How Rihanna Encouraged A Young Fan To Come Out As Gay

Rihanna appeared to help a young fan come out as gay through a series of inspirational messages on social media.

According to screen captures posted online of the supposed exchange, Rihanna encouraged an anonymous fan to be open and honest about their sexuality, telling them that it’s “important to be who you are” after they revealed they were scared to come out as gay.

Twitter user and Rihanna fan @DanSkelton2312 posted the exchange on social media on April 13, telling his followers that the screen shots were of “an anonymous conversation with Rihanna and a fan who she helped to come out,” adding, “Rihanna is the greatest!”

The Twitter exchange began when the unnamed fan told Rihanna that they want to “live life as the person I really am, and not as a liar,” to which Rihanna replied with an inspirational message of support.

“It’s okay to be scared, but it’s more important to be who you are” Rihanna replied according to the screen shots posted on Twitter, “You don’t have a choice really! That’s not a decision to be made! You are who you are.”

“As hard as it may seem,” Rihanna continued in the lengthy Twitter reply, “the best s*** ever is freedom and peace within yourself!”

Rihanna then went on to tell the fan that although their family may not “understand” their decision to come out, they’re “lucky [to] live in a generation that does” before confessing that she and her fellow fans, whom Rihanna affectionately refers to as the “navy,” “will hold [them] down.”

According to screen shots shared by @DanSkelton2312, Rihanna and the anonymous fan then continued their sweet Twitter exchange, and Rihanna even thanked the social media user for being so honest about their life and revealed that she was “so happy” for them.

“Thank YOU for being honest!! I’m so happy you’re getting what you deserve!” Rihanna wrote, before telling the Twitter user and Rihanna fan that she was “so proud” and will be “forever supporting” her social media direct message recipient.

Rihanna has been vocal about her support of the LGBT community in the past, most recently getting explicit while telling a crowd of concert goers how she felt about an anti-LGBT act while performing in Indiana last year.

According to The Huffington Post, Rihanna got seriously candid about Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act while performing at the NCAA March Madness Music Festival in 2015, telling a crowd of concert goers that she felt the act was “bulls***.”

“Who’s feeling these new bulls*** laws they’re trying to pass over here?” Rihanna asked the crowd at the festival, “I said, ‘F*** that s***!’ I wanna hear you say, ‘F*** that s***,’ because we’re just living our motherf****** lives, Indiana!”

Attitude also previously reported that Rihanna voiced her support for the LGBT community after taking to Instagram to show off a snap of herself sporting a beanie hat with the slogan “P6” written across it in 2014.

Rihanna’s hat was actually a part of Alexander Wang’s P6 campaign collection, which aims to encourage the Olympic committee to boycott Russia due to its strict anti-gay laws and support gay youth in the area.

Wang’s P6 beanie hats are part of the designer’s Principle 6 campaign, of which all proceeds, as detailed by the campaign’s official site, “go directly to lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) advocacy groups in Russia fighting discrimination and anti-gay laws.”

According to the Attitude, Rihanna also linked to a New York Times article titled “Fashion, Fairness and the Olympics” in the post in order to show her support for the gay rights campaign.

What do you think of Rihanna’s encouraging words to her fan?

[Photo by Brian Killian/Getty Images]