Megan Thee Stallion defended gay classmate in middle school. He got invited onstage
“Hot Girl Summer” rapper Megan Thee Stallion invited fans onstage during her headlining performance at Los Angeles’ “Pride in the Park” music festival — and one person who came up had a heartwarming story to share.
She seemed surprised to see her former classmate Luis Ruvalcaba on stage with her during the performance on Saturday, June 10.
“What is my classmate from like middle school — ?” she exclaimed, asking him what he was doing there.
After he explains it’s his birthday, she wishes him a happy birthday into the microphone. He later posted several videos of their interaction to his Instagram page, including one in which the rapper films a video of herself with his phone.
“Meg took my phone on stage and took a video ahhh Hot Girl Summer!” he wrote on the video. “I’m living my best life!! Best birthday ever.”
In another post, Ruvalcaba describes how the rapper stood up to his bullies when they were just kids in school together in Houston.
“I have so much respect for her since the time in middle school when I was being talked down being called Gay when i wasn’t out yet and she stepped in and defended me,” he wrote. “I was a little boy back then and she always had my back!!”
In a text message, Ruvalcaba told McClatchy News they had several classes together because the first initials of their last names are P and R.
He recalled the rapper standing up for him in a history class they had together. Some of their classmates were being rowdy and disruptive, he said, and began to make fun of him for being gay, even though he hadn’t yet come out of the closet.
“I couldn’t say much... it was like I was hiding something,” he said. “I knew it was true but just didn’t talk about it.”
The story resonated with many.
“We love the hot popular girl standing up for the bullied,” someone said on his Instagram post. “I’m so glad you were there to see her.”
Several people said the “full circle moment” was so touching, it made them want to cry happy tears.
“This made me shed a tear, so sweet,” someone said.
“It was seriously surreal,” Ruvalcaba told McClatchy News. He reflected on the moment in a June 12 photo that showed him wearing the Astros jersey and cowboy hat he wore on stage with the rapper.
“LA it was real! Amazing weekend!” he said. “Best experience in my life was to get on stage with not only [an] old friend but an amazing role model!!”
“She is beyond the artist everyone sees,” he said. “She’s a kind person, down to earth and lovable. At least that’s what I remember.”
Megan Thee Stallion posted about the “vibes” at the show in two posts on her Instagram page, using the nickname for her fans.
“Thee Hotties really showed out last night,” she said in the post. “So much love at LA PRIDE.”
‘Love yourself the way you are’
In another interaction on stage, the rapper shared her thoughts about the importance of self love, especially when it comes to transgender people, after she took issue with a comment from a fan onstage.
“The person said, ‘trans lives matter but I’m very passable,’ and I don’t really like that,” she said. “Passable” is a term describing a person perceived as their identified gender, rather than what was assigned at birth.
Fans in the audience seemed confused and stayed silent as she clarified her point — that it doesn’t matter what others think as long as fans love themselves.
Fans cheered as she said “if you love yourself the way you are, let me hear you,” a video posted to TikTok on June 12 shows.
“I like what I see when I look in the mirror,” she said. “And even on the days I don’t…I like what I see in the mirror. God bless you.”
Fans praised the importance of the message in the comments.
“Meg is really for the community bc half of y’all favs wouldn’t even know what passable means,” one wrote.
“I love her so much for this, yes you don’t have to be passing to [be] trans!” someone said.
“This makes me cry,” another fan wrote, adding that if they’d had representation like that while growing up “my whole world would have been different.”
This story was originally published June 14, 2023 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Megan Thee Stallion defended gay classmate in middle school. He got invited onstage."
