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sparksflygaylor · 3 years ago

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Homophobia and Closeting in the Entertainment Industry

I've seen a lot of discussion lately about why celebrities wouldn't just come out now that it's no big deal to be LGBTQIA+.

So I've compiled this list of interviews discussing the culture of closeting, hesitation to out yourself, pressure to hide your orientation, and being pushed to beard even after coming out in Hollywood. Keep in mind this is before taking into consideration the current state of the USA and it's trajectory towards rolling back minority rights.

A great place to start is this Q&A with Chely Wright, where she compares the culture of closeting in the Entertainment Industry to a 'blender' chewing people up and spitting them out without ever getting damaged itself.

In this interview with Ellen DeGeneres, she speaks about being told by everyone, including her gay friends not to come out.

Portia De Rossi wrote in her book about a morality clause in her contract with the L’Oréal campaign which ‘cited examples like public drunkenness, arrests, et cetera’ but she ‘knew that would include homosexuality.’ The linked article talks about the impact bringing back ‘morality clauses’ could have on LGBTQ+ actors after the Me Too movement.

This interview with Darren Hayes who had two successful albums as a part of Savage Garden but had his work altered, and career axed because of his sexuality.

Ricky Martin has spoken about figuring out his sexuality while in a PR relationship with a women who knew he was gay and afraid to come out.

Lilly Singh said in a monologue that people told her she’d ‘lose her popularity, fans and business in India’ after she came out.

Kate Winslet has spoken about the pressure on young actors to hide their sexuality and said she knew of several, including some ‘big names’, that were currently closeted out of fear.

Lance Bass chose not to come out until after NSYNC broke up because he thought if he came out it would be over for the band.

Adam Lambert had a performance cancelled after kissing his male keyboard player on stage. The kiss was also blurred by CBS.

Rebecca Black said she was ‘asked to change pronouns’ in her songs.

Katy Perry talked about how internalised homophobia impacted her song I Kissed A Girl and I Liked It saying “Truth be told, I did more than that. But how was I going to reconcile that with the gospel-singing girl raised in youth groups that were pro-conversion camps?”

Amber Heard spoke about the backlash she received after coming out in 2010 and said ‘if every gay man I know personally in Hollywood came out tomorrow, then this would be a non-issue in a month… We have a long way to go.’

Evan Rachel Wood told IndieWire in 2018 “A lot of people advise you not to do it. They tell you flat out — ‘Don’t do it. They don’t want you to be less desirable to men. Because that sells tickets and that helps your career.”

John Cho told IndieWire that he knows of one actor who “is not particularly in the closet, if you get my drift,” but is not out in the press. “I think he doesn’t want to … talk about that for 80 percent of each interview. It’s natural, the attention, but I think this person would rather talk about the film. And heterosexual actors are afforded a much greater degree of privacy.”

A top-level talent manager who spoke on condition of anonymity told IndieWire. “It’s all about perception. They want to believe that the lead guy is fucking the lead woman,” he said. “If a studio is backing a film with a ton of money … they want everyone who is buying tickets to believe that that’s in fact the case. Sadly, if we know that in real life the lead guy is screwing around with another guy, the fear is that it may hurt ticket sales. I think it pertains mainly to young male, romantic leads. Those are the roles that are written. That’s what’s out there. If the public is not going to buy you in those roles, if producers are not going to choose you in those roles, if you’re not being bought in those roles, what’s out there? That’s one of the hurdles that hasn’t been addressed yet.”

Lola Kirk told IndieWire “I am still lucky to get a job. It’s not entirely easy. So I think that’s why people might obscure certain parts of who they are, because it’s a privilege to be able to be recognized for what you do. Even if what you do is within a system that is extremely messed up, it can be tricky to be navigate if you overthrow the system or participate in it.”

Miley Cyrus felt like she had to ‘defend her queerness’ to the public during her marriage to Liam Hemsworth.

Demi Lovato has said they suppressed parts of themself to fit societies expectations.

Kristen Stewart talked about being asked ‘not to hold her girlfriend’s hand in public’ so that she ‘might get a marvel movie.’

Jojo Siwa wasn’t invited to the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards after coming out even though she was nominated.

Cardi B tweeted about the pressure ‘queer baiting’ accusations put on celebrities to prove their sexuality.

Dove Cameron in an interview with Gay Times Magazine said that she ‘hinted about her sexuality for years while she was afraid to spell it out for everybody.’

Jameela Jamil did an interview with Insider where she said she ‘hadn’t come out until now because she was scared of ‘the pain of being accused of performative bandwagon jumping’ and that ‘it’s scary as an actor to openly admit your sexuality especially when you’re already a brown female in your thirties.’

Halsey spoke about her struggle deciding who to duet her song ‘Strangers’ with. Saying her difficulty finding an openly queer woman to sing with ‘definitely says a lot about the industry.’

Sarah Ramirez spoke about their concern that coming out would have on their career in this interview with the Huffington Post.

Cara Delevingne has spoken about Harvey Weinstein telling her she would ‘never make it in the industry as a gay woman’ and to ‘get a beard.’

Bella Thorne said in a 2016 interview with Glamour she ‘received backlash’ for coming out. She did a 2021 interview with Variety where she talks about people calling her to ask if she ‘knows what she did’ and ‘how it’s going to affect her’ after she came out on twitter. She says she felt that coming out herself was better than getting outed by paparazzi or someone saying something but admits ‘it was hard with jobs’ and ‘with people in meetings.’ This quote goes into the sexualisation of women's sexualities common in the industry.

