Dove Cameron Can't Wait To Celebrate Pride After Coming Out As Bi

It’s Dove Cameron’s first Pride Month since coming out, and she’s more than ready to celebrate. ICYMI, Cameron came out as “super queer” over IG Live in August 2020 after being accused of queerbaiting in her song “We Belong.” Two months later, she tweeted that she’s “been bi.” Since coming out publicly, Pride Month “feels different” for the singer, she says, as she celebrates not just as an ally, but as an open member of the LGBTQ community. No surprise, Dove Cameron’s quotes about celebrating Pride this month are equal parts emotional and exciting.

“This is going to be my first Pride Month, like, really, really out,” Cameron explained during a June 7 interview with ET. “My friend texted me the other day and was like, 'This month is for you,' and I was like, ‘Oh... wow.’” Since Cameron has been out among family and friends for years (she came out to her mom when she was only 8 years old), it was difficult for her to predict just how big of a reaction her news would receive—or how emotional it would be. “There's a lot of emotion around my coming out that I didn't really anticipate because I've always been out in my private life... I knew I was going to come out, but it's different.”

And it’s a difference that has been underscored throughout Pride Month so far. Now that Cameron has come out as bi, she has been seeing and experiencing Pride in a whole new way. “I feel different being out and having people say things like that to me, like, ‘Happy Pride Month.’ I'm like, ‘Oh, thank you. Thanks,’” Cameron explained. “I'm usually the one wishing happy Pride Month and counting myself like an ally. So yeah, it's special. It's special. I need to figure out what I'm going to do.”

Despite being out in her personal life for years, Cameron said that making the decision to publicize her sexuality was something she felt unsure about for a long time. “Even if you've known who you are your whole life, I think there's sort of a common feeling of like, ‘Oh, I can't enter into the LGBTQ community because...’ [of] all these reasons that we make up in our head,” Cameron explained her hesitation. “... There have been a couple times in my personal life where I've told somebody who I was, and it was received with skepticism or some kind of misconception about what sexuality really means to someone.”

Experiences like that made Cameron question how the rest of the world would react to her coming out. “I was like, ‘Oh god, what if that happens all over the world? What if that happens at a mass scale and then I'm constantly defending something that is just like so me and so intimate? I don't want to do that. Am I ready to feel that way all the time? Am I ready to constantly go to bat with someone who doesn't even deserve my energy around this because they're going to question something that is so intrinsic to me?’”

Fortunately, the reaction to Cameron’s coming out has been positive, and full of “lovely, lovely support” that has only grown during Pride. “It's been an interesting week, processing that with the amount of text messages I got and lovely, lovely support,” she said. “[I got] a lot of support from my queer family, my LGBTQ family, and important people in my life, or people who I barely know.”

As another person who barely knows her (see: doesn’t know her at all), let me just add on that I’m so happy for her! Happy Pride!