The majority of LGBTQ+ young people agreed that they go online to connect with others because it is difficult to do so in their daily lives, with 38% somewhat agreeing and 36% strongly agreeing,
I was always the pretty little boy in the corner of the playground, plaiting girls' hair, dreaming of spotlights. My flamboyance didn't seem to have an off switch. Dad tried his best to steer me into his version of a proper boyhood: football boots, muddy knees, the whole shebang. He'd tap my limp wrists into place and drag me to self-defence lessons in an attempt to turn them into karate chops.
The lyrical register of pop music demands imagery that's direct and broadly relatable, the kind of message that can be easily understood over a thudding bass line. So too does gospel, where the communion arrives not on Saturday night at the club but at a service the next morning. In either case, the roof might get blown off, and in a moment of mass worship, you're able to believe for a few minutes at a time in a collective euphoria.