”And I can’t even imagine being a gay man because people look at me and they go, “Oh, well, she fucks men too, so it’s okay.” Because I’m pans. And I’m like, “Okay.” And they’re like, “Okay, well, you know what? She’ll just basically fuck anything, I guess. So it’s fine.”

“I just can’t imagine the pain that so many people that I’ve looked up to and worshiped for years have gone through in this industry wanting to be themselves.”

George Michael said in an interview that people were ‘still telling him to be careful’ after he came out in 1999.

Victoria Monèt came out in a tweet referencing ‘people’ who want to ‘pretend she’s not single’ and make ‘imaginary rules’ for her. In this interview with billboard she goes on to say she’d been ‘hiding it for a long time but wanted to break barriers for black women who don’t always feel comfortable to come out.’

This 2013 study by the Screen Actors Guild found that homophobic comments are common and job discrimination like being turned down for a role due to bias from studio executives who think Lesbian and gay actors are ‘less marketable.’

Greg Berlanti talked about the injustice of the lack of any LGBTQIA+ representation when he began producing in this 2020 interview with EW. He goes on to say that ‘while there’s been advancements in TV’, representation in films still feels horribly like it felt in 2000’ and ‘they still have a lot of work to be done.’

This 2019 billboard article about Homophobia in the Music Industry has some great quotes. Adam Lambert points out that in many cases the ‘gatekeepers’ ‘might not have been homophobic themselves’ but they ‘were fearful’ about how ‘an openly gay artist’ would work ‘in a mainstream music situation.”

In 2017 Ryan Murphy called out Homophobia in the Entertainment Industry talking about a ‘meeting with an executive’ where he ‘started imitating my voice and sort of making feminine hand gestures’ and went on to talk about fighting for queer representation in glee.

In 2007 T.R. Knight came out following a leaked story about co-star Isaiah Washington calling him a homophobic slur on the Grey’s Anatomy set. Washington apologised in a statement after the article leaked, but was still fired. However he returned for a guest appearance in 2014.

Billy Eichner said in an interview with them that Hollywood is ‘very homophobic under the surface and very hypocritical.’

Raven-Symonè said that a member of her team ‘went up to my mom and was like, “She looks too much like a lesbian. Can you tell her to put on a skirt and makeup? Because then they’ll accept her and come to her concert.”

Lady Gaga faced repeated rumours about her gender identity and was asked invasive interview questions about her genitals in a 2011 interview. She responded with ‘Maybe I do. Would it be so terrible? Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don’t care and neither do I.’

In an interview with Variety Laverne Cox said she is ‘aware that’ she’s ‘been tokenized. Sometimes corporations will say, “Oh, we have a Black trans person, we brought Laverne Cox in,” so they check off a few diversity boxes.’

Hayley Kiyoko in an interview with blade in 2019 said that she was told to ‘tone down’ her sexuality for her career.

Girl in Red singer Marie Ulven talked about the lack of ‘queer representation’ in ‘pop culture’ and her frustration with queer fans ‘gatekeeping’ her music.

Rebel Wilson came out in June of 2022 with a tweet about her new relationship. However soon after the Sydney Morning Herald released this insulting article by Andrew Hornery, explaining that they gave her 48 hours to respond to a story that was going to out her. The article has since been retracted. However his replacement article opts to justify rather than apologise saying ‘I genuinely regret that Rebel has found this hard. That was never my intention’ and that he thought a ‘celebrity relationship’ was a ’happy story.’

Rebel responded to her supporters with a tweet saying "Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace."

In his retraction, Andrew Hornery claimed that he will ‘learn from this’ but an article he wrote about Ian Thorpe in 2014 reveals that he, of course, already knew better. In it Andrew writes that he knew about another ‘closeted gay actor’ he ‘called out’ on being ‘disingenuous’. Yet for some reason he didn’t feel the need to write an article about that happy story. He goes on to chide the media for being more concerned with Thorpe’s sexuality than the ‘deeply disturbing admissions’ that he’d contemplated suicide’. Closing with ‘it would seem our priorities remain a little screwed up.’

Before coming out as transgender, Elliot Page, came out as gay in this 2014 interview where he talked about the ‘crushing standards’ of the Entertainment Industry and how the LGBT community knows that ‘anybody who defies these so-called norms becomes worthy of comment and scrutiny.’ He says he ‘suffered for years because [he] was scared to be out.’

In December of 2020, Page came out as transgender in this tweet where he said ‘I'm scared of the invasiveness, the hate, the ‘jokes’ and the violence.’ Going on to call out ‘celebrities with large platforms’ for ‘spewing anti-trans vitriol’ and politicians attempting for attempting to deny trans people the ‘right to exist.’

In this interview with CBS Page talks about the ‘massive amount of hatred and transphobia’ he’s faced since coming out.

Recently Twitter had to remove Page’s deadname after it started to trend following transphobic comments by Jordan Peterson which caused him to be suspended from the platform. Gay conservative commentator, Dave Ruben and Daily Wire Editor, Ben Shapiro piled on, with Ruben being suspended as well. Elon Musk also defended Peterson.

We’ve seen how powerful the Entertainment Industry has proven itself to be at silencing the sexual harassment and assault that finally came out during #MeToo. These are just some of the recent examples of homophobia and forced closeting that have been spoken out about, or gotten leaked in some way.

If guys like Peterson, Ruben and Shapiro feel confident enough to spew their hate speech all over social media - imagine what’s being said and done behind the closed doors of private meetings, studios and film sets. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Continued Here

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