Steve Lacy Never Felt the Need to Come Out Publicly: ‘I Think It’s Silly’

The process of coming out is personal for each individual queer person who makes the leap to tell the world about themselves. For Steve Lacy, his coming out process was simply “silly.”

In a new cover story for Variety, Lacy opened up about how he publicly came out … or rather, how he didn’t really mean to publicly come out. After answering a fan’s question on Tumblr in 2017 saying that he would date a guy, Lacy recalls seeing headlines that he had come out as bisexual.

“I didn’t really come out,” the singer said of the sudden attention. “I didn’t try to — it just kinda happened. I don’t care to announce who I’m into sexually. I think it’s silly. I never felt like I needed to come out.”

The singer continued, saying that he also doesn’t feel a responsibility to represent any specific image of queerness — his only responsibility is to himself. “I never care to speak for anyone else, because I think all of our experiences are so different from each other,” he said. “I guess I have a selfish perspective of myself in the world, and I’m just expressing myself. I’m not necessarily doing things for other people to feel good about themselves.”

Last year, Lacy earned his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Bad Habit,” while his album Gemini Rights peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. The song and album also earned the star four Grammy nominations, including both record and song of the year for “Bad Habit.”