Lily Rose Depp And The Death Of Heterosexuality

Photo: Erik Pendzich/REX USA.

Today, i-D reports that Lily Rose Depp has come out as “not-straight” through her participation in artist iO Tillett Wright’s “Self Evident Project.” The project aims to photograph 10,000 Americans who identify as anywhere on the LGBTQI spectrum. Tillet Wright posted a photo of herself and Depp on Instagram yesterday with the caption:

Photo: @iolovesyou.

“I’m so proud of my baby girl @lilyrose_depp. She decided she wanted to be in @selfevidentproject because she falls somewhere on the vast spectrum, and I couldn’t be happier to welcome her to the family. She’s a tiny gem of a good human.”

The comments are full of support and congratulations for Depp. In 2011, actress Olivia Thirlby also came out by participating in the project.

This comes just a week after a survey in which one-third of millennials identified as something other than “exclusively heterosexual” on the famous 6-point Kinsey scale of sexuality. This was a sharp contrast with older Americans — in the same survey, 86% of Baby Boomers and seniors identified as “completely heterosexual.”

The news that strict categories around sexuality are breaking down is enough to warm the heart of any bell hooks or Judith Butler fan. While it’s true that LGBTQI people still experience violence and prejudice due to their identity, the fact that huge numbers of young people identify as non-straight is a sea change from past generations. Decades of queer activism, demand for visibility, the rise of internet activism, outspoken celebs who self-identify as bisexual or queer like Azealia Banks and Miley Cyrus, the increasing visibility of people like Tyler Ford who identify as agender — clearly, the days when it was taboo to be anything other than straight and gender-conforming are going if not completely gone.

We don’t cheer the death of heterosexuality — but the death of compulsory heterosexuality, one that punishes non-conforming identities can only be a good thing for the world and the diverse people in it. If millennial attitudes predict the way the word is going, maybe someday enforced heterosexuality, and the prejudices that go with it, will someday go the way of the landline.

You can learn more about (and support!) the Self Evident Project here.