t need a hissy fit over a legitimate concern over how gay males are habitually portrayed in the media. I didn’t mean to touch any sensitive nerve with you. I’m all for you or anybody else being as nellie and femme as they want to be, wherever they want. Gays do come in all varieties. I do question however why this boy was invited on the Latifa show rather than the many student athletes across the country who have come out as gay recently or even a gay student activist.
blackberry finn
If he were a little more quick-witted and acerbic, maybe like Sandra Bernhardt, he’d be a super star real quick!!
asby
Now only if Queen Latifah would have the same balls this kid has in being who he is
Nibiru10x
I agree with Kieran and Alien God! humanity has been destroyed with this kid. It’s repulsive seeing him prance around like that. I wanna just throw up.
AtticusBennett
@Kieran: here’s an idea – rather than complaining like a wimp about how you think we’re “portrayed”, why not do what that teenager has done and be visible/ You can post your instagram handle and/or Youtube page here and you can show everyone how “non-stereotypical” are you.
so far we have a bunch of wimpy insecure commenters making anonymous comments about an out and proud teen.
ironic, eh?
we get it – you’re from a shit**y family that denigrates gay people, and you blame teens like Brendan Jordan for their bigotry. it’s not his fault you were raised by pigs.
he’s 15, and already more man than you will ever be. keep making comments about “nellies”. every time you do that what you’re really telling everyone is that your dad is ashamed to have a gay son.
Ummmm Yeah
Oh please if it wasn’t for nelly queens you real men cowards would still be hiding in the closet dreaming about getting fisted instead of it actually happening on a regular basis.
AtticusBennett
fact: every gay man who denigrates “fems” or tries to put down “flamboyant nelly queens” is simply telling the world that their shitty parents resent having a gay son.
gay guys that are actually embraced by their friends and families don’t say things like the s**t Kieran and the other cowards in here are saying. at all.
yup. he’s prancing on tv. and you’re simmering angrily in your closets. guess what? Brendan wins.
adventuretime
@Kieran: I’m gonna go out on a limb here (not really) and say that this really does not have much to do with the fact that he’s gay, and more to do with the fact that he’s a personality.
TV likes interesting people–loud, flamboyant, expressive, interesting, meme-worthy people. Gay or straight, man or woman. As great as gay student activists and athletes are, when you put them in front of a camera (when you put MOST people in front of a camera), they’re usually boring. For better or worse (meaning it’s just how the world works), that kind of person is not gonna garner great ratings and viral publicity. This kid will.
Kim Kardashian is a personality. Kanye West is a personality. Russell Brand is a personality. Britney Spears is a personality (or maybe an eerie lack of one, which is what makes her interesting). Snooki is a personality. Willam, Raven, Detox (and all the other RuPaul queens) are personalities. And so is this kid. All kinds of backgrounds. It has nothing to do with his sexuality (because if so, gay people would be all over television and we KNOW that’s not the case)–it has to do with the fact that he’s larger than life, and people eat it up.
AtticusBennett
to any commenters who are upset that this kid is on TV: show us who you are. can’t do it? didn’t think so. *NEXT*
gauty
@AtticusBennett: It is UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE how grown men will disparage a fifteen-yo kid for being queeny, which makes them sound exactly like the kind of bullies that would have pushed him into a locker 25 years ago. Disgusting. Everybody deserves representation, and I always found this argument so hypocritical because people will always complain! Either gays in fictional media are portrayed as too manly and heterosexual-looking, so that means the writers must be scared to write “real” gay characters, or they are portrayed as too flamboyant and effete, so it must be minstrelsy and stereotyping ridicule. That way, there’s always one type of gay guy for other self-loathing gay guys to shit on.
This kid is beyond precious, and I’m happy for him he’s getting all this attention. WERQ.
Also, Lohantony WISHES
jantheman4903
am a fem or i was growing up..and he just irritates me. love my effeminate friends..anyone real. but he and those people gay or straight who are always “on” and are a persona-hiding behind an act, not a person just exhaust me and irritate me. i just think hes kind of a snot lol. nothing to do with masculinity. i think christian bale is a snot too..hes fairly masculine. that said i would never discourage his behavior or ask him to change it.
