Billie Eilish fans have leapt to the award-winning pop star’s defence after she was accused of “queer-baiting” her followers.
The American singer-songwriter, winner of seven Grammy Awards and two Brit Awards, was accused of falsely insinuating she's part of the LGBTQ+ community to help promote her new single Lost Cause.
Billie shared exclusive behind-the-scenes snaps of herself in her new music video with her 87 million Instagram fans.
And in the vid, the 19-year-old mega-star is featured dancing and frolicking with a group of girls, accompanied by the caption “I love girls”.
The post was liked a whopping 12.7 million times as Billie and one of the dancers provocatively posed with their tongues out.
But some fans were not impressed and one blasted: “IF YOU CALL YOURSELF STRAIGHT AFTER THIS YOURE A FART.”
“She’s doing queer baiting,” slammed another follower.
A third moaned: “She said she was straight. She is queer baiting and fetishizing wlw relationships.”
Billie’s post was flooded by comments from fans asking whether she was “coming out” and worryingly that she was “queer-baiting”.
“Bestie idk if you’e queerbaiting or not but I’m really hoping you aren’t because it’s really rude,” stressed one fan.
Another added: “STOP. DOING. THIS. IF YOU’RE STRAIGHT.”
But one of Billie’s gay fans passionately defended the star against all the criticism she received.
“I’m a gay man myself and I love girls too,” asked the fan. “Am I straightbaiting if I say that?
“Her caption is more a reflection on [slumber parties with girls] and how you can’t have such slumber parties with boys.
“So it’s about loving and being empowered by her gender and friends.”
Some fans were so frustrated Billie was getting a bashing about her post, they took to TikTok to defend her.
One fan stressed their frustrations about the accusations on the platform, and explained that queer-baiting is “pretending that you’re queer for clout”.
“If Billie Eilish says that she’s straight, then she’s straight. She’s not trying to deceive anyone,” they continued.
“Sexuality is not like this rigid binary… stop forcing everything into boxes and forcing labels on everything.
“No one should have to come out. Coming out is kind of f**king antiquated, to be honest, it’s really important to a lot of people and that’s great.
“But it reinforces the idea first that you have to be anything, and second that you’re straight until proven otherwise.”
Billie has yet to officially respond to the allegations that she was “queer-baiting”, but she later posted a cryptic Instagram post which simply read: “I’m tireeeddddddd.”
Billie’s controversial post comes at the same time her boyfriend, Matthew Vorce, has been accused of making alleged racist and homophobic statements in historic tweets.
The authenticity of the tweets have yet to be verified, but they have gone viral after the couple were spotted out together on a date.
