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Say Anything Lead Singer Max Bemis Comes Out in Emotional Letter

The singer addresses his sexuality, mental health, and the future of the band.

Say Anything singer Max Bemis has come out to fans in an emotional open letter.

In a nine-page letter addressed to his fans, Bemis discusses the future of the band in light of the band's upcoming album, Oliver Appropriate. But Bemis candidly talks about his own experiences with mental health and his own sexuality—which he describes as "bi-ish or queer or a straight guy who can also like boys.”

“I always talked or joked about it with my friends and found it to be blatantly clear I was. I was bullied for it and called a ‘fag’ (without irony). This is, sadly, common,” he writes. “I’m not special. I even went so far as to tell people I was also attracted to guys repeatedly. They chalked it up to my bipolar shit, which was hurtful.”

Bemis continues to speak on how his identity was often negated by others because he was married to a woman. He describes most of his queer experiences as “limited and remain mostly emotional.”

In choosing the title of the upcoming album, Bemis speaks to how it also helped him address these aspects of himself. The title, as he explains it, is the name of a character who is "a critique of 'new age masculinity'." Oliver Appropriate continues the story of the character of Oliver, which began on the band's 2004 debut album, ....Is a Real Boy. He says the album marks the band's "spiritual ending," and announced a hiatus following the release of this latest album.

"There will be no full U.S. tour to support the record or in the near future. I am done being a touring musician as my main profession," Bemis writes. "Say Anything is retiring in the sense that Jay-Z did. It’s not an indefinite hiatus or a breakup because that’s impossible."

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