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Lil Nas X had an unexpected response to a group of religious protesters outside of one of his recent concerts. His Boston stop on his Long Live Montero tour in support of his debut album attracted a crowd of protesters but the rapper didn't let it get to him.
"Just told my team to send them pizza, this is really good promo!" he wrote on Twitter while quote tweeting a fan's video of the protesters. He later told fans, "update: they didn't want the pizza but I accidentally fell in love with one of the homophobic protestor." He also shared a video showing a member of his team offering the protesters pizza. One person on the mic responded, "We appreciate it, but no thank you."
In true Lil Nas X fashion, he turned the moment into a hilarious meme. While zooming in on one of the protesters, the rapper added Sufjan Stevens' "Mystery of Love" from the gay film Call Me By Your Name (2017) starring Timothée Chalamet and the disgraced Armie Hammer.
The religious community's tension with Lil Nas X first sparked when he released a music video for "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)" which features him seducing a character that looks like Satan. His delightfully homoerotic TV performances to promote the song didn't help either. Amid its release, the rapper wrote an open letter to his 14-year-old self about the song and the controversy it sparked.
"I know we promised to never be 'that' type of gay person, I know we promised to die with this secret, but this will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist," he wrote at the time. "You see, this is very scary for me, people will be angry, they will say I'm pushing an agenda. But the truth is, I am. The agenda to make people stay the f--k out of other people's lives and dictating who they should be."