Shawn Mendes has a message for anyone struggling to accept LGBT people.
“I just say to open your eyes and open your mind,” the 19-year-old Canadian singer told Billboard on the BBMAs red carpet Sunday.
“Let somebody be and feel and live how they want to live.”
Mendes said his close friend and songwriting partner Teddy Geiger’s transition “was incredible to watch.” (Geiger went public last October, saying: "Love it or hate this is who I have been for a looooong time.”)
Mendes shared: “There was a moment when, I remember, I referred to Teddy as ‘she’ without thinking – and it takes time to be able to learn that, obviously – and the way she looked at me was [with] this intense amount of joy.
“And I swear if everybody in the world experienced one of their best friends, you know, experiencing that, there would be no questions. People would not be questioning it. It’s just not worth it to question it.”
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Mendes described his new album, out May 25, as the most honest yet.
“I really spent time not lying to myself and just writing exactly how I was feeling instead of dancing around the topics,” he told Billboard.
“I’m growing up. As a person I’ve changed so much since my last album so the music obviously is going to change with it.”
