His Interest Is In Girls

So, there's a certain adorable "Idol" winner whose name I'm not going to mention because I don't want the random Google guests stumbling into my neck of the blogosphere in search of gossip about whether he likes boys. I think he seems like a good kid, and I also think younger guys shouldn't be hounded about their sexuality, though it is natural for people to be curious. As I was tonight. I wanted to see what people were saying about him, so I searched. I know, I should be ashamed of myself, seeking out the gossip I find distasteful. I slapped myself on the wrist before clicking further. I found several references to an answer he apparently gave a Malaysian interviewer when asked about the gay rumors, which people are quoting as "proof" that he's not gay:




I have to say that is some really smooth wording, really well executed! I wonder if he was coached on that response? Whether he's hetero and was trying not to sound like he was disgusted by the suggestion, or whether he's homo and was playing a mental slight of hand, it was well fielded and focused.

It took me back to when I found ways to answer such questions in honest but "directed" ways, to satisfy curiosity and thereby evade further questioning while directing attention to what I believed was most important in the answer. Some would say I'm just trying to make everyone gay in even thinking such a "clear" answer as "my interest is in girls" could mean anything except that he's straight, but I suspect those are mostly people who don't know, firsthand, the workings of the mind of a young guy whose beliefs conflict with his attractions. "My interest is in girls," to such a young man, does not mean, "I'm primarily sexually and romantically attracted to females and don't experience homosexual inclinations." It's a declaration of what one wants in life, regardless of sexual orientation. It's a statement that regardless of whether guys are more attractive, a gay relationship is not the goal but rather a relationship with a wife and children. And it's a lot easier than trying to explain, to a casual, pop-culture, worldwide audience, that you're gay in the sense that you're attracted to members of the same sex but not gay in the sense that you seek out same-sex relationships and that what you hope for is to find a girl you can marry despite this inherent challenge in such a hypothetical relationship...

But who knows? Maybe he meant, "No, I'm not gay," or, "I'm attracted to girls and not guys." Whatever he really meant by it, his response seems to have put many fans at ease to finally have some kind of definitive answer from him, even while some will simply believe what they want regardless of what he says. The kid's really young, and he has a lot to experience and figure out, and he should be allowed to do that without everyone trying to shove him into a box or mold to fit their paradigms and defend their egos. ...but I still think of him as the world's most-loved moho. Is that wrong of me? ;-)