JK And JM Continue To Choose Each Other.

👆🏾

Every. Damn. Time.

They choose each other. They plan together. They work through problems together.

This is what standing in the fire next to you looks like.

It's me and you, Babe. Me and you.

For those of you who obviously have never been in a long term relationship: This is what love and commitment looks like.

It's beautiful.

But what's not beautiful is the unjust hateful treatment they and any other queer person has to experience. They deserve better. They deserve more.

When will we as Hets, do better?

JK and JM continue to choose each other.

time and time again.

on camera. off camera. in the military, too.

lottery or no lottery.

tattoos or no tattoos.

so-called "special celeb treatment" (though we're talking about a VULNERABLE QUEER DUO in a homophobic institution) or not.

no need for all the mental gymnastics.

they're both making the system work for them *and* putting their lives literally on the (front) line in exchange. 💔

JM and JK are actively choosing to be together - actively choosing (whether stealth or not) queer autonomy, connection and survival > unfulfilled, unhappy lives within a largely homophobic, heteronormative institution, society and world.

no matter how you slice and dice it...

that's love. period.

Seriously, I'm still thrown by the chair 🤣

I'm also still cracking up about how quickly JK took the chair. Had no questions or confusion about why he needed to take said chair. Mimi said "Take the chair & go".

JK said, As you wishhh.

cr. moonlit night

UH... DID JK RANDOMLY TAKE A CHAIR FROM JIMIN'S SET ???

I mean there has to be more than those two chairs in the whole of the HYBE building right???

He could have got a chair from anywhere?!!

And JK said he was on his way home so then why does he need a chair at all?

Maybe Jimin was nervous about doing the livestream and watching the documentary for the first time ON AIR.

This album was a lot for him and reliving some of those moments would be difficult.

So i wonder if he asked JK to stop by for moral support.

(I'm thinking of the 2021 birthday welive)

Jimin was so awkward and shy.

This time he was poised and beautifully dressed and made up. He came prepared.

And when JK arrived to give him a helping hand he didnt need it after all... in fact he told JK "you can go now" like he was giving him permission to leave.

When he didnt go quickly enough, Jimin said "hurry up and go" and "take the chair and go".

And why did the staff hand him a microphone?

They must have had one already prepared for him to use.

Did they assume he was joining the live? Did jimin tell them he was coming? They must have thought at least that there was a chance he'd be sitting up there with Jimin.

And who do we think was hyping Jimin up at fhe end of the livestream?

We can guess, i think...

So I guess he needed the chair because he was staying until the end of the livestream.

Still no explanation for why he didn't just sit on a different chair. Was there really no other chair in the room? So many questions...

Wow…just wow..

And look at the amazingly kind words he had for JK…

I’m definitely seeing a pattern. Anyone who has had the opportunity to work with or meet JK always has nothing but kind words to say about him 🥰

Jikook … 💛💜🏳️‍🌈

Oh hai Tumblr.

Jimin brought me backkkk.

JK and JM D-day Black N White pics

Surprise surprise, the J not covered nor is it separated from the M once again.

this one's for all the "but you can be openly gay in the west" anons...

spoiler alert! → → → nope, not exactly.

no, but for real: what is this queer utopian "West" y'all speak of?

'cause where i'm at, i still can't hold hands with my wife in public without being approached or harassed, especially by cishet men, so...

like, please.

*sighs in 500+ currently active anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination bills*

including a current ban on "public homosexuality" just outside of Nashville, TN - not to mention current nationwide bans on LGBTQIA+ library books, drag shows, drag storytime and other queer resources/events.

and don't get me started on all of the tragic stories of Black queer and trans people, and queer and trans people of color (especially trans women) who have been murdered in the name of transphobia and homophobia in recent years right here in the US - again, the "West".

that said... can you name a big mainstream/pop star who publicly disclosed their queer identity right at the time of their debut and made it big in the industry from the get-go?

sadly, me neither.

sure, Troye Sivan came out on YouTube at age 18 pre-pop star fame, so i get the impression his label had figured the GP already had time to "get used to" this blond, blue-eyed white musician from Australia being gay:

which is very different than being a queer artist of color from SK who doesn't speak fluent English - in an unjustifiably Eurocentric, Anglocentric, xenophobic, homophobic industry and world, mind you:

(we love you, JK! 💕)

i've already spoken about how much higher the stakes are for queer people of color vs. queer white people, no matter where you are in the world.

so the fact that someone like JK (a presumably queer Korean man from a super conservative society) is doing the throwback Ricky Martin/George Michael/Lance Bass/Jonathan Knight/Sam Smith/Billy Porter/Luther Vandross/Teddy Pendergrass (way before my time, but still!) Het Heartthrob thing to play it "safe" in his solo debut career in 2023 - especially right before mandatory MS - is (sadly) not that surprising.

and if SK is roughly a decade or so "behind" the US** in terms of LGBTQIA+ rights, then a similar career trajectory in the 90's/00's sorta tracks for queer idols and other entertainers in SK today.

