FAKE MOON and queerness

Okay so to preface this, I know how contentious this kind of topic can get, and I wanna be clear that I mean this purely as an exploration of Cleopatrick’s lyrical storytelling from the perspective of a newer, very queer listener, and meant 100% positively. That being said…

tl;dr— are either of the guys gay/queer? Not in some cheap/flippant “omg yassss so gay” kinda way, but because some of their lyrics on FAKE MOON deeply resonated with me (a queer person in their 30s struggling with late-discovered gender identity/sexuality after growing up in a repressive conservative/religious environment) in a way that really nothing else has til now.

Specifically, HEAT DEATH— I won’t post the full song but the fact that it ends with the following lyrics:

call me weak

but all my great defeats come from guys who rest their wrists on the backs of empty seats and watch me eat

tell me shit they don’t mean

call me weak

but all my great defeats come from guys who rest their wrists on the backs of empty seats when we first meet

tell me shit they don’t mean

To me, especially in the context of the rest of the song with mentions of “sidereal romance” and “come on, I dare you Mr. Tough Guy,” it comes across as gay/queer asf, but in a way where it sits at the intersection of repressed, closeted sexuality; chest-puffing toxic masculinity and societal expectations of manliness; and insular religious upbringing (I remember reading a comment somewhere about one/both of them growing up going to catholic school). Not gonna lie, it brought me right back to when I was a deeply-closeted teenager freaking the fuck out about having a crush on a guy for the first time, and the associated religious panic/feelings of abject sinful doom; and then later my first experiences talking to guys on dating apps in my still-closeted 20s, and the disappointment/toxicity that came with that (ie the universal “dating guys on tinder” experience lmao)— and even to now, as a married, mentally-healthier-and-out-of-the-closet adult exploring all of it in earnest for the first time with my wife, and struggling with a lot of the gross, internalized bullshit all over again.

Am I projecting and/or reading too far into it? Maybe/probably. But I swear to god, no music has hit that specific button for me quite as hard as the lyrical combination of HEAT DEATH, HAMMER, PLEASE, and LOVE YOU with articulating feelings of longing, loss, heartbreak, hope, and affection in a very particular, unique way — to an extent where if one of them isn’t gay/queer and writing from personal experience, then they have managed to write something so universally poignant and poetic that other artists should be taking notes.

In any case— love the album (easily top 5 of the year for me), excited to dive into the rest of their discography, and hoping I don’t regret posting this lmao