Darren Criss of Glee Says He’s ‘Culturally Queer’. Is That a Thing?
Short answer: no, it’s not.
In April of this year, Darren Criss, the actor famous for playing the gay character Blaine Anderson on the TV series Glee, was interviewed at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. He described himself as “culturally queer”, sparking quite a controversy within the community given that Darren is actually straight and cisgender.
I first heard of this controversy on TikTok, where a creator was reporting the story and ranting about how bad of a take this was on Darren’s part. I’m not one to think that a 30-second video is enough for me to form an opinion on something, so I immediately went looking for a news article that reported the whole interview. I found a piece from Vanity Fair titled: “Darren Criss Self-Identifies as “Culturally Queer””.
Now, I have to be honest here, when I first read this title, knowing that Darren is straight, I was kind of confused and almost… disappointed? As far as I knew, Darren had always been an ally to the community, and the community gave him a whole lot in return, so why was he saying something so weird, to say the least?
In my mind, being “queer” is pretty much a black or white issue: either you are, or you are not. Sure, you might be questioning your sexuality and…
