Matty Healy facing major backlash for ‘homophobic’ comments labelling Harry Styles ‘queerbaiter’

Matty Healy is in hot water for comments made about Harry Styles in a new podcast (Picture: Getty Images)

Matty Healy has found himself at the centre of controversy again as he took aim at Harry Styles during a recent interview.

The 1975 singer, who is the son of Loose Women star Denise Welch, is no stranger to making headlines, from making out with fans during concerts to mocking an Irish girl’s name in a viral video.

Now the musician has become the Twitter Main Character once again as social media erupts following comments Matty made about Grammy-winner Harry.

Speaking on The Adam Friedland Show podcast, Matty said the One Direction star, who has not labeled his sexuality, gets a ‘pass’ for ‘queerbaiting’ but he doesn’t know why.

He then added: ‘I don’t think the gays really like it. I think it’s young girls who think it’s a new thing who are like “Oh my God.”‘

‘Queerbaiting’ relates to a ploy most often seen in TV and films that aim to appeal to an LGBT+ audience by teasing, suggesting but never confirming, that a character or characters are queer.

The hosts suggested that gay men don’t care when a straight man pretends to be gay, describing it as ‘prancing around saying “Who wants to f*** my a**,’ and shockingly said it was as though Harry had ‘got the N-word pass from the gay community.’

Matty half-heartedly attempted to push back, saying ‘maybe it’s not all gay guys, but a lot of them,’ before the conversation moved on again.

Harry dresses in an androgynous fashion and has not publicly stated his sexuality or whether he is a part of the LGBTQ+ community, leading to Matty to label him a ‘queerbaiter’ (Picture: Shutterstock) Singer Matty says ‘young girls’ who are fans of Harry give him a ‘pass’ (Picture: Rex/Shutterstock)

The comments have caused uproar online, with even fans of The 1975 saying they were ‘disappointed’ by the comments and podcast as a whole, with some accusing him of homophobia.

Elsewhere on the podcast, the hosts and Matty mockingly discussed women’s periods, did impressions of Chinese accents and complained about ‘p***y drying up.’

One fan asked how the musician was ‘getting on stage every night and mocking toxic masculinity and then going on a podcast and undoing the whole thing by being wildly ignorant, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, everything else under the sun.’

Harry has not labeled his sexuality or gender identity, though he has only publicly been in relationships with women, and previously said he wasn’t using sexual ambiguity to be ‘more interesting’.

He later told Rolling Stone: ‘I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it.’

Harry says everyone has a ‘journey’ to their sexuality and hasn’t labeled his own (Picture: Getty Images for HS)

Matty, meanwhile, is not sexually attracted to men but kisses male fans at his concerts ‘men can be objectively beautiful,’ but he doesn’t ‘want to f*** them.’

In 2019, the Chocolate singer made out with a male fan on stage at a concert in Dubai, where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Matty says he was threatened with arrest for the act, but was able to jet off to Japan to continue his world tour.

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He was criticised online for endangering the fan he kissed, admitting to The Sunday Times later he felt ‘pretty irresponsible’ at first but then went ‘f*** that’ as he wanted to ‘be an ally for people who don’t have a voice.’

Metro.co.uk has reached out to reps for Matty and podcast host Adam for comment

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