Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong says it’s “f**king cool” to be a bisexual icon

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong thinks it’s cool that he’s a bisexual icon, especially as young people have become more open about their own sexual identities.

“I like it. I think it’s f**king cool that someone calls me a bisexual icon. I’ve seen that before. I’m like, ‘F**k, yeah!'” the 51-year-old musician, who came out as bi in 1995, recently told People magazine.

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Green Day leads chant at AMAs: ‘No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA’

Green Day frontman Bille Joe Armstrong posted on Instagram after the election that “racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, and xenophobes” are not welcome at their shows.

“Being a Gen X-er, I feel like there was a seed that got planted where it was the era in the ’90s that we came up, where men were discovering more of being with other men and being more bisexual, and coming out with that, whether it was someone like Kurt Cobain or what I was saying,” Armstrong told the publication, referencing a 1993 interview in which Cobain, the frontman for the influential grunge rock group Nirvana, discussed his own sexual identity.

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“It’s way more complex now, as far as sexuality,” Armstrong continued. “You’re like, ‘Wow, we’ve really come a long way.’ Even though it’s still kind of looked at as being taboo, I think people now are a lot more brave than they’ve ever been. I think people are way more open now.”

Armstrong is correct about people’s increased openness about their sexual identities. A recent survey found that 28% of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+, a massive leap from the 16% of Millennials, 7% of Generation X, 4% of baby boomers, and 4% of the Silent Generation that identify as such. A 2022 poll also found that the number of American adults who identify as LGBTQ+ has doubled in the past ten years.

Some people have questioned Armstrong’s bisexuality since he has been married to his wife Adrienne for 29 years, and they have two adult sons: Joey and Jakob. Numerous bisexuals in different-sex relationships have faced similar erasure.

“Sexuality is always so much more than what the standard, nuclear-family type of way of looking at things,” Armstrong added. “But I have been married — there’s this other side of me that’s very conventional when it comes to my 30-year marriage to my wife. But I just look at sexuality: It’s not one way or the other. And if anybody ever tries to say that, I don’t think they’re really being honest with themselves.”

Armstrong has also recently emerged as a transgender ally, calling the current moral panic over transgender young people “f**king close-minded.”

 “It’s like people are afraid of their children. Why would you be afraid? Why don’t you let your kid just be the kid that they are?” the singer said of trans youth.