K-pop: Why 's hard for stars to be gay South Korea | CNN

Contents:

• TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• ARE THE BTS GROUP MEMBERS GAY? HERE ARE THE DETAILS
• WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?
• RYM ULTIMATE BOX SET > 80'S GAY SYNTHPOP
• IN THE MP WORLD OF K-POP, ’S HARD FOR STARS TO BE GAY

TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED

She wore a red sequned drs and my head her hair was bigger than Dolly Parton’s, although is highly likely that uld be me leang to the gay fantasy.

While eventually I would e to realise I am also a gay man, long before my gay shame me the shame of beg a boy whose bt iend was a Barbie.

"Alex AvilaAnd Gay Tim, a Brish LGBTQ news se, celebrated Friday, the day of the film’s official release, as “Barbie day“ and lled the world-renowned doll a “queer cultural phenomenon. PicturIn an terview wh Fandango, actor Kate McKnon, who is openly gay and plays “Weird Barbie” the film, said Barbie is about “imagatn. Many also flagged the teased scene which Barbie, now the real world, exchang a longg look wh Ameri Ferrera’s Gloria character; though, the relatnship between the two turns out to be a tribute to motherhood and the tradnal, nuclear before the film’s release, Robbie all but squashed the mors that some or any of the Barbi and Kens would be gay, tellg the Brish LGBTQ magaze Attu: The dolls don’t “actually have sexual orientatns.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

There are brief appearanc by Earrg Magic Ken and Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken, both of which Mattel has always nied were tentnally gay-d. ”As far as the queer-d trailers and promotnal clips for the new “Barbie” film, Rand poted to a phenomenon known as “gay wdow advertisg, ” or the practice of advertisers gturg to queer dienc a way that will go over the heads of those who would disapprove. Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual. Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league.

Origatg 1960s Japan, where  was known as “yaoi, ” BL typilly picts two men a homoerotic relatnship.

Some LGBTQ activists have acced BL stori of fetishizg and appropriatg gay culture. Wily regnized as South Korea’s first openly gay K-pop artist, the sger and actor Go Tae-seob, who the stage name Holland, starred a BL drama last year and believ that the growg visibily of BL books, TV seri and movi is a posive step.

ARE THE BTS GROUP MEMBERS GAY? HERE ARE THE DETAILS

Bdette, who also intifi as gay and is a longstandg BL fan, said the genre will shake up nservative views on genr and sexualy South Korea. “Whether you are a heterosexual woman tryg to ject your sexual tonomy to the world, or you are a gay man who wants to see posive reprentatns of male-male romance, BL n be ed, ” he said. Holland is not the first known LGBT K-pop idol, but you n say that this new generatn of K-pop, he's one of the first idols who admted that he's gay.

He ially me out as gay 2015, and upon g Korea, his iends told him to keep his sexualy secret - but he's proud of his inty, makg him the first Korean artist who is openly gay.

However, durg an terview, she nfsed she is gay, g her to be kicked out om her agency. Why are gay male kpop fans of boy groups rarer than female kpop fans of boy groups? I checked out gay subredds on what they thk of kpop and found out that they're ually not terted them.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATN IS GAY?

For his legn lennial and Generatn Z fans, he’s among the first artists of their lifetime to ankly explore gay sex pop – notably on his recent send album, Bloom – and they’ve hailed him as a trailblazer.

The wds of the gay liberatn movement had been blowg strong for a : queer black men such as Sylvter had been at the heart of dis and the children of Bowie were g of age jt as MTV, a new medium that valued the high-energy visuals of queer nightclubs, was male pop artists were prevly few and far between: Ltle Richard’s lyrics about anal sex were cut om Tutti Ftti, and only took Bowie’s arm draped over the shoulr of Mick Ronson on Top of the Pops 1972 to send middle England reelg. Come the 80s though, acts such as Bronski Beat and Frankie Go to Hollywood beme “the gay hero of the ”, says Pl Flynn, thor of Good As You: 30 Years of Gay Bra. “There were stars the 80s who were pletely transparent about their sexualy om the start, and whose gayns was absolutely tegral to their mic.

RYM ULTIMATE BOX SET > 80'S GAY SYNTHPOP

”Synth-pop group Bronski Beat’s but sgle, Smalltown Boy, about a gay man leavg his homophobic home town, charted globally 1984. “At the time we were jt three gay guys who started a band – we didn’t feel like part of any particular movement, ” says Steve Bronski. “Of urse, would transpire many years later that there were more gay artists than the public were led to believe.

”It took at least a for the era to be regnised as a goln age of gay pop, bee didn’t make self explic at the time.

“You had a backcloth of pop mic that was absolutely full of gay people, even megastars like Freddie Mercury and Elton John, but most of them were livg some sort of closeted existence, ” Flynn says.

IN THE MP WORLD OF K-POP, ’S HARD FOR STARS TO BE GAY

“There was Boy Gee, Pete Burns – who was married, but who is what you would now ll queer – Morrissey sgg about ‘handsome vils’, Pet Shop Boys wh their slightly more opaque readgs of sexualy, Marc Almond om Soft Cell, Gee Michael, who was closeted even though everyone the dtry knew he was gay. As cric Aled Soto wrote of Gee Michael: “Fe wh queerns so long as the artists didn’t ask or tell, the 1980s were the last time pop stars uld wear fgerls kchen glov whout dienc assumg they were gay. The ambiguo dg of 80s pop spend the figure of the gay male an -between space.

” Still, the signifiers weren’t yet wily unrstood terms of queerns – the 80s, cultural gayns was a novel hysteria around Aids spread, everythg changed. Author Matthew Todd tails this perd extensively his book Straight Jacket: How to Be Gay and Happy. ” This was perhaps when the missg lk between queer nightclub pop athetics and the act of gay sex fally clicked to place.