Setting the record straight. Shawn Mendes took to Snapchat on Thursday, June 23, to address rumors about his sexuality. In a series of videos, the “Stitches” singer, 17, told his fans that he is not gay, despite speculation.
“So I don’t usually do this and bring up problems, but I was on YouTube just watching some of my interviews, and I was going down the comments and noticed a lot of people were saying that I gave them a ‘gay vibe.’ First of all, I’m not gay,” Mendes declared during a break on his Handwritten World Tour. “Second of all, it shouldn’t make a difference if I was or if I wasn’t. The focus should be on the music and not my sexuality.”
“Now I know 99 percent of you guys aren’t making assumptions like this, but this is just for the one percent of you that are,” the teen heartthrob continued. “I just want you guys — before you judge someone on the way they speak or act — I want you guys to think, ‘Hey, maybe I shouldn’t be judging someone’ or ‘Wait, it actually doesn’t even matter. They can do or be or feel however they want to feel.'”
While Mendes made it known that he prefers dating girls, he said that he has no problem with being called gay; he just has an issue when the label is used as an insult.
“I’m frustrated because in this day and age people have the audacity to write online that I’m gay as if it were a bad thing. That’s all I really have to say about that,” he stated. “I just wish those one percent of people would grow up. I love you guys.”
Although he was most recently linked to Fifth Harmony’s Camila Cabello, with whom he collaborated on the 2015 hit “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” the Canadian-born musician is currently enjoying the single life. But when he’s ready to settle down with that special someone, he knows exactly what he’s looking for.
“I really like funny girls, girls with a witty sense of humor, so if someone is able to catch onto what I’m saying very quickly, I find that very attractive,” Mendes told Notion magazine of his ideal girlfriend during a March interview. “I really like brunettes…and also, dancers! I have a thing for dancers!”
