Back in October, Alaskan Bush People star Rain Brown was praised for her pro-equality message that she shared on Instagram.
Some fans, however, wondered if her message about LGBT rights might be a little personal. And, rudely, a couple of fans boldly asked Rain if she’s gay.
Though she had every right to ignore the questions, Rain decided to come clean and answer them.
Like the rest of her family, Rain Brown has a lot on her plate.
Since no, Ami Brown’s cancer wasn’t miraculously cured despite our hopes and best wishes, she’s still contending with her mother’s battle with lung cancer.
That’s hard for anyone to deal with, especially a girl who’s only just turned 15.
Reportedly, the Brown family is filming Season 8 in Colorado. We don’t know how much they’ve filmed — possibly just a promo or two — but filming a reality series is no joke.
Oh, and with Rain’s Instagram account having reached over 45,000 followers in just a few months, she’s dealing with a lot of social media pressures as both a teenage girl and her family’s de facto spokesperson.
It’s through social media that some people decided to give her a hard time by grilling her about her sexuality.
Folks, straight-up asking somebody their sexual orientation is fine sometimes, awkward at other times, and sexual harassment in other contexts.
When total strangers are asking a 15-year-old girl her sexual orientation, that’s seriously crossing some boundaries.
Apparently, Rain’s short hair, or perhaps the fact that she calls her fans “rainbows,” or perhaps her recent message about equality, led some fans to wonder about her sexuality, which is no one’s business by Rain’s.
We don’t know if they expected Rain to answer, but she did.
Rain shared an optimistic post, as she often does, and a fan straight-up commented:
“Are you gay?”
Though we’d have absolutely understood if Rain had ignored the comment, she decided to reply with a very direct answer:
“No, I’m straight.”
Rain didn’t stop there, though.
“And I call my fans rainbows because my name is Rain, but you do you boo.”
She added to that a kissy face emoji. Some people would add that as an insult, but coming from Rain, we think that it’s to show that there are no hard feelings over the question.
On another photo, a different fan commented:
“I wonder if [Rain] has accepted her sexuality yet?”
(Folks, if you want to speculate over somebody’s sexuality, do it in private or not at all — not on that person’s Instagram page)
Rain replied:
“I’m straight … so yeah, I have.”
That’s a polite reply but we believe that we detect an air of frustration.
To be clear, the sexuality question is inappropriate, not because gay people are somehow inherently inappropriate, but because it’s nobody’s beeswax. Also, it can constitute harassment.
She shouldn’t be faced with these questions, folks.
Not just because plenty of LGBT+ folks don’t feel comfortable coming out at 15 (if they’re even aware), but because it’s straight-up inappropriate.
We understand the desire to know as much as possible about the stars you admire.
And, quite frankly, a lot of television is starved for decent LGBT+ representation. Reality television is definitely included.
But instead of asking stars to come out — whether they’re actually gay or not — how about if we all instead mind our own business?
Especially when the reality stars in question are, you know, 15.
