Lil Nas X has been bombarded with hate mail—hate Tweets?—since the moment he came out as gay in 2019. Since the release of his latest music video, “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name),” Lil Nas X has found himself back in the hot seat. Literally. In his music video, Lil Nas X ends up in Hell … seducing the devil.
Just to clarify the situation here: the people—mainly conservatives and/or Christians—who told Lil Nas X that he would go to Hell for being gay are also the ones up in arms over the fact that Lil Nas X decided to go to Hell in his music video. WTF? Give this talented, beautiful man a break.
First, some of this online anger results from a grave misinterpretation of symbolism. He’s not really worshiping the Devil. I know, what a surprise! Sometimes in art, things represent other things!
Symbolism isn’t something to dismiss in favor of the big picture, especially with matters as delicate as these. This is particularly for the benefit of people who agree with the sentiment of Twitter user @F8the in this tweet: “u ain’t gotta b religious to think satan is bad vibes.”
Great, so you’re not religious but you don’t like Satan. Let’s start with Lil Nas X himself, then, and get to the Satan stuff later. Maybe you’ll realize what this kindhearted man is actually trying to say.
Lil Nas X wrote this song about his own experience as a gay man. He even named the song after himself—calling his potential partner by his name, in a way, which alludes to a film about two men who fall in love.
The intro to the “MONTERO” music video begins with narration by Lil Nas X himself. “In life, we hide the parts of ourselves we don’t want the world to see,” he says. “But here, we don’t. Welcome to Montero.”
In a heartfelt post on Twitter, Lil Nas X revealed that he wants to make the world more welcoming to queer individuals. The post is structured as a letter to young Montero, which is Lil Nas X’s birth name.
Lil Nas X says his younger self “promised to die with the secret” of his attraction to men because of the intense fear and shame he felt while growing up. This song, he hopes, “will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist.”
Now, back to the biblical imagery. The lyrics, “... only here to sin / if Eve ain’t in your garden, you know that you can / Call me …” are perhaps the most biblical verses in the song.
These lyrics reference the garden of Eden, pictured in the music video at the beginning. The garden of Eden is the birthplace of original sin: giving into temptation. This sin is often associated with sex.
Since sex and attraction are typically a large part of personal identification and sexual orientation, there’s an immediate conceptual connection between giving into temptation and giving into genuine attraction.
This is evidenced in the music video by Lil Nas X’s initial angel character. A snake wound around a tree—classic garden of Eden imagery—seduces this angel, causing Lil Nas X to fall from grace. The snake is a man.
Obviously, certain religious and conservative individuals have a habit of claiming that gay people will go to Hell after death. Lil Nas X plays into this with the concept of going to Hell for desiring a man. And he falls to Hell on a stripper pole, suddenly wearing less clothing and moving more sexually.
And then, yes, he has sex with Satan. But that’s not really what’s happening, guys. Reminder: symbolism exists. Satan is depicted as a man, first of all, just like the snake in Eden. Thus, in this video, the concept of sin is tied to homosexuality. And even more mind blowing, Lil Nas X—the gay man—is also not saying that homosexuality is a sin.
Let’s revisit the intro of the music video. Lil Nas X himself begins it by saying, “in life, we hide the parts of ourselves we don’t want the world to see,” because we are ashamed of them only in response to the limits that society—“life” and “the world”— places on us.
Homosexuality has been deemed a sin for decades based on toxic norms. Lil Nas X is alluding to this social restriction with the imagery of a gay man ending up in Hell—but he doesn’t just end up in Hell. He has a blast doing it. He dances down a stripper pole and starts seducing Satan, only to snap Satan’s neck and claim the crown of the Devil for himself.
Listen to this: he’s not saying he wants to be Satan. He’s not even saying he’s a particularly Satanic individual. He’s saying that if you put him in Hell, he’ll start to rule it. If you label him a sinner, he’ll sin to his heart’s content. He didn’t put himself in Hell—society did. The people who hate that Satan is in his music video are the ones who would already insist he’s tied to Satan anyway.
Lil Nas X used this music video to promise that he won’t let social boundaries prevent him from existing or enjoying his life. He is telling people to let others make their own choices and live their own truths.
Don’t hate someone for something they can’t change and, frankly, wouldn’t like to change. Don’t force them into a miserable existence because you’re uncomfortable with them. As Lil Nas X remarks in his own Tweet, “stay the fuck out of other people’s lives and stop dictating who they should be.”