On Tuesday, Grammy-winning artist Sam Smith took it upon himself to raise awareness of ever-present intolerance, on social media and otherwise. The singer posted a screen shot of a homophobic Instagram account dubbed @gaysamsmith; even worse than the account name is the bio, a poem that is horrific both on an ethical level and a literary one. Whoever created the account obviously has way too much time on his or her hands, but the fact that it even exists points to a larger problem.
Everything about this is just infuriating, but Sam is above it—he has dealt with homophobia before. Still, by sharing this with his 4.5 million followers (and all the media outlets who have covered the incident), the openly gay singer is doing a lot to remind people that homophobia is still extremely commonplace today. With recent advancements in LGBTQ+ rights, it’s too easy to fall into complacency and assume that the fight is over for the queer community, when this is so far from the truth. We are so thankful for famous advocates like Sam.