Charles Oputa, otherwise known as Charly Boy is known just as much for his music as he is for his controversial opinions and unconventional lifestyle. Later in his life, however, he went from expressing a decidedly metal rocker aesthetic complete with body jewellery, tattoos and leather chaps, to full on gender exploration, in the form of a female alter-ego called Linda. But the times have changed, and we as a whole do not simply accept otherness for its own sake without investigating its motives, especially from someone who doesn’t publicly identify as a sexual minority. And perhaps it’s time we finally asked some questions about Charly Boy and his queer allyship.

Recently he sat down with Adesua Oyenokwe (yes, the very same one who conducted the terrible alarmist interview with Bobrisky), to discuss his life right now, his music, his family, his activism and his personas on her new show Seriously Speaking on Channels TV. The conversation as expected eventually turned to his multiple public personas and touched especially on “Linda” his female alter-ego. When Charly Boy was asked about his female alter-ego and asked explicitly if he would define what he does with that persona as ‘cross dressing’. He was quick to skim past Linda, but he did take time to make it clear that he doesn’t ‘cross dress’.

While Adesua Oyenokwe seems to go from seasoned journalist to roadside gawker once the subject of queerness is brought up, it was very interesting to see how uncomfortable Oputa himself is with publicly discussing his very public decision to publicly suggest that he is either queer or queer adjacent. Especially considering he had this whole phase where he had ‘Handmaids’ around whom he spun this very fantastical yarn of being a spiritual being with guides and what not.

Perhaps we’re giving this too much thought. After all, one of the things we fight for is the right for men to explore and embrace their femininity without fear of discrimination. But we’ve also seen too many people dabble with queerness as a way to make themselves more interesting, or court attention when they think their public image is getting ‘boring’. We’d hate to think that Charly Boy is one of such people.

Editor