First of all, thank you for welcoming me to the board!

OK, to clear up one little thing-- I mentioned that homosexuality was viewed as sexy or tantalizing, not gay marriage. "Viewed" is a very important word there-- there's a lot of immodest, racy, and vulgar stuff shown in the media because, simply put, it sells. I'm not saying that's good. In fact, I think it's juvenile. But that's what's going on, and that's why Johnny is getting so much coverage on this issue.

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Maybe not, though what makes you think that he's gay the way he's acting now?


Gender roles are largely a social construction, and when part of a person's sexuality doesn't conform to that construction, the lines blur a bit. More simply put, lesbians often act more masculine and gay men often act more feminine. This is not a hard and fast rule, only a tendency. Johnny says plenty of things to encourage this view; otherwise he wouldn't be blipping on the gay-dar of a large necessarily conservative network like NBC.

I'm going to quickly steer away from this part of the conversation because it's off the point and invasive, though I might point out that the fact that I had to explain this backs up my comments on invisibility.


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NO ONE can completely predict what all will happen, not even someone like Johnny, who's exposed to the media 24/7. He doesn't always know exactely what kind of reaction he's going to get.


True; however, he can predict there *will be* negative feedback, and sometimes a lot of it. This is a case of stimulus/response. He does something considered out of the ordinary, and takes flak for it. Have you heard the story about him practicing at the rink when he was young, and the hockey players shooting pucks at him?

To play down the risks of being the sort of person Johnny is (and here I'm talking strictly about personality, not sexuality at all) is to do a disadvantage to all the weird kids out there. Growing up is hard for everyone. People are mean.

Johnny knows that. He jumped over those pucks and kept skating. To act like he doesn't know that people will criticize him for what he does and how he acts is to ignore the courage it takes to walk into the press room and be himself.

I'll also point out that Johnny *was* asked the question-- twice, in fact. Once was on his official site, and it was his decision to post the question and his answer. Both times, Johnny neatly side-stepped the question, giving a sort of "non-answer." If the rumors were really bothering him and he wanted to put them to rest, he could have answered "no."


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I care about Johnny very much, and I don't want his reputation marred by the stupid press trying to prove - IN VAIN - to the world that Johnny's gay. He has enough problems on his face already, he doesn't need press being hateful to him and recking his rep.


This is what the article was talking about; the assumption that being outed is a horrible thing. If we keep thinking that way, being openly gay will continue to be a horrible thing.

Also, it's comments like this that worry me. What if Johnny *did* come out as gay? Would it change your opinion of him? Would you love him less? Would you love his skating less?

What I really wanted to point out in my original post, and maybe I didn't do it clearly, was that this board takes the issue way more seriously than the press and even Johnny do. There's a quote from an article linked in the "Slightly cheering post-LP articles" thread:

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"It seems that he's being playful about it, and the nature of the playfulness is such that it's hard to tell if he's doing it to tease or make a statement about himself," Boyer says. "It seems to be the nature of his personality that he enjoys keeping people guessing..."


And Vicky commented:
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Finally someone really captured this lovely character of Johnny.