Bad Bunny opens up about being an LGBTQ+ ally in the world of Latin music

“En Casita” singer Bad Bunny (real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) has a history of gender-fluid performances, pushing boundaries and icon lewks. Just a peek at his Instagram, where he has more than 27 million followers, or the music video for his track "Yo Perreo Sola" where he dressed in drag to show the female perspective implicit in the song. But the 26-year-old Puerto Rican trap-star also knows that reggaetón has a troubling history of ostracizing women and excluding the queer community, and he spoke to Playboy about why he is definitely not here for that kind of thinking.“I think that sex is a giant world,” he told the mag for the history-making digital cover story. “And everyone is free to see it as they want and do it with whoever they want, however they want, with infinite possibilities. In the end, we are human beings. Everybody feels, everybody falls in love with whoever they’re meant to.”

 

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YO PERREO SOLA!!! ALGUIEN LA CONOCE??? ?? *DÍA 183 DE CUARENTENA* EL VIDEO MAS CABRÓN YA SALIÓ!!!! LINK EN MI BIO #YHLQMDLG ?

A post shared by @ badbunnypr on Mar 27, 2020 at 12:35pm PDT

“There’s nothing worse than being somewhere and feeling like you don’t belong,” he continued. “I’ve been trying to make sure everybody feels part of the culture of reggaetón. I want to make sure they feel that they have someone there, that friend that can stand up for them.”[video_embed id='1985283']RELATED: How to be an effective ally for the LGBTQ+ community[/video_embed]Speaking specifically about the cisgender-heterosexual male dominated world of reggaetón and the culture at large, Bad Bunny didn’t mince words: “The music industry and society in general [treat women] like they’re nothing. Women are human beings and deserve respect and the same treatment as anybody else.”

 

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Cálmense!!!! Que yo solo tengo amor para ustedes ?

A post shared by @ badbunnypr on Mar 29, 2020 at 3:11pm PDT

Luckily, the influential singer, who released his sophomore album YHLQMDLG in February and performed at the Superbowl with Shakira that same month, wants to use his large platform to bridge the gap and allow for some understanding. “I think I have an audience split in two: fans of Bad Bunny and fans of reggaetón itself, and I want to merge the two. I feel I have a big sector to educate. There's a lot of people who won't pay attention to other people calling them out, but they follow Bad Bunny. If he tells them what's good, maybe they can grow as people and come to accept others.”Preach, BB![video_embed id='1990968']BEFORE YOU GO: Halle Berry bows out of pursuing a film role as a transgender man[/video_embed]