Anti-Brexit campaigner Femi Oluwole felt the need to assure everyone he’s ‘not gay’ before singing a song from Empire

British political activist Femi Oluwole singing "So What" from Empire. (Screen capture via Twitter)

British political activist Femi Oluwole faced backlash Tuesday morning after singing a song with the lyrics “I’m gay” and then noting that: “For the record, I’m not gay.”

Oluwole, 30, uploaded a video to Twitter of himself singing along to “So What” from the American television show Empire as he biked down a leafy road.

He was responding to his own tweet where he praised Empire for its handling of homophobia aimed towards Jamal Lyon (Jussie Smollett).

The anti-Brexit campaigner prefaced the video to clarify, “For the record, I’m not gay”, a comment which prompted comments from some LGBT+ users, who criticised him for feeling the apparent need to do so.

He later told PinkNews: “In the video, I sang ‘I’m gay’. So in the description, I clarified ‘I’m not gay’.

“That’s literally the most logical way of making that clarification.”

Femi Oluwole faces criticism for ‘coming out’ as ‘not gay’. 

The song, performed on the show by Jamal Lyon (Jussie Smollett) in the season one finale, starts with the lyric: “So what, I’m gay, it don’t matter.”

Oluwole filmed himself belting the song while on his bike, captioning the footage: “For the record, I’m not gay.

“I just watched the Empire episode yesterday and can’t stop singing it because I’ve never seen a more brutal and yet musically beautiful destruction of a bigotry in my life.

“(And I’m confident enough in my sexuality to put this on the internet.)”

The footage received some retaliation on social media, with some users perplexed by Oluwole “coming out” as “not gay”.

https://twitter.com/socialistbangrs/status/1257834621326278656

https://twitter.com/MoaVideos/status/1258014334057234435

Other users defended him singing the song and clarifying his sexuality, saying it was a: “A strong chant for equality, whatever the cause.”

Oluwole later elaborated in a follow-up tweet why he prefaced the footage. “To those suggesting that I shouldn’t say ‘I’m not gay’,” he wrote Tuesday morning.

“I’m young and single,” he explained, “and plan to change the latter before the former, and yet, I just sang ‘I’m gay’ in front of a quarter of a million people online.

“Can you guess why it might be in my interest to clarify that?”

He added in a further tweet: “And once again, I make a post specifically attacking homophobia and supporting gay rights and it’s brought out a really toxic attitude among a few, just like the example below.”

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