There's a Reason Hayley Kiyoko Is Lesbian Jesus

The way the LGBTQ+ community has been portrayed in popular culture has come a long, long way in recent years. Although there's still a lot of work to be done, so many creative queer folks have been making awesome and inclusive movies, music, TV shows, and more that better represents our lives and our stories, so in honor of Pride Month, we're taking the time to honor 25 of these inspiring people! This is the 2019 #PRIDE25!

You don’t earn a nickname like Lesbian Jesus unless you’re really out there working miracles for the queer community.

Hayley Kiyoko had begun a promising career as both an actor and a singer before one day stunning fans with the seemingly out of nowhere release of an overtly gay music video for a new song called “Girls Like Girls” back in 2015. After that, she committed to singing music about her feelings for girls without mincing words — and found a devoted, energized fanbase because of it.

Since coming out, Kiyoko has aimed to be a champion for young queer girls, and particularly young queer Asian girls, wanting to “encourage the youth to find [the] confidence now” that she wasn’t able to find until after years of struggling to claim her own voice.

Just the simple act of being an artist writing and performing mainstream pop about liking girls has been a revolutionary act, for both Kiyoko and her fans, who often describe her concerts as the safest and most welcoming space they have ever been in. Despite the growing number of out musicians in American culture today, there still aren’t very many trying to create radio-friendly pop music.

“[Singing about girls], to me, was never an option because no one did that on the radio, [or] in the mainstream pop world,” Kiyoko told Paper Magazine in 2018.

But it’s Lesbian Jesus herself who is changing that, and paving the way for not only future musicians who don’t want to have to hide behind gender neutral pronouns, but for all the fans singing along to music that finally speaks to their own experiences.

Stream Hayley Kiyoko's album Expectations!

And check out more of the 2019 #PRIDE25 honorees here!