Being "out" in L.A. is a “beautiful thing,” she says, thanks to the strength of its local queer community. Nunes shouts out the local , where she donates all of her clothing and volunteers are always needed. “It’s so accessible and they make it so easy," she adds.
Now fully comfortable in her own queerness, the artist acknowledges the activists that came before her. “They’ve created a world where I came out and everything was chill ,” she says. “I told my dad that I was dating a woman and he went to the store and got a rainbow flag and put it outside the house.” While her hometown of Rochester was not “inhospitable to queerness,” she explains, it isn't like Los Angeles. “It does take a certain amount of conviction to be loud about pride.
The overall definition of Pride has changed for her as well, as she’s further embraced her own identity. “One of my life philosophies is that your attention is kind of like a magic wand in the things that you put positive attention towards. Pride just nails that,” she says. “Pride was created when it was not actually safe to be out. It’s about showing your love and I think that that creates an environment where other people feel safe to love who they love.
Looking ahead, Nunes hopes her own ease in coming out can inspire others struggling with identity to feel fully comfortable embracing their own uniqueness. “The hope for me is that my presence makes it easier for any other queer person to feel that it's safe to come out,” she says. “Or that it makes it easier for any other queer person to imagine that a career like mine is possible for them.”
An avid fan of short runs of intimate and acoustic “living room” shows via the platform Undertow across North America, Nunes’ most recent run hit this February and March. Next up, she’ll play a series of full band shows on both coasts, including stops at
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