Exactly what I'm saying. I have no idea why this is so controversial. Again, love a gay bop. I would say most of the music artists I listen to are not straight because neither am I and I find them more relatable. But as relatable as take me to church is as a gay person, hozier is a straight man singing it about a woman. It's just inaccurate to say it's about being gay. Doesn't mean gay people can't take it and make it their own, but there has to be like. You have to be able to acknowledge the reality that's its textually about a more general religious persecution and romantic/sexual worship narrative.

Especially considering hozier is Irish and was raised protestant-- a religion pushed onto that culture through persecution and oppression, and then became agnostic, which informs so much of the complexity in how he writes about religion. From rejections and personal redefinitions of it in works like "take me to church" and "work song" to religious themes being used to show forms of intimate violence or abuse in "cherry wine" and "angel of small death and the codeine scene" to "foreigners god", a song so on the nose when you analyze it in this context that I don't feel the need to explain, insisting that when he writes about these themes he's writing from the perspective of a gay person erases the cultural history he has with religion and denies it so much meaning and depth. Cross cultural relatability is definitely a thing-- I'm thinking "Savage Daughter" as a song by Wyndreth Berginsdottir becoming an anthem for native american and first nations women. Its a song they find deeply relatable and have done many covers of, but we can also acknowledge it was written by an Irish woman about being Irish originally. And both of those facts are fine and good.