AtticusBennett
@gauty: it’s jealousy on their part. know what these cowards in here see in Brendan Jordan? they see what they need to “not be” in order for their shitty (likely republican) families to tolerate them. so they get angry. because this kid is loved for who he is, while this site’s anonymous complaining wimps are barely even loved, no matter how hard they try to be something else.
JerseyMike
Ewww… This narcissistic behavior isn’t attractive… Watch him in original video and his behavior was horrible..
gauty
@JerseyMike: What the fuck is so horrible about mugging it for the camera? As a teenage kid? Kindly fuck off 🙂
JerseyMike
Kiss my ass!!!
JerseyMike
@gauty:AGAIN.. HIS MY ASS!!!
pjm1
Seems to me that Brendan (for the most part) is being
who he is and that authenticity comes through (most of the
time) — he is acting out a bit and having fun at that.
All the Michael Sam coverage is another side of the same coin.
Be who you are!
musctop
Geez lighten up ladies–he’s a kid and he’s all over the place personality-wise just like every kid his age. Nobody believes he’s that way 24/7. He’s got his 15 minutes and he’s using every single one like a boss. Good for him. School, job and life will tone all that down for him soon enough. I hope he has a blast while he can.
Kieran
@AtticusBennett: If you’re supposed to be an example of a happy, well-adjusted gay man, why do you sound like you’re simmering with barely contained rage and anger? This is supposed to be an open forum for the free exchange of views, ideas and opinions within the gay community. You don’t have to agree with me or I with you, but why all the childish name-calling and rabid hostility?
iggy6666
@AtticusBennett: Christ……you’re still whining about the same shit?!?!
iggy6666
@aliengod: don’t forget the tirades against being anonymous
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Yep, fucking embarrassing. Nope, not because he’s turbo-fem — he’s got an act and it’s not a very good one and even less an original one. He adds fucking zero to the culture. Now, Quentin Crisp or Truman Capote OTOH are fem gay men I could get behind…(ahem).
james_in_cambridge
It amazes me how closeted Queen Latifah is without really being closeted, if that makes any sense. She’s clearly gay friendly, doing “stories” like this and performing at Gay Pride but she seems to have trouble saying “I’m gay” because she won’t answer when asked, she just beats around the bush, so to speak. She doesn’t seem ashamed so what is it? Maybe she fears not getting anymore (bad) movie roles?
james_in_cambridge
@musctop: None of that changes the fact that Atticus is right about you right-wing closet cases here at Queerty.
Kangol
Work Little Miss Thing!
This child could give anyone pointers on being herself or himself, including King Latifah (hint hint).
I also love that his family affirms who he is.
Nixter
Gosh, he’s just a mini Richard Simmons, isn’t he?! Yuck. I find the effeminacy so unattractive, and embarrassing.
Gaius
He was cute. 🙂
Saint Law
@musctop: I can’t believe I just agreed with Masc.
A lot of peops on here seem to be responding to him with all the squeamish overkill of teenagers themselves and not as grown men.
Listen, up, gals, he says NOTHING about you – good or bad. He’s fifteen years old and his own special creation. So cut him some slack FFS.
homieshelphomies
@Saint Law: Amen
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
i don’t criticise this young, um, boy so much as I do the suits deeming it worthy of air time; or the culture — or rather, in homage to those other nadir points of modern civilisation I should probably say”Kulture” — that accepts this threadbare drek. This is akin to asking a black person on a chat show for no other reason than to “act all black” for the muggles.
Large Marge
Is he a screaming queen? Yup. Is he happy with himself? Yup. He wins.
We gays come in all shapes and size and personalities. He’s a performer. How much is real and how much is an act might be up for debate, tho it seems his mama knows this is who he is and wants to be and that’s damn cool.
He certainly has a personality and talent for attention. He’d make a damn good drag queen on RuPaul’s Drag Race in 5 years. (that’s season 11 for ya’ll mathematically challenged)
He’s exactly the person I want performing on the stage because he’s fun to me. All the best personalities are larger than life and usually it’s an exaggeration that does it.
