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Dove Cameron says she felt forced to come out after being accused of "queerbaiting"

9 April 2025, 17:26

By Sam Prance

"I just hated that I had to say it."

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Dove Cameron has opened up about how she felt forced to come out as queer after being accused of "queerbaiting".

Fans of Dove Cameron will already know that the star is proudly queer. Since she publicly came out as queer in 2020, Dove has repeatedly been candid about her sexuality and used her music as a way to express her queer identity. In 2022, Dove released her Top 20 single 'Boyfriend' and the lyrics are explicitly about a same-sex relationship.

Now, Dove has spoken frankly about her coming out experience and why she "hated" how she was treated online.

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Speaking about publicly coming out on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, Dove revealed that it all started with her 'We Belong' lyric video. The visualiser included cartoons of couples making out and the original video was "only white heterosexual couples" so Dove sent a note back asking for "more representation".

The final video included animated same sex couples making out and Dove used an emoji of two women kissing to tease the song's release. This led to people assuming the song would be explicitly queer. When fans found out it wasn't, they took to social media to accuse Dove of queerbaiting.

Dove explained: "And then the song came out, and it wasn’t about being queer. Everybody was like, ‘You’re queerbaiting! This is horrendous!’”

Dove Cameron | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Based on the accusations, Dove felt like she had to come out. She said: "I had to basically go on Instagram live at the time and say, I'm not queerbaiting. I'm queer. I wanted more representation in the f---ing cartoon and the emoji was just hinting at the music video."

Dove continued: "At that time, I'd never said it publicly but all my friends, all my family knew I was queer. I just hated that I had to say it but I did." Dove has since removed the 'We Belong' lyric video from YouTube.

Dove isn't the only queer artist who's faced queerbaiting accusations in the past. Queer singers like Billie Eilish and Rita Ora have also been accused of queerbaiting only to come out later.