Shawn Mendes spoke openly about his sexual orientation

At a concert in Colorado this week, Shawn Mendes, 26, took the opportunity to address ongoing rumors about his sexuality.

“Ever since I was very young, there has been this perception about my sexuality and people have been talking about it for so long,” he said. Mendes got into the music business when he was 16 years old and rose to fame when his single Stitches went viral on Vine.

“I think it’s a little stupid because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing and it’s so hard to just put into a box,” he continued.

“It always felt like an intrusion into something very personal to me, something I was figuring out about myself, something I had yet to discover and still have to discover.”

Even though the changing nature of sexuality and gender has become more realized over the years, Mendes said he was not given the luxury of exploring his sexuality without scrutiny.

“The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that I figure it out just like everyone else,” he continued. “Sometimes I really don’t know, and sometimes I do. And it’s really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about this.”

He told the crowd of fans that he hoped sharing his thoughts and feelings on the issue would bring him “closer to everyone.” “I’m trying to be really brave and just allow myself to be human and feel something,” he said, “And that’s all I really want to say about it at this point.”

Mendes has had a number of high-profile relationships in the past, including Hailey Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter and Camila Cabello.

This isn’t the first time Mendes has expressed frustration over speculation about his sexual orientation. In 2020, the singer said in an interview with Dax Shepard on the channel Armchair Expert podcast about how rumors and gossip that appeared at a young age caused real suffering to the people around him.

“It really, really upset me because there were people in my life that I was very close to… who were gay and in the closet,” the then 22-year-old shared. “And I felt real anger towards these people.

He said denying rumors without communicating that certain sexual orientations are wrong put him in a difficult situation.

“You want to say, ‘I’m not gay, but it would be nice if I were.’ But there’s also nothing wrong with being gay, but I’m not. You really don’t know how to react to this situation.”

Mendez said everything from his voice to the way he sat was picked apart, leaving him unsure of how to act as a teenager.

“Everyone has been calling me gay since I was 15,” Sean explained. “I’m not gay, and I ask, ‘What does that mean?’ I had problems with the sound of my voice. I was like, “How should I sit?” I am always the first to cross my legs and sit in a feminine position, and this really bothered me.”

However, his main concern was how such rumors would affect young people coming to terms with their sexuality. “I think a lot of guys go through this, and what’s worse is there are so many gay guys who are in the closet and must be hearing this shit and saying, ‘I’m scared to come out.’ .'”

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