Ongoing History Daily: When Kurt Cobain pretended to be gay

When he was alive, Kurt Cobain was always some kind of contrarian, a non-conformist sort who didn’t like to be told what to do or how to behave. This extended to dealing with bullies when he was in school. Here’s a quote from an interview:

“I used to pretend I was gay just to mess with people. I’ve had the reputation of being a homosexual every day since I was 14.” He wanted to show solidarity with his gay friends. He continued: I got beat up a lot, of course, because of my association with them…“I’ve always wanted male friends that I could be real intimate with and talk about important things with and be as affectionate with that person as I would be with a girl.”

Pretty progressive stuff for a teenager in the 1980s.