'I'm gay and a boy band!' | Stephen Gately | The Guardian

Contents:

• 'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'
• 'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'
• 'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'
• 'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'
• BOY BAND MEMBERS WHO ARE OUT AS GAY, BISEXUAL OR QUEER
• BOYZONE SGER GATELY NFIRMS HE IS GAY BEFORE STORY N BE SOLD
• VIO: GAY BOYZONE STAR STEPHEN GATELY FOUND AD WHILE ON HOLIDAY

'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'

But equally, no one qutned too closely Boyzone star was - whisper - gay. 'Everybody knew that Stephen was gay, ' says Peter Lorae, former edor of Top of the Pops magaze.

We're not buyg Boyzone rerds any, at least, was the prevailg view an dtry still ltle ed to alg wh gay pop stars who weren't 'antly' - or jt flamboyantly - queer like Boy Gee, Jimmy Somerville, Pete Burns or Frankie Go To Hollywood. In this prelapsarian era of all of seven years ago, if a boy band member were revealed to be homosexual, the very fabric of the pop myth would be rent asunr. 'Boyzone Stephen: "I'm gay and I'm love"', screamed the ont-page headle.

A secury guard on Boyzone's tour had gone to the papers, sellg a story that Gately was gay. 'Not that I wanted to go out to gay clubs and bars.

'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'

Was the outg of Gately about to overwhelm the promotnal mpaign, beg the gay tail that wagged the mass-market dog? You eher say, y, I'm gay, or you say nothg at all. He says he alt 'many tim' wh havg a member of one of his boy bands - not necsarily any menned here - who was secretly gay.

'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'

'I still thk, as a gay man myself, 's very difficult at an early stage to know your arse om your elbow and know where you're at sexually, ' he says. Asked if he was a gay pop star, Tennant replied: 'No, I'm a pop star that happens to be gay. If he had admted to his homosexualy ' the early stag [of our reer]', Michael told me Febary 2004, ' would have ed , absolutely.

'I'M GAY AND A BOY BAND!'

An avalanche of flowers and msag om his pop peers (Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys) and gay ins (Elton, Gee) rolled over Gately. 'Neher of them is gog, "Hey, I'm a gay role mol.

'Do anyone re now if a pop star is gay or straight?

BOY BAND MEMBERS WHO ARE OUT AS GAY, BISEXUAL OR QUEER

No one seemed too exced when Mark Feehily om Wtlife me out the Sun Augt last year, nor when Lance Bass om Jt Timberlake's old band, 'NSync, clared earlier this summer: 'I'm gay.

BOYZONE SGER GATELY NFIRMS HE IS GAY BEFORE STORY N BE SOLD

Robbie Williams repeatedly jok about beg gay but steady on, he is not, and last year took £200, 000 off the People, the Star and Hot Stars for allegg that he had got on wh a bloke a Manchter nightclub.

Are you gay?

But a iend had recently been expelled om the le-up of a new band 'beg put together by a major rerd label' after admtg he was gay. His manager told him: 'We're sorry but we don't want any gay guys this band.

VIO: GAY BOYZONE STAR STEPHEN GATELY FOUND AD WHILE ON HOLIDAY

Buckgham, who nfid McDaid that he was gay towards the end of the band's existence one year later, wrote that V were given 'a strict set of l to abi by. I remember one of those clearly beg "no viss to gay clubs". 'One of the managers would say, "You were seen at some gay club last night", and that was a problem.

But why nfe the issue by havg a gay member - two gay members - a brand new boy band, explicly targeted at young girls? To paraphrase the slogan popularised by Amerin activists Queer Natn: gay boy band members - they're here, they're queer, get ed to .