Gloria Estafan is opening up about why she didn’t think her daughter, Emily Estafan, should tell her grandmother about her sexuality.
In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, the Latin pop star detailed the moment she realized that if Emily came out to her older relative, it would’ve been “convoluted” for several reasons.
“In the Latin community, a lot of these subjects aren’t touched, they’re taboo,” Estafan said. “People see — but they don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to see it.”
The Cuban singer discussed how she and Emily wanted to share their story so that people “realize these are the conversations we need to have.”
Estafan explained how she believed her 27-year-old daughter would feel more comfortable coming out to her rather than her grandma before her death in an episode of Red Table Talk: The Estefans.
“We’ve been extremely open about the help for the LGBTQ people group our whole lives and simultaneously, I had a mother with ulcerative colitis that regardless of whether I raised a bill — or something not even significant — would get sick,” she added about Gloria Fajardo, who died in 2017 at 88.
In the same Red Table Talk interview, Gloria and Emily reflected on her initial attempt to tell her parents about her sexuality. “We were in the car, and you, like, leaned over very excitedly and asked your dad and I, ‘Guys, do you think that I might be gay?'” Gloria recalled.
Emily later shared that her mother responded: “You said, ‘Only you can know that,’” she said. “But when I asked you that question, it was like testing the waters because I was afraid.”
The young Estefan revealed her struggles with her sexuality and admitted that she dated both men and women to figure things out after feeling like “something was wrong with me.”
In a previous interview with the Sunday Times, Gloria shared her feeling about Emily’s coming out journey.
“It was a bit of a surprise to me that she didn’t feel comfortable enough to say from the beginning what she was feeling. But then she is a private person, like me, so I understood that. She was very anxious,” Gloria told the Sunday Times earlier this month.
She added that she and her daughter have both attended therapy together and that “it was incredibly useful to have someone there while we were discussing things and pointing things out. It was healing.”
For National Coming Out day in 2020, Emily shared an encouraging tribute to her fans.
“Be you. Be kind. Be better,” she wrote. “Be open, be careful if you feel unsafe, be LOVE. Anything else is icing … Happy love day… because that should be every. Single. Day.”
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