**(and i wanna be careful with that language, because we know SK is only socially "behind" western countries due to the laser-sharp focus that was required to rebuild their country after the Korean War in 1953, which had to eclipse social progress at the time out of economic necessity - a lag in progress that has sadly spilled over into the present.)

case in point: another pretty face with a golden voice...

Tevin Campbell.

a Texas-born choir kid-turned-Quincy Jones protégé who - when he debuted as a teen with the hopeful, uplifting track Tomorrow - was dubbed the next Michael Jackson-esque vocalist.

despite that Tevin sang about, pursued and cozied up to teen girls/women in his MV's and performances, he wasn't publicly out.

BuzzFeed

Tevin Campbell Confirmed his Sexuality and Praised Frank Ocean and Lil Nas X

After years of speculation, the '90s R&B star has publicly embraced his sexuality and is hopeful for the future of queer Black artists in an

"After years of speculation, the '90s R&B star has publicly embraced his sexuality and is hopeful for the future of queer Black artists in an industry (and a society) still rife with anti-gay discrimination."

↑↑↑ yep. that last part in red.

again - right here in the US. in the "West" in the present day.

so if The Tevin Campbell is saying this about the music industry in the west as of 2022, it makes sense that JK - another crooner of color marketed as a quintessential "ladies' man" - would present as a cishet pop singer in this day and time.

"Depending on which decade you were born, you may know Tevin Campbell as an R&B singer, a cartoon heartthrob, or the guy whose song started a viral TikTok challenge.

'I didn’t hide anything about me. I didn’t try to act a certain way or anything,' he said. 'You just couldn’t be [gay] back then,' he said.

After he briefly stepped away from his R&B career and joined the Broadway musical Hairspray, he fully embraced his identity: 'Being around people who were like me, LGBTQ+ people that were living normal lives and had partners — I had never seen that.'

Tevin explained that as a teen star, he knew his sexuality but didn't have the time to process it."

i was a kid when Tevin made it big, but i remember rumors swirling about him being gay, especially as he entered adulthood and i tried to stuff down my own budding lesbian leanings.

and back then - like he said himself - you simply couldn't be openly gay (in the music industry), especially as a person of color and/or of a non-western ethnicity. the stakes were just too high. you could lose your family, your career, your "reputation"... everything.

Tevin came out last year (2022) at the age of 45.

let that sink in...

in 2022. 30 years later.

Tevin told Out.com:

"When I came out to my family and friends [at] about 19 or 20, that was it for me. And then I went on the road of discovering myself. I didn't know who I was."

"What makes me happiest right now is how far I've come in life. You know, there are a lot of child stars that don't make it. But a lot of us do, and [I've embraced that fact]."

cr./ckimberlinjr - x/twt

cr./UmEarth2Chelsea - x/twt

Tevin with fellow R&B hitmakers Aaliyah and Brandy

cr./tevincampbell - instagram

bonus: following Tevin's performance on Soul Train of Can We Talk (which still slaps, btw 🔥 - you should watch it!) is this interview where, even though he was still a minor at the time, he tells the host the meaning behind the title of his new album - I'm Ready: shorthand for the more "mature" image he was going for.

(hmm... sounds familiar! Jungkook, you have a call on line 2! ☎️)

cr./BET Networks - youtube

Tevin Campbell was (and still is!) everything. periodt.

anygays... unfortunately we're not "there" yet as a society - not even in the west. is it easier being queer here than in other parts of the world? sure, but like i said, there's levels to this sh!t, depending on other (especially public) oppressed identities a queer person has.

that said... i remain hopeful and expect our cishet friends and fam to help us take down all this homophobic and transphobic gatekeeping, violence and erasure that holds back so many of us and destroys queer lives.

may all of our queer icons and artists from the Global South, the west and everywhere in between rise up and shine like the beacons of hope, love, beauty and joy they are! ✨

untagged photos: all credit to rightful owners