“I used to pretend I was gay just to fuck with people."

Vibe, October 1993

Cobain is an example of sexuality and gender being more gray while dominant culture suggests both are black and white.  Interviews and speculation weaved different stories, and Cobain’s sexuality was ambiguous.  Tramblay wrote that Cobain confessed to being bisexual which was also brought up in the interview between Cobain and The Advocate, a world famous LGBT news publication.  Cobain said “I used to pretend I was gay just to fuck with people.  I've had the reputation of being a homosexual every since I was 14” (56).  Although he puts it harshly, his peers already labeled him as homosexual.  He was in a way experimenting with society.  Cobain was setting himself apart from what was popular at his school to reject normalcy which led to his understanding of oppressed people, including women.  By being “gay” he could not get confused  by his peers as being apart of the general male population at his school that in the same interview he labeled as “really confused fucked-up guys” (55).  His diagnosis for the bullies? “There’s not much hope for them,”  he said commenting on how Axl Rose was like the boys at school (56). Cobain found his identity from being an outcast, but the price was being a victim. In his career his background made him an advocate.