No, Shawn Mendes hasn’t come out as gay despite that ‘tweet’ you’ve probably seen
Shawn Mendes isn’t gay, but there are some people who clearly really, really want him to be.
False rumours about his sexuality have been floating around since the singer’s breakthrough, and the latest “evidence” is a pretty obviously fake mocked up tweet.
“Guys my sexuality shouldn’t be anyone’s business,” the tweet “from” Shawn reads.
Related: 9 celebrities who ‘came out’ as straight
It then adds in contradictory fashion: “Yes, I’m gay and I’m proud.”
*rolls eyes*
As you can probably guess from the poor quality of the screengrab – no direct link, naturally – the “tweet” doesn’t exist on Twitter, and has never existed on Twitter.
It was made in Photoshop. Or probably MS Paint.
Shawn’s fans did the decent thing and hijacked the #ShawnComingOut hashtag to good effect.
Many pointed out the forgery and underlined that Shawn’s sexuality is his business.
Moreover, lying about people coming out doesn’t help anybody.
As acknowledged, it’s not the first time Shawn has been the target of false speculation about his sexuality.
Last year, he addressed the ongoing rumours, posting a video to Snapchat – which you can watch in full below – where he attempted to put the matter to rest once and for all.
The singer underlined that while there, of course, is nothing at all wrong with being gay, he isn’t and it was inappropriate for people to claim he is because of how he looks or talks.
“I don’t usually do this or bring up problems but I was on YouTube just watching some of my interviews and I was going down the comments and noticed a lot of people were saying I have them a ‘gay vibe’,” he said.
“First of all, I’m not gay. Second of all, it shouldn’t make a difference if I was or if I wasn’t. The focus should be on the music and not my sexuality.
“Now I know 99% of you guys aren’t making assumptions like this but this is for the 1% of you that are.”
He continued: “I just want you guys to know before you judge someone on the way they speak or act to think ‘Hey, maybe I shouldn’t be judging someone’ or, ‘Wait, it actually doesn’t even matter’.”
“They can do or be or feel however they want to feel. Now I’m not frustrated because people were saying that I was gay at all.
“I have no problem with that ‘cos it wouldn’t make a difference to me. I’m frustrated because in this day and age, people have the audacity to write online that I’m gay as if it were a big thing.”
“That’s all I really have to say about that. I just wish that 1% of people would grow up. I love you guys.”
Watch Shawn Mendes’s Snapchat video in full below: