Before he became famous, Lil Nas X expected to keep being gay private. He later said he might never have come out if not for how the moment felt as his career took off. In a 2021 interview with XXL, he connected his public coming out to a sense of duty and a desire to live authentically—not simply to fame.
He once expected to keep his sexuality secret
Lil Nas X has described an earlier version of himself as intending not to come out. In a note to his younger self published alongside the 2021 video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” he wrote about promising to keep the secret. A 2020 Towleroad report, summarizing an earlier Guardian interview, described that plan as having “planned to die with the secret.” Towleroad also reported that his family had been quiet about his sexuality; that is a report about the earlier interview, not evidence of a single family response.
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He came out publicly during “Old Town Road”’s breakthrough
Lil Nas X publicly came out as gay in June 2019, while “Old Town Road” was in its breakthrough run, according to XXL and ELLE Australia. The timing is part of the story: a private intention to stay closeted met a period when he was becoming widely known. But the timing alone does not establish why he chose to disclose.
Why he later said he came out
Looking back in the XXL interview, he said, “I don’t think I would have ever came out.” He described the decision as feeling like “kind of my duty,” and connected it to moving forward authentically. His note to his younger self also framed coming out as a way to open doors for other queer people. These are his retrospective explanations; they do not mean that fame was the sole cause or that his experience represents everyone who is closeted.
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Family openness continued after coming out
Later documentary coverage suggests that being out did not make family relationships an instant, finished process. In a 2023 report on Long Live Montero, Refinery29 quoted editor Andrew Morrow describing the film as showing Lil Nas X “grapple with refamiliarizing himself with his family after coming out.” The account points to an ongoing process of becoming more familiar with family in the context of his identity; it does not establish a uniform view among relatives or a single dramatic reaction.
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