Kid is going places and good on him.
The rest of you whiners can wank off.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Sorry Sistren but ya’ll need to know that exaggerated homosexuality isn’t a substitute for a personality let alone actual talent — that road leads to “coonery.” But it can sometimes be a wonderful accompaniment to those good things.
IvanPH
Over the top scream queens should realize that people are not laughing with them but AT them. This diva wannabe just took gay stereotypes to a whole new level. What an utter embarrassment to the LGBT community,
bottom72
To all the men putting this wonderful teen down please stop it. We flamboyant queens are part of the gay community. In this time when we are trying to stand together for gay rights don’t let your prejudices divide the gay community. You need are incredible strength to help with this fight. Yes we flamboyant gay men are incredibly strong we know when we leave the house that we we will be looked down by both the gay and straight community but we carry on being ourselves because we love who we are. We gay men have gone through many of the same struggles but we are all individuals and should be proud of who we are be it very butch or incredibly effeminate.
Hugs sweethearts
llemmonn
All you embarrassed people with one leg still in the closet need to watch Panti Bliss speech (again). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXayhUzWnl0
“Have you ever been on a crowded train with your gay friend and a small part of you is cringing because he is being SO gay and you find yourself trying to compensate by butching up or nudging the conversation onto “straighter” territory? This is you who have spent 35 years trying to be the best gay possible and yet still a small part of you is embarrassed by his gayness.
And I hate myself for that. And that feels oppressive. And when I’m standing at the pedestrian lights I am checking myself.”
musctop
@james_in_cambridge: Uhh–right wing? WRONG. Closeted? WRONG AGAIN. Live and let live? ALWAYS.
AtticusBennett
@Kieran: simple: there are things that only wimps like you say, and you only say it anonymously – like a true coward. an openly gay 15 year old is living out loud, and embracing himself, and you sit like a total loser and slander him, on the internet. you’re a wimp. and this kid is golden.
AtticusBennett
fun fact – every single guy in here who denigrated this teenager just admitted to everyone that their own families hate having a gay son. gay men who are accepted don’t say the things you cowardly little losers are saying.
so every time you log on to anonymously vent your anger about “flamboyant stereotypical flamers” understand that we ALL KNOW that what you’re really saying is “My daddy won’t tolerate me if i behaved like that”
grow some balls. or keep coming here every day to prove the rest of us right. cowards.
stranded
@llemmonn: If that’s part of the speech then that’s a horrible message. “He is being SO gay?” Wtf does that mean? That person is equating effeminate behavior with homosexuality. I personally find that dangerous. If you’re fem, that’s cool, but that’s part of your personality not your sexuality. Also we have to be mindful of fem behavior and just rude diva bullshit. I have a friend, well he’s part of my circle of friends and he’s fem but also loud and a bit obnoxious and that’s when i get embarrassed by him. The need for attention, the inability to censor yourself in public, that’s what’s embarrassing. The crossdressing, makeup and feminine mannerisms, i couldn’t care less.
As far as this kid goes, he seems to be brimming with self confidence and that’s heartwarming. In the original video he was playing up for the cameras and he’s keeping it up for the Queen Latifah interview. He’s getting a lot of positive reaction to his personality and behavior,which is great at first but he’s 15 and impressionable and media attention sometimes turns people into freak shows. That’s my main worry for him. I hope his parents keep him grounded and don’t lose him to the media spotlight that eventually chews everyone up and spits them out.
Silas Wegg
@AtticusBennett: Chill out, Jesus. There’s more than one way to be self-loathing. Don’t act like you know everyone’s family secrets. They’re anonymous anyway, right?
spiffy
There is something disingenuous about this kid’s act — and yes, it’s an act — which is probably why he didn’t get booked on bigger shows, like Ellen for example.
iggy6666
@AtticusBennett:if by facts you mean complete bullshit. Then you’re full of them.
reece99
Good god people. We read the papers and watch the tea baggers and wonder where all the hate comes from. You should be supporting are people, whether they are fems, lipstick lesbians, straight acting, or hanging from the ceiling with fur. The stereotype is US! whether you like it or not. It is “who he is”. If he can make a buck at it, let him. When I was his age being gay, any kind of gay, could and would get you killed.
