Hello Homo: Queer Media in a Trump Era with Johnny Sibilly

Hello Homo!

I feel like we have come so far in queer representation and media. I’m concerned as we move into the next Trump era, things might get white-washed and straight-washed. How do we protect and fortify queer diversity and representation?

                  Will – Aurora

Hello Will,

How could we not feel this way? It makes total sense to be scared right now. I, too, am concerned about the community and identify erasure and invisibility as we move into this new era of  Trump back in the presidency.

To answer this question, I was hoping Johnny Sibilly would be down to join me, and I was very jazzed when he said sure. Johnny is a multi-faceted actor and creator featured in Hacks, Pose, and the Queer as Folk reboot. Or you for sure know Johnny’s viral track “Hit It.” His work is steeped in Latin American and queer visibility. He’s the perfect guest to help answer your question, Will.

So, Johnny, I see you and your role in media as a connector in many ways. In your career, you bridge genres and connect between diverse creators and conversations from projects like Spill on Logo, characters you portray, your podcast Tres Leches, or your Instagram persona. When you hear questions like this, where does your mind go?

Johnny: If we look to history, the queer community really makes a lot of strides when we have our backs up against the wall.

Queer people, in general, are just not willing to take anything lying down. I mean, sometimes, but you know what I mean. If we think about the last Trump presidency, there was a lot of pushback, not only from the queer community but from communities all over the world. The last time he was in office, we had shows like Pose come out, and Drag Race became bigger and bigger.

There is a lot to be said about when we feel we are under attack, which is, most of the time, we link arms and really put in the work. And, you know, there are so many activists working tirelessly no matter who is in office because the work is never done until we fully accept all marginalized communities.

Yeah, so much queerness, queer culture, and the LGBTQ+ communities’ identities are formed in opposition to our oppression.

Exactly. I also understand the fear of losing representation and visibility. Think of two years ago when Dylan Mulvaney was going through her issues with Bud Light. It felt like all the brands were starting to take their money out of the queer community. It was scary feeling them turn their backs.

We are seeing that happen so fast with him in the office now, too.

Maybe they are turning their backs, and whether they are or not, we (LGBTQ+ people) are always going to take care of ourselves. We have no choice. So many of us are survivors and thrivers since we came out of the womb.

I appreciate you sharing this perspective, Johnny. Since the election, I have been in a bit of a doom crater, and I know this is echoed in our communities. What you have just shared feels like a zoomed out, broader perspective beyond the immediate fear of this political context.

Yeah, I mean, fear is always there and always will be. But that’s also a motivator. It’s a motivator to never be silent, you know?

Hell yes. Maybe it’s about bringing awareness for Will and other OFM readers to ensure they are not unconsciously consuming overly white portrayals or dominantly straight narratives in the media they engage in, bringing consciousness to their choices.

Yeah, yeah totally.

Who’s inspiring you? Who are you looking to? Outside of the whitewash and straight wash?

A lot of attention is given to people living in big cities like LA and New York, which are doing great work.  For me, it’s the people in smaller communities, and specifically red states, that stay where they are and foster community and growth in those smaller communities. Holding your boyfriend’s hand in West Hollywood or Chelsea is easy. But when you go to Kentucky, how does that feel?

I am drawn to people who stay and build communities, LGBTQ+ centers, or nonprofits that cater to the plight of LGBTQ+ people in the red states.

Those are the people who truly inspire me, not only because of how they inspire my personal work and perspective. Those people also remind us that we all are not free. That we are all not able to just be as queer as we want to be. When we live in the bubbles like LA and NYC, we take those things for granted. So those people inspire me, but I also want to uplift and shout them out as true, hardcore representation.

OFM readers here in Colorado can relate, especially those who live on the state’s Western Slope and Western region. We are talking Lauren Boebert territory. It is very conservative and not very safe for LGBTQ+ people to be visible. At the same time, there is community and advocacy throughout the region. Our Western Slope LGBTQ+ folks are inspiring.

There is this show on HBO called Somebody Somewhere about a group of people in Kansas, and it is very queer. They are in a conservative town, and there is a fascinating element of spirituality mixed with the queerness of the show. It is a beautiful story of what happens in communities away from it all and how those lives and narratives are just as worthy of celebrating as the ones doing the most in LA, New York, or San Fransico.

So, Johnny, I have a personal question. How are Megan and Julissa? We haven’t seen them in a while. For OFM readers who don’t know, Megan and Julissa were two of Johnny’s hilarious IG personas with which he created tons of content.

You know, it’s funny. I feel like Julissa and Megan were little suits of armor that I used to wear in order to say whatever I wanted to say. They allowed me to talk about the things I wanted to talk about with a comedic lens so that it didn’t feel so serious.

Because a lot of the stuff I talked about in those videos were topics I am passionate about. I talk about those topics in a wig because it took the air out a little bit.

They helped you feel comfortable expressing those topics openly.

Yes, and they are still there. They live within me at all times. You know, it’s also one of those things as an artist I always think of, like when singers sing their old stuff, and  they are like, “How about we listen to the new stuff?” I love the greatest hits of it all, but I was ready to move on from them. I said a lot through them, but I am sure there will be a perfect time to revisit them in the future.

Yeah, and you have great projects in your life now. There isn’t room for everything. Could you tell us a bit about current projects?

Spill specifically came at a time during the pandemic. We were just all doing Instagram shows and Instagram hours where we were talking to our friends to connect. And it was a space of, like, what questions can we ask queer people that they’re not getting asked on, like, Jimmy Fallon, or the mainstream, you know, straight media. In straight media, interviews and questions are always through a lens of trauma which very much exists in a lot of our queer experiences. But we are not just trauma. So, what if we ask about their music careers? Or how’s their dating life? All those things that I think allow queer people to be seen in much more colorful ways.

Tres Leches is like a place where I can go once a week to talk to my friends about anything. At first, I was always like, why would I have a podcast? Who gives a shit? What do I have to say? Then I reframed it in my head. I was like, oh, it’d be so nice to be, like, 80 years old and be able to listen back to what me and my friends were saying.

That reminds me of how people in their 70s and 80s tell 20-year-olds to “take all the nude pictures while you are young because you will be able to look back on those pictures and say, god damn, I had an amazing ass.” Maybe that is a way to reframe your podcasting?

Yeah, and also, there are plenty of straight, white, cis guys that are talking a bunch of shit. Let’s drown it out with a little more queer joy. You know?

We are definitely in an era we queers need to take up space. Thank you, Johnny, for taking the time to answer Will’s question. 

Absolutely, thank you for having me.

So Will, I hope this is a helpful response to your question. And for other OFM readers, I hope this interview with Johnny cultivates some ways you can see opportunity in this challenging circumstance of the new Trump administration.

For more inspiration, creativity, and queer joy, go check out Johnny Sibilly’s work. Links to his work are throughout this article.

Follow Johnny on Instagram and TikTok here.

Follow me on Instagram @holistic.homosexual for updates on my column, and stay tuned for the next HELLO HOMO! See you next week!

Have a question you would like answered? Submit your questions directly to me at hellohomo@ofm.media

Disclaimer: Hello Homo is for informational and educational purposes and is not a substitute for mental health treatment. Hello, Homo (Jesse Proia) is not providing mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment to readers. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis or emergency, please contact 911, 988 or go to the nearest emergency room.