Todrick Hall Opens Up About What It's Like to be a Black Queer Man in America

Todrick Hall is famous for appearing on Broadway, going viral with dazzling music videos and sashayed all over reality competition shows. But Todrick Hall spoke to Billboard about how he is still fighting for his place in the industry, where he says racism and homophobia linger, while owning to his past "mistakes."

Hall spoke about how felt joining the recent peaceful protests, saying,"There were so many white people there with shirts that said 'Black Lives Matter'...I expected there to be a ton of Black people, but I was not expecting to feel so supported by so many people who live so many different lives and represent so many colors of the rainbow...I never felt more important in my life than I did sitting in that crowd where nobody knew who I was."

Hall discusses why he still feels like an outsider in the industry and shares that,"People have put me on a pedestal and think that I am signed to a label and that I have management. I am blown away by their ignorance on how the industry works...I am flattered that my team and I have been able to make people believe that we are on that same level."

Hall also discusses receiving comments from internet "trolls," "I feel that the hate I receive on the internet comes mostly from people of color and people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. It's almost like we like complaining about the fact that there isn't enough representation, but then when the representation in there and it doesn't come in the exact package or the exact size the we wished it had been, we bash that as well."

Billy Porter shared what moves him about Hall, saying, "The thing that moves me the most about Todrick is that he represents the thing that my generation fought for, which is a Black man who could be gay and out in the music industry... We need to learn to love ourselves first so that we can teach the rest of the world how to treat us. That's what I did. That's what Todrick does."

Taylor Swift revealed that he inspired her to be more vocal about LGBTQ equality."From day one, Todrick has always been very honest with me about his life and his experiences as a gay man of color...He never felt the need to edit who he is around me or be a different version of himself. I think that unapologetic sense of self is also what people connect to in his work. He's just Todrick. He's never EVER going to even attempt to be anyone else."

Read the original article on Billboard.

Photo Credit: Vijat Mohindra