Lil Nas X sends message of hope to gays fans in Saudi Arabia

After one of his tracks topped the charts in Saudi Arabia, Lil Nas X has expressed support for his gay fans living in the oppressive country.

Last week, one of the rapper’s fan Twitter accounts, Lil Nas X News, reported that the hitmaker’s 2021 song Sun Goes Down had reached number one on iTunes in Saudi Arabia.

Lil Nas X shared the fan account’s tweet along with a message of hope to his Saudi Arabian fans.

“To my gay fans from Saudi Arabia reading this, I hope this song is getting you through whatever you’re going through and I hope someday soon the laws against us change and you can be free in your own home,” he wrote.

The second single from the Grammy-winner’s acclaimed first studio album Montero, Sun Goes Down is about his personal experience of bullying and the struggle to accept his sexuality. In the song he sings:

“Since ten, I’ve been feelin’ lonely, Had friends but they was pickin’ on me, Always thinkin’, ‘Why my lips so big?’, Was I too dark? Can they sense my fears?, These gay thoughts would always haunt me, I prayed God would take it from me, It’s hard for you when you’re fightin’, And nobody knows it when you’re silent.”

to my gays fans from saudi arabia reading this, i hope this song is getting you through whatever you’re going through and i hope someday soon the laws against us change and you can be free in your own home. https://t.co/Cn7j2FMdM3

— pussy (@LilNasX) April 13, 2023

Saudi Arabia is one of six nations in the world that are known to execute gay people. The country also prosecutes its citizens for cross-dressing and being transgender.

Those found guilty are most commonly punished with imprisonment, lashings and banishment. These sentences are based largely on the whim of Islamic judges and clerics hearing individual cases.

The country also routinely censors or bans films that include scenes or references to LGBTIQ+ people.

Lil Nas broke new ground in the music world in June 2019 when he came out as gay, becoming the first artist to do so while topping the American charts (with Old Town Road).

He’s not only been applauded for speaking out on issues like mental health and suicide but also for raising funds for causes such as HIV awareness and bail for Black Americans unfairly discriminated against by the criminal justice system.