Did Madonna come out as gay or was she 'queerbaiting'?

Madonna shared a controversial TikTok video on Sunday that has been dividing the internet. The 64-year-old pop icon captioned the video "If I miss, I'm Gay," and featured herself throwing a pair of hot pink underwear into a trash can but missing the shot entirely. She ended the clip by turning around and waving a peace sign.

The short clip contained no caption and was quickly bombarded with comments. One user remarked, "We are witnessing herstory," while another wrote, "Did I just witness Madonna coming out, good for her." Another person had the same sentiments and said," did i just witness a historical moment."

The TikTok sparked discourse on the "Like a Virgin" singer's sexuality. Some think that the Queen of Pop was just "queerbaiting" to stay relevant. Queerbaiting has been defined by Sexual and Gender Minority Health professor Ricky Hill, PhD to be a marketing tactic that nods at queerness but never actually delivers it. People are speculating that the video is no more than a strategy that panders to fans within the LGBTQ community for the "Vogue" singer to gain popularity and boost sales.

However, longtime fans of the singer vehemently deny this and cite the singer's long history of standing up for the LGBT community and her infamous kiss with Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, as only one of the handful of times she has publicly shown affection for other women.

During the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Madonna was a strong and vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights. In 2013, she dressed up as a boy scout to protest homophobia as the organization had a ban on gay members. These public acts supporting the LGBT community eventually won her the Advocate for Change Award at the 30th GLAAD awards in 2019.

In the meantime, everybody can still listen to her beloved hits like "Express Yourself" and "Forbidden Love" as the internet will have to wait for Madonna to properly address the ongoing speculation with her video post.