Kieran
@AtticusBennett You have obvious emotional problems and anger management issues. I hope you get the help you need. Not everybody in life is going to pat you on your head and think of you as a “little darling” who can do no wrong and shits rainbows like your mommy and daddy apparently did with you. Get over yourself. People are getting tired of your spoiled brat temper tantrums.
level75RDM
@stranded: I don’t think the drag queen in the video necessarily agrees that flamboyant behavior is inherently gay. But the reality is that is what some of the greater public does believe. And when people see a guy that camps it up, they’re likely going to assume the guy is gay, whether it’s true or not.
The Chinese Exclusion Act, for example, was justified on the basis that Asians were just too different to assimilate into Western culture. In hindsight, that justification is ridiculous and we all know it was just go ol’ fashion anti-immigrant sentiments.
Just like in this case. People are going to find any reason they can to make minorities “them” and not “us.” That’s just how oppression works.
As for this kid and any gays bent out of shape over yet another feminine portrayal of gay men- you guys obviously haven’t experienced being a minority for very long. Sometimes, I believe homophobic gays just miss having white privilege.
AtticusBennett
@Kieran: grow a pair, coward. @level75RDM: “Sometimes, I believe homophobic gays just miss having white privilege.”
BOOM! YES!
degaulle
Queen Latifah is totally sweet in this, love how supportive she is of him.
amonjay
Registered just to defend this kid, I thought at first it was an issue with my country but it looks like the gay community in general is plagued with homophobes. How can we hope to ever get respected if we can’t even begin to respect each other’s differences for starters? I’m a very discrete guy, not because I hate effeminate gays but it’s the way I was raised, it’s part of my personality, it’s easy for guys like me to avoid homophobic reactions but being so outspoken and flamboyant as this kid takes serious courage or with luck, a very loving and understanding family environment, a luxury many can’t afford and life is a constant struggle against hate. That said we should be embracing this as positive portrait of our DIVERSITY as people, not as a stereotype because this is only one of many facets of ourselves and everyone deserves to be loved.
this kid is FABULOUS 🙂
rickhfx
He is interesting, the only thing thats unexceptable is boring, He sure in not boring,
AtticusBennett
@amonjay: YOU kick ass. well done. Unlike the cowards in here who are blaming this kid for the fact that their families are anti-gay misogyistic pieces of s**t, you totally see the strength this kid has to be who he is. rock on. you nailed it.
curtis
@AtticusBennett: . you’re a complete TOOL!!!! From what I can see most people remain faceless on here, not because they’re ” cowards”. But because they don’t thrive off attention and feel the need to have their own blog, make youtube videos, . Hell you probably even created your own facebook fan page…….. which I’m sure is followed by your devoted fans- mum and dad. Your welcome for the added visitor count on the blog. It was rather predictable. Selfies and rants against everyone and their dog.
AtticusBennett
@curtis: you sound like one of those guys who refers to others as “sluts”, simply because you couldn’t’ get laid if you tried. 🙂
i share what i share because i have the ability to do so, and in a world where so many gay men are terrified of being Out, being known as gay, and talking about the issues that relate to our communities, i do that – from a place of visibility.
here’s the reality, wimp: the guys denigrating the 15 year old in this story, from a place of anonymity, are cowards. plain and simple.
Maude
@Kieran:
We use to call them “Swishy Faggots” and never NEVER allowed them to be seen with
‘normal’ queers in public.
Now I don’t know weather to laugh or cry.
We all owe the ‘swishy faggots’ a huge debt. It is they who had/have the courage to demonstrate when the rest of us stayed in the closet for fear of losing our jobs, and more.
I doubt we would have come even half the distance we have without them.
Somewhere, someday, I hope there will be a statue in honor of all those
who had the courage, and I hope the statue is posed just like the photo
top of Brendan.
frubino
his mouth is like farting ass, stupid boy