Lil Nas X Wrote A Letter To His 14-Year-Old Self To Inspire Queer Youth
The rapper wrote the letter in honor of his new video for "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)."
YouTube In honor of his latest single, "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)," openly gay rapper Lil Nas X shared a letter he wrote to his 14-year-old self on Twitter, hoping to give other LGBTQIA+ youth hope and representation.
"Dear 14-year-old Montero," the letter read. "I wrote a song with our name in it. It's about a guy I met last summer. I know we promised to never come out publicly, I know we promised to never be 'that' type of gay person, I know we promised to die with the secret, but this will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist."
"You see, this is very scary for me," he continued. "People will be angry, they will say I'm pushing an agenda. But the truth is, I am. The agenda to make people stay the f*** out of other people's lives and stop dictating who they should be."
The letter ended, "Sending you love from the future."
The long-awaited single and its video are unapologetically queer, celebrating drag, pole dancing, and even featuring Lil Nas X giving Satan a sexy lapdance.
In less than a day, the video has already amassed 2.1 million views and (quickly) counting.
In an interview with the Guardian last year, Nas said, "I 100% want to represent the LGBT community."
Noting the difficulty of coming out as a young person, he empathized with his teen fans.
"I don’t want to encourage them to do something they don’t 100% want to do," he continued. "Especially in, like, middle school or high school. Because it’s just super hard."
Who is Montero?
Lil Nas X himself, of course, as his given name is Montero Lamar Hill.
The 21-year-old "Old Town Road" performer who shot to fame via TikTok in 2019 has been openly gay since coming out publicly later that same year.
He chose to tell the world he was gay on the last day of Pride Month, asking fans to listen closely to the lyrics of his song "C7osure."
The song lyrics in question include lines like, "This is what I gotta do, can't be regrettin' when I'm old."
Known for being such a massive Hannah Montana fan that he specifically wanted to work with Billy Ray Cyrus on his debut single because of his role as Robby Ray Stewart on the iconic Disney Channel show, Nas even received flowers from Miley Cyrus herself celebrating his latest song.
The two friends recently lit up TikTok after Nas shared a video of himself as Cyrus's character, Miley Stewart, revealing her alter-ego, Montana.
Cyrus, who earlier this week shared handwritten note to her own younger self (aka Hannah Montana), responded by dueting his TikTok, casting herself as Lilly, the best friend character played by Emily Osment.
Notably, both his original TikTok and her duet feature I"Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" as the sound.
Courtney Enlow is a writer and editor whose work has appeared at Vanity Fair, Glamour, Pajiba, SYFY FANGRRLS, Bustle, Huffington Post, io9, and others. She is the former co-host of Trends Like These with Travis McElroy and Brent Black. She has two kids, two dogs, and requires more wine, please.