Rapper, actress, and radio personality DaBrat has been in the entertainment industry for 20+ years, having starred in music videos, movies, plays, and as a host on ‘Dish Nation’ radio. In that span, many people have questioned DaBrat’s love life as she was never publicly spotted nor confirmed a relationship with anyone. That was, until this year.
In March, DaBrat came out to the world as part of the LGBTQ community when she confirmed her relationship with Jesseca Dupart, CEO of Kaleidoscope Hair Products, in a heartfelt post on Instagram that showed Dupart gifting DaBrat with a Bentley for her birthday. DaBrat revealed to Variety that ‘for a long time I was bisexual,’ seeing as though she had boyfriends in high school and has dated both guys and girls In her adulthood.
Prior to her coming out, many people had presumptions about DaBrat’s sexuality during her time as a female artist in hip-hop, but no one knew for sure. The Grio noted that during the era in which DaBrat was an artist, coming out then, could have ruined her career.
“The social landscape was very different when [DaBrat] first came on the scene,” The Grio mentioned. “Both misogyny and homophobia created a culture where coming out would have been career suicide for a Black woman in hip-hop.”
DaBrat always believed that keeping her life private was the best way to keep a lot of people out of her business, but once she entered into a relationship with socialite Dupart, she knew that had to change.
“I’ve always felt like being private is the better way to go, because then you don’t have so many people in your business,” Brat tells Variety. “I was fine, staying quiet, but my partner is a social media mogul — that’s how she became who she is. And when you get with somebody, you have to meet in the middle. So, to me, the middle was just letting everybody know: ‘Hey, she’s the one.'”
One might think the announcement to come out was staged by the couple, but according to Variety, it wasn’t. When she and Jessica were looking through pictures of them together, they both jokingly spoke about posting one of them. After going back and forth on who would do it, Dupart decided to post it.
“When she did [it], I was like, ‘Oh s—! I just came out after 20-something years,” DaBrat told Variety.
Although it took seemingly two decades for the 46-year-old actress to come out, she was adamant that it was her decision and hers alone to keep her sexual preferences hidden from the world for so long.
“It was absolutely my decision, “she said. “I was always told you want to be f—able to men and women to sell records — you don’t want anybody to discriminate.”
She added:
“I mean, you saw what happened to people like Ellen: Remember when she lost her TV show, and all these horrible things were happening? People were totally against it.”
Since coming out, DaBrat tells Variety that the response that she has received from fans has been “overwhelmingly favorable.”
“The reaction made me feel like, ‘Why didn’t I do this s— years ago?'” she laughs. “I got so many positive messages, phone calls, and I had at least 1,500 texts. My DMs were flooded too.”
Because she has come out, DaBrat now has the opportunity to celebrate LGBTQ Pride with her girlfriend out loud and proud.
“To me, Pride is loving myself and not making excuses for anything: Live in your truth,” she says. “If I can inspire someone or help somebody to deal with their issues and their sexuality, then I’m here for it.”
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