Yesterday Amber Rose gave her son, Sebastian, the ultimate surprise: tickets to see Taylor Swift, one of his favourite artists, in concert. (The tickets were sent to Rose and Sebastian from Swift herself, alongside a handwritten letter.) Rose captured her five-year-old son’s reaction to this on Instagram, and it’s nothing short of adorable. “Really?! For real?!” Sebastian says when Rose hands him the gift:
A post shared by Amber Rose(@amberrose) on Mar 20, 2018 at 7:55pm PDT
I remember feeling exactly like this 14 years ago when my parents surprised me with tickets to see Britney Spears in concert. To this day that’s one of my fondest memories because my enthusiasm for the tickets was so pure and earnest. It’s an experience I’m thankful to have and always will cherish—just like Sebastian will cherish this one.
But Instagram trolls are attempting to rain on his parade. Several people started commenting on Rose’s video that Sebastian is “gay” for liking Swift. Of course Rose hit back swiftly—pun intended—with a series of Instagram Story slides defending her son. Here’s what she said, in full:
“Shout out to all of the hyper-masculine men and ignorant dumb ass women that will call a five-year-old gay for liking Taylor Swift. This is why young kids kill themselves And this is also why our society is so f—– up. Liking a certain type of music will not make you ‘pick’ your sexuality you dumb f—. P.S. my son just got accepted into the most prestigious private school in Los Angeles because he’s smart as f— and creative as f— like his parents. We allow him to be himself. He can listen to whatever music he likes, he can like whatever colour he wants and we let him be passionate about whatever his little heart desires. We don’t make our son live by society norms; that’s why he’s so special. Let’s do better for the next generation people. Grow the f— up and teach our kids to love and not hate. P.S.S. Regardless if he’s gay or straight when he gets older he will be around the most amazing loving people that will support him no matter what. He also has more money in his bank account than any of you trolls could even imagine Lol. “
Rose is right: Pop-culture interests do not, in any shape or form, predict sexuality. Frankly, it’s disappointing this faulty logic still exists in 2018—and furthermore, it’s disgusting “gay” is still used as an insult. Haven’t we moved past this? Shouldn’t people, especially young kids, be able to like whatever they want without being ostracized for it? I remember being shamed for liking Britney Spears as a kid, and it stung. It made me want to suppress my interests and pretend to be someone else. In fact, I did that for many years and I regret it.
I hope this doesn’t happen to Sebastian—or any young kid who has interests that don’t fit into nonsense gender standards. Amber Rose has the right idea. It’s time for everyone else to catch up. In the meantime, though, she and Sebastian are going to have a blast at that concert.
