Jason Mraz recently opened up about why he didn’t come out sooner than in 2018 when he publicly came out via a poem for Billboard.
Part of the poem read:
“I am bi your side”
During his appearance on the Dinner’s On Me podcast, the 47-year-old singer-songwriter revealed that he avoided publicly coming out because of how society treats members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“In the ’90s, being gay was like [the] punchline of a joke, and I didn’t want to be the punchline of a joke,” he admitted.
Mraz also explained how being raised in Virginia, which has some very conservative parts, made an impact on him, sharing:
“I still took with me the conservative street that I grew up on, and that was very hard to ignore or to break out of. I was very shy and and scared of what my family would say, or what my hometown would think or just whatever.”
However, he noted that his parents were “very supportive.” Moreover, the “I’m Yours” singer also talked about joining ‘Dancing With The Stars’, where he came in second place with Daniella Karagach. At first, he revealed that he asked his friends not to vote for him because he missed his cat.
“Two or three weeks in, I realized I’m probably going to be here the whole time and I’m terrified and I have to cancel all my plans for the entire rest of the year, and I’m missing my cat terribly. And I start telling my friends, ‘Stop voting for me!’ It’s like the only way I can get off this show is if I don’t get enough votes. And I even told the producers, ‘I’m good. I can go home now, thank you so much for the honor,’ and they said, ‘We can’t do anything about you being here.’ So the only thing I could do is ask friends to vote for someone else.”
Despite his initial reaction to being in the show, Mraz said that he would do it all over again if given the chance.
“I would do it all over again if I could and I would try really hard. Maybe, they’ll have a Dancing With the Stars All-Star season. I would go back,” he stated.
Sources: thepinknews.com, deadline.com
“In the ’90s, being gay was like [the] punchline of a joke, and I didn’t want to be the punchline of a joke,” he admitted.
Gay=Joke? F*ck you from all the people who had the courage to make a place for themselves in a world that didn’t accept them while you were hiding.
Seriously? Someone comes out and the first thing you do is tell them to go fuck themselves? Don’t you think that kinda response is exactly what keeps people in the closet? I couldn’t disagree more – congrats to Jason Mraz for coming out, good for him.
I loved watching him on DWTS! Interesting to know that he didn’t want the votes. It would’ve been disappointing if he’d gone home sooner.