Shawn Mendes reacts to Rolling Stone interview after quotes about his sexuality go viral: 'The positive side of a story doesn't always get fully told'

Taryn Ryder

Shawn Mendes has been trending today for his buzzy interview with Rolling Stone. While there’s a lot to unpack from the profile — yes, he smokes weed, and yes, he was more than friends with Hailey Baldwin — headlines seem to be focusing on his quotes about not being gay.

On Monday morning, the 20-year-old heartthrob expressed some disappointment with how his candid sit-down with the magazine turned out, tweeting, “Sometimes the positive side of a story doesn’t always get fully told and I wish it had here.”

While Mendes is vague about which part was bothersome, the buzziest bites making headlines have to do with his comments on his sexuality, which upset some people online.

In the interview, the “Mercy” singer admitted that rumors about him being gay get to him. “I’d like to say I don’t care about it, but that’s not true,” he explained, referring to “this massive, massive thing for the last five years about me being gay.”

Mendes continued, “In the back of my heart, I feel like I need to go be seen with someone — like a girl — in public, to prove to people that I’m not gay. Even though in my heart I know that it’s not a bad thing. There’s still a piece of me that thinks that. And I hate that side of me.”

After reading anonymous comments on YouTube about his “gay vibe” years ago, Mendes decided to shut down the speculation. ( “First of all, I’m not gay. Second of all, it shouldn’t make a difference if I was or wasn’t,” he said at the time on Snapchat.)

“I thought, ‘You f***ing guys are so lucky I’m not actually gay and terrified of coming out,’” he recalled thinking. “That’s something that kills people. That’s how sensitive it is. Do you like the songs? Do you like me? Who cares if I’m gay?”

The interview also included anecdotes about how he woke up in a cold sweat after giving Taylor Swift permission to put up a video of her putting glittery eye makeup on his face for fear of how it might be perceived. He also left a movie theater early during a screening of Love, Simon — a dramedy about a closeted teenager whose sexuality is exposed by his classmates — after having a panic attack. However, it was apparently caused by anxiety about how his new single “In My Blood” would be received by fans. (Spoiler: They loved it.)

Mendes’s quotes and tone around the topic of his sexuality struck a nerve with some on Twitter.

But, the pop star had many fans defending him too, pointing out that he’s long been an LGBTQ ally. (One of Mendes’s go-to producing partners is transgender songwriter Teddy Geiger.)

YouTube star Tyler Oakley tweeted that he appreciated Mendes’s “candidness with this article.”

Yahoo Entertainment reached out to a representative for Mendes to inquire about which part of the interview he was upset about but did not immediately receive a response.

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