Billie Eilish says she’s “gay and tired,” and honestly, we are too

Did Billie Eilish just come out via Instagram?

The 21-year-old “What Was I Made For?” singer’s sexuality has long been the subject of fan speculation, and in a recent Instagram story, she seems to have dropped another clue. Eilish posted a selfie using a filter that put the phrase “gay and tired” on her face.

If Eilish is “tired,” it’s likely from the constant pestering about her sexuality she receives from the media. In 2021, the then 19-year-old singer released a slumber party-themed music video for the song “Lost Cause” off her sophomore album Happier Than Ever. Some viewers thought Eilish’s dancing with the other women in the video verged on homoerotic, as did the caption for her accompanying Instagram post: “I love girls.”

Thus, Eilish was accused of queerbaiting — a term meant for teasing that fictional characters are queer without delivering, not for real-world people who haven’t publicly come out. That same year, Eilish responded to the questioning of her sexuality in an interview with Elle, saying, “Oh yeah, that’s everyone else’s business, right? No. Where’s that energy with men?”

As an even younger teenager, Eilish had explicitly called herself straight. 

“I’m straight as a ruler,” she said in a 2017 livestream that’s recently recirculated on TikTok. “I like men.” At the time, Eilish was only 15 years old, and a lot can change in six years.

Now, some fans are taking Eilish’s new Instagram story as proof of her queerness.

“Queer people don’t owe you a full-blown coming out,” one user wrote. “Let us post our little fruity Insta stories in peace.”

Others are pointing to new clips of Eilish at an Ice Spice concert, where she seems transfixed by the “Boy’s A Liar” rapper’s duh-duh-duh.

Meanwhile, Eilish is celebrating six nominations for this year’s Grammy Awards, where she’s heavily speculated to win the award for Best Song Written For Visual Media for “What Was I Made For?”, which is also up for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, and Best Music Video.

Related:

Billie Eilish Still Isn’t Queerbaiting

Billie Eilish doesn’t owe you an explanation

Barbie The Album’s 5 Best Songs

The Barbie marketing campaign has been superb from start to finish and has tapped into an oft-neglected element of film promotion: the soundtrack.