Because the world is a puritanical hellscape that hates gay people and upholds rampant toxic masculinity, people are very upset at Lil Baby right now. During Michael Rubin's Fourth of July party, a photo emerged of Lil Baby enjoying a group hug with a couple of dudes. The internet got very weird about this, saying things like "It's normalizing the gay agenda". 50 Cent even got in on the action, proclaiming that he was very confused and upset about the picture of a consensual hug that he was not involved in. Boosie Badazz later took some subtweet potshots at Fif over his outrage.
For his part, Lil Baby went all in on "huggate", posting from Rubin's private jet, where he loudly promised Meek Mill and others "drunken hugs in Vegas". Not to editorialize too much but there is nothing wrong with dudes hugging dudes. You are more than welcome to not hug the dudes in your life. However, if your anti-dude hugging is strong that you have to object to other dudes hugging their dudes, that sounds like a you problem. Regardless, now Kyle Kuzma is getting in one the fun.
Kyle Kuzma Shares Hug Pic With Rubin
Taking to his Instagram story, Washington Wizards centerpiece Kyle Kuzma showed that he was not afraid of the dude hug. "We can always hug my brotha," Kuzma wrote over a picture of him hugging Rubin. Kuzma also added three sobbing emojis and tagged Rubin. The picture was reshared by DJ Akademiks, where the comments were predictably trash. "Those lil baby photos worse than gunna snitching", "Next thing you know, they gonna normalize kissing. It’s all part of the agenda", and "They not even trying to hide this gay shi anymore smh".
But why does any of this matter? Why should we care that some people are upset about the very normal action of some dudes hugging? Because at the end of the day, angry bigots online are just the tip of the iceberg. According to the ACLU, they are tracking 491 active bills in state legislatures that can be described as anti-LGBTQ+. A separate anti-trans bill tracker claims to be tracking 561 bills in state legislatures. The fundamental right of LGBTQ+ people to simply exist is under attack. If we allow for there to be a "both sides" argument about whether it's okay for two heterosexual men to platonically hug, we are allowing the door to remain open for bigotry. This is two men hugging because they are friends. And yet people feel comfortable enough to say that it's part of some sort of LGBTQ+ "agenda".
