Singer Ray J says straight men need to show more love and support to gay men: ‘The time is now!’

Ray J has marked the start of Pride Month with a passionate call for heterosexual men to show more love and support to gay men.

The singer and brother of R&B star Brandy posted a lengthy Instagram post on Monday (6 June) calling for greater solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.

“A lot of n***as that’s straight, they don’t be trying to shout out the gay community and all my gay n***as the right way,” he said.

“Listen, I just wanna say that it’s gay pride month. Shout out to all my gay n***as. Shout out to everybody in LGBT community. I told my n***as that there need to be more straight n***as giving love to the gay n***as.”

 

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Ray J explained that his impassioned call for solidarity was brought on by the number of gay friends he had, and wanting to use his platform to publicly support them.

“Shout out to everybody in the LGBTQ community. I told my n***as that it need to be more straight n***as giving love to the gay n***as,” he said.

Ray J also said he wanted to introduce the concept of Ray Pride alongside gay Pride – but was light on any detail as to what that actually meant.

“For me, I wanna sponsor the whole gay Pride Month and do Ray Pride,” he added, “Cause I want to stamp it. And I wanna make sure we all come together in unity and live life and not give a f**k and get money and ball out and everybody is good, right?”

In addition to his speech, Ray J also encouraged any members of the LGBTQ+ community to come out of the closet.

He said: “Shout out to a couple of the homies that’s still trying to act like they not gay. But I know you gay and I told you that and I said, ‘Now is the time to just come out and be you.’”

Ray J’s call for love and inclusion is an important precedent to set within the hip-hop community, which has widely been criticised over the years for being homophobic and anti-LGBTQ+. However, gay rap artists like Lil Nas X and Santana have been making strides within that space and breaking down barriers that were previously there for LGBTQ+ people.