Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus may have thought they were helping the LGBT homeless with a musical fundraiser and, to most, they were. However, there have been outspoken gay men who have filled message boards up with nasty messages, accusing Cyrus and Grande of “cultural appropriation.” In the comments section after an article about the event on Pinknews , user migliore29 sounds off.
“This is not helping LGBT homelessness. it’s straight white girl cultural appropriation at its finest. Our community has been though enough, we don’t need these two attention hags trying to make money by doing so-called ‘charity’ for us.”
It gets worse at the popular website Towleroad, where a commenter named Saul is furious .
“I am so sick of straight female pop stars exploiting the gay community. First, it was Madonna. Then Gaga. Now Miley and Ariana, who have NO idea what is was like to be gay in the 1980s and 1990s. SICK OF IT!”
The comments were less than kind under an ABC article about the Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus event. Commenter Alan Smith is angry about what he also sees as cultural appropriation .
“And these two are why people hate gay people. They don’t care about any gay causes. They use the community so they can act all charitable and everything like that only to go home and probably make gay jokes themselves. Cultural appropriation really sucks but it is harmful to the gay community more than any other.”
If one wants to play devil’s advocate, it’s easy to see how Miley has jumped on the gay rights bandwagon only recently. In early January of 2014, AXS reported on how Miley announced her support for gay marriage , something she wouldn’t have dared to do just ten years ago. The Inquisitr notes that despite being criticized for her wild behavior, Miley used her celebrity status to do some good. At the time, Cyrus encouraged her fans to wear a pro-gay marriage shirt.
In a widely-read article posted in October of 2014, Billboard reported on how Ariana Grande started questioning Catholicism because of her love for her gay brother . Their church didn’t respond well when her brother came out, which led to both of them to seek faith in their local Kabbalah center.
Both Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande have been accused of culturally appropriating the African-American community before some gay men became upset at them. Still, one has to admire both Miley and Ariana for working so passionately for a cause, despite the dismay of their critics.
[Photo Credit: YouTube Screen Capture ]