Ever since the legalization of same sex marriage in the U.S, lots of celebrities and singers have been coming out and embracing themselves as a part of LGBT+ community. Recently, a pop singer who got viral from Youtube, Greyson Chance came out to the public through his Instagram post on July 20.
Greyson Chance is a 19-year-old singer who got an instant fame after his performance of Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’ at a sixth-grade music festival got viral with over 59 Million views as of today. That viral video got him a chance to appear in Ellen DeGeneres Show, and a record deal shortly afterward with his debut single “Waiting Outside The Lines” and his debut album “Hold On ‘Til The Night”.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWvYc54Hc51/?taken-by=greysonchance&hl=en
For me personally, this is such an exciting and wonderful news coming from this young singer and for a lot of people too, I believe. But from 21.2K comments in that Instagram post, there are lots of hate comments coming from Indonesians, I know since they are commenting with Bahasa Indonesia and I’m also from Indonesia and believe me those comments are really horrible, most of them are mocking his decision, some are even praying for him so he would ‘convert back to straight’, like what the hell?
Greyson himself has a pretty big fanbase in Indonesia, he has had few concerts here since his first album, with lots of teenage girls who idolize him.
Anyway, reading those hate comments makes me feel uneasy and somehow disgusted. How can someone who came out and stop hiding who he really is, get so much hate from people? I wish I could show you how hateful the comments are but it would take longer and I would have to translate those comments.
So here’s what I want everyone to know: coming out is not an easy task, it’s even hard for some people. I can’t imagine how disappointed and unhappy Greyson would be if only he knew what are those Indonesians commenting on his Instagram coming out post. And it’s great for Greyson if his family and friends are supporting him, but if not? this must be really hard especially with all those mean, hateful comments those Indonesians have said to him.
Although not every Indonesians are close minded, I must admit that Indonesia, in general, is still pretty conservative and really valuing their tradition and religion over anything else. Indonesian people are really lacking tolerance when it comes to things that forbidden by religions especially LGBT+. It truly saddens me how child marriage is still more acceptable here while being gay or transgender mean you would be shunned from the society. Even though being gay here isn’t illegal (except in Aceh that implemented Sharia Law), but this country, the people especially really have zero tolerance to LGBT, it’s like as if being gay has bigger sin than murder.
As an Indonesian myself, I am really ashamed with what those close-minded Indonesians have said to Greyson’s post. I really wish Indonesians could think that it doesn’t matter what others sexuality are, I wish they could see that we are the same human beings who deserve respect and start accepting that things have changed and that people everywhere are starting to see that being gay is okay, and I believe with a more open-mindedness from them, Indonesia could be a more advanced country since I know a lot of people here are still burdened over ideology and tradition. If changing your views could make you better, why don’t you do it?
