Billie Eilish accuses Variety of ‘outing’ her in cover story

Billie Eilish has asked people to stop discussing her sexuality as she accused a magazine of “outing” her.

The Bad Guy singer suggested she was attracted to women in a recent cover interview for US outlet Variety.

And at the magazine’s Hitmakers awards over the weekend, Billie was asked on-camera if she had meant to come out.

Billie’s since sarcastically thanked Variety for “outing” her “instead of talking about anything else that matters”.

BBC Newsbeat contacted the publisher for comment and was pointed towards Billie’s interviews where she discussed her attraction to women with reporters.

Although Billie seemed upbeat during the red carpet chat on Saturday, her Instagram post wasn’t so chilled.

“Thanks Variety for my award and also outing me on a red carpet at 11am instead of talking to me about anything else that matters,” she wrote.

“I like boys and girls leave me alone about it please literally who cares.”

In the magazine interview, first published on 13 November, Billie discusses being a young woman in the public eye and how she’d felt intimidated by other females.

“I’ve never really felt like I could relate to girls very well,” the 21-year-old told Variety.

“I love them so much. I love them as people. I’m attracted to them as people. I’m attracted to them for real.”

When asked about her sexuality on the red carpet event at the weekend, she said: “I didn’t realise people didn’t know.”

“I saw the article and was like, ‘Oh, I guess I came out today’. But it’s exciting to me… it’s cool that they know.”

But she also said she didn’t really believe in the concept of “coming out” and the idea that people should have to reveal their sexuality.

“Why can’t we just exist?,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and I just didn’t talk about it.”

Alongside her brother and collaborator Finneas, Billie accepted the award for Film Song of the Year for What Was I Made For from Barbie.

The real talking point here isn’t so much about what someone’s sexual orientation is but, like Billie says, why it even matters in the 21st Century.

We’d like to think that over the last two decades we’ve moved on from salacious gossip poking into people’s private lives, like when pop star Will Young spoke about being forced out in 2002 – but in reality, even last year actor Rebel Wilson had to tell the world she was dating a woman before a newspaper did it for her.

The reception is, on the whole, warmer these days and being LGBTQ+ can be something to be proud of and celebrated but it’s still deeply personal and up to individuals if they want to announce it to the world.

There are still many areas where people may not feel confident talking about their sexuality – there is still only one openly gay professional footballer in the men’s team in England for example.

And celebrity or not, “coming out” isn’t something that’s done just one time either – it can be a daily event and that comes with its own repetitive pressures.

But perhaps the more people talk do about it, the less interesting it’ll be and we can just exist, like Billie says.

I’ve no doubt many will find her honesty and candour inspiring and be another step that allows people to just be who they are.

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