Lil Nas X’s new song, Montero (Call Me By Your Name), is great because it represents the discrimination against black, LGBTQ+, and ESPECIALLY black and LGBTQ+ people. It goes against the typical “you must be a Christian, and you absolutely CANNOT be anything except a straight Christian who prays to God EVERY DAY. Anything else, and you’re a demon who’s going to hell.”

I had a Lyft driver today who was black, and we had a conversation about these things. About how many black people are taught, “you must be a Democratic Christian.” Americans LOVE to tote around the Constitution and how we are allowed “religious freedoms,” but when anything happens that isn’t Christian, it’s an abomination. Christian leaders love to diminish anything that isn’t seen as “Christian,” such as being LGBTQ+, Muslim, etc. These are just some of the most popular things that are berated in American society. I commented, “I wish it weren’t like that,” and he said, “yeah, but it is what it is.” That’s sad, having seen so little change in this world that you have just come to accept that you will most likely be discriminated against your whole life. He had a story where he was at a hotel for a Trucker meeting/training (he used to be a Semi trucker), there were some black folks, and a woman came out, and instead of walking straight through, she walked all the way across the street, around, and back to the parking lot to avoid them.

This brings me back to the subject of Blacks in America, so many of them will change the way they speak and act around white people because they feel like they have to take on this persona to be the “token black,” basically not wanting to fit these stereotypes that white people have created and made everyone think is a negative. And unfortunately, this is a huge problem that many white people do create. I have seen so many people say things like “Black people I do respect:” or “Gay people I do respect:” and in all of these, they list people who try and hide the fact that they are these things or completely do not mention the fact that they are. They basically want to be around people who act like they’re straight whites.

Lil Nas X’s song is a push against that. Against the stigma that you must act a certain way to be accepted in this society. It shouldn’t be that way at all, but it is, and we should fight against this.