Jameela Jamil Has Come Out as Queer

Jameela Jamil has come out as queer. Her announcement on Twitter follows backlash she faced over reports she would be hosting a voguing competition show on HBO Max.

"This is why I never officially came out as queer," she wrote. "I added a rainbow to my name [on Twitter] when I felt ready a few years ago, as it's not easy within the south Asian community to be accepted, and I always answered honestly if ever straight up asked about it on Twitter. But I kept it low because I was scared of the pain of being accused of performative bandwagon jumping, over something that caused me a lot of confusion, fear and turmoil when I was a kid."

"It's also scary as an actor to openly admit your sexuality, especially when you're already a brown female in your thirties," she added. "This is absolutely not how I wanted to come out."

Earlier this week, Jamil faced criticism after a report said she would judge and emcee Legendary, a new ballroom voguing competition series from HBO Max. After some questioned her role as someone who hasn't seemed to be directly involved in ballroom culture, Jamil clarified that she would only be one of the judges, not emceeing the competition.

"I know that my being queer doesn't qualify me as ballroom," she wrote. "But I have privilege and power and a large following to bring to this show, (as does Megan Thee Stallion,) and it's beautiful contestants and ballroom hosts.

Jamil said that she would be taking a break from Twitter, and added, "to the press, I really really don't want to talk about it. Let's just focus on the contestants of the show until it's out."