Geordie Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall is set to upset people from her home area after claiming some have an “old-fashioned mentality” about the LGBTQ community.
Jade, 28, who grew up in South Shields, said she always struggled with the attitude, as she explained how she has become a big advocate and supporter of the LGBTQ community and their rights.
Asked by interviewer Lennie Ware if she thought it was “hard up north”, Jade replied: “It’s really hard. I think it’s that like, yeah a bit more small-minded, a bit of an old-fashioned mentality.
“A lot of people are willing to listen, but they just don’t understand it because it’s like passed through generations isn’t it.
“So if your granddad is being brought up to be homophobic then, of course, their son is going to then listen to that, and that toxic masculinity just seeps through each generation.
“It was very like that growing up – I sort of understood that it was wrong, and I didn’t agree with it, but I didn’t know how to express that.”
Speaking on the Table Manners podcast she said: “My first love was drag culture before the LGBT scene. At a very young age I didn’t really understand what that was. I’d just see these divas like Diana Ross or Cher and be obsessed.
“Once a year me and my family would always go to Benidorm, and we’d go and see all the drag acts and I’d watch it and be fascinated. I’d be like ‘who are these amazing adult cartoons?’
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“And then we’d get back home, and it was suddenly not celebrated anymore.
“It was very bizarre. And then I’d get into musical theatre, and I had a lot of gay friends who couldn’t come out.
“They’d have to move out of South Shields to feel like they could live somewhere, where it’s going to be accepted.”
Jade added: “I reached out to Stonewall initially and asked to meet with them, and teach me how to be a better ally, and just learn more about it and the history behind LGBT rights.”
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