Rising Korean hip-hop artiste Aquinas (real name Kang Min Soo, 강민수) has been dominating the K-pop news headlines this week not long after he officially came out as a bisexual.
Aquinas, who found fame as a contestant of the Mnet reality show “High School Rapper”, shared a post on Instagram earlier on Tuesday (13th July), revealing to the public that he’s into both genders.
Soon after posting the surprising image on social media, the 21-year-old then opened up on why he decided to come out in spite of the public’s prejudicial views towards the LGBTQ+ community. In an interview with SpoTV News, Aquinas revealed that he wants to show his support and give courage to those who are afraid to recognise their true gender identity.
He also admitted that he felt frustrated not living his truth while he stayed in the closet. “I contemplated for hours before making the post. I feel gender identity is just one piece of information that everyone has in their life. I felt so frustrated because I had to hide it,” Aquinas told the press.
The rapper added, “In our society, the LGBTQ+ community is still discriminated against and often gets criticised. So I thought if I made such a confession at a young age, the LGBTQ+ community would have the courage and would be comforted.”
The “It Doesn’t Matter” jam-maker continued to elaborate, “I believe that it’s natural to have a sexual identity ever since you’re born. The LGBTQ+ community is still criticised and at times there are people who are even neglected by their family. I always thought I should share this ‘natural’ information with everyone, and pledge to stand with the LGBTQ+ community.”
Aquinas concluded by saying, “I contemplated if it would be okay to post about this and wonder how the people would react. However, I wanted to give courage to the LGBTQ+ community so I just relayed the message that I’ve been meaning to share.”
Despite claiming that he has no regrets coming out as bisexual, Aquinas revealed that he still worries about his family’s response to the news. He explained, “They already knew about me but I don’t think they thought I would make it public, especially since my younger sibling is still in high school, so I feel sorry for him. But still, this is something that I had to do.”
As mentioned above, Aquinas competed in the 3rd season of “High School Rapper”, where he finished in second place. Apart from giving comfort and strength to his fans, he also revealed that he’s planning to release songs with LGBTQ-centred themes in the future.
