Singer Troye Sivan isn't thrilled with his gay icon tag, even though he has made history in the homosexual community.
The 22-year-old, who came out as gay in 2013, became the youngest person to receive the Stephen F. Kolzak trophy at the annual GLAAD Media Awards when he picked up the prize last year (17) for making "a significant difference in promoting equality and acceptance" for members of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) community, but the humble Youth hitmaker still isn't comfortable with being considered iconic for his achievements.
“I will never understand the struggles of a trans woman of colour growing up," he tells Wonderland. "What can I do as an empathetic person? How can I help? That’s why I politely reject the term 'gay icon'. I would never wanna put that on myself.”
However, Troye feels great about creating music from a truly gay perspective, revealing he didn't have many LGBTQ musicians to look up to when he was growing up.
“When I think about the songs that I grew up listening to that made me feel... gay, it was mostly straight women: Cher, Madonna, Miley (Cyrus), Robyn, Lady Gaga...," he recalls. "Those are my gay icons, which is a bit strange. I would have loved to have had more queer music growing up. That would have been nice.”
And he insists his much-anticipated new album will be full of authentic gay music: "I heard something about how when an artist reaches their peak, the thing that’s in their head winds up being the same as the thing they’re creating. This album is the first time in my life I’ve been able to do that," he shares. "If people don’t like it I’m s**t outta luck."
