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How Straight Might Just Kill a Celebrity’s Career

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It has been a while since I have posted anything LGBTQ here but I have been watching something unfold on Tumblr and I find it a bit disturbing though not entirely unexpected.

As I’m sure most of you know, I am an avid (read obsessed) Glee fan and I am a huge supporter of Chris Colfer and Darren Criss, the actors who portray gay couple Kurt and Blaine on the show. Now, over the last couple of years, rumors have abounded that though Darren Criss once claimed to ‘identify as a straight male’ in one interview three years ago, he is in fact quite hetero-flexible and <secretly> in a relationship with out co-star Chris Colfer.

Criss has never had a problem with people assuming that he is bisexual. He has made statements such as: “You fall in love with a person, not a gender”, “I dare you to be gayer than me”, “Chris and I are like an old married couple now”. He is a huge advocate for the LGBTQ community and even sang the song “Happy to Keep his Dinner Warm” in support of gay marriage. He has also adamantly refused to change gender pronouns in songs just because they are traditionally sung by a woman.He has a very anti-celebrity personality and is often seen catering to fans, introducing himself to paparazzi like he isn’t famous and constantly just seeming surprised that anybody finds his life even remotely interesting. It is why fans love him.

People have often believed that Criss and Chris are in a relationship because of the adoring glances they can’t seem to help but give each other whenever they are within close proximity to one another, which used to be quite often.

This has since stopped being a problem because, though they have admitted to being best friends and are often mentioned as being at the same events together, they have not appeared publicly together, been interviewed together or been photographed together in almost two years despite recently being named the most popular TV couple on television.

Why am I telling you all this?

Darren Criss has a new movie coming out and has just completed a month long sold out tour. One would think this would have his 1.3 million fans swooning but, instead, has them all scratching their heads. It isn’t that Criss isn’t as insanely rabid with his fans as he used to be. In fact, during the tour he would often spend hours and hours signing autographs and taking pictures with fans and never turned away fans even when it pissed off security, PR and award show personnel.

 This tour highlighted music written by Criss. Some of these songs were made famous before he was on Glee back when he was a YouTube sensation with his Starkid Production company doing Harry Potter musical parodies, others were new material he was trying out. Even non-crisscolfer fans were raising eyebrows at the lyrics of these new songs which had language that hinted about secret romances and how he would continue to love that person no matter what others thought of their relationship even if they had to keep it secret. People soon took to Tumblr screaming that these songs were so about Chris Colfer. Almost immediately there was a strange turn of events on tour.

Tumblr fans call this the “I’m Darren Criss and I’m Super Straight” PR campaign. There is one song that Darren performs that is so out of character for him. He pulls a girl on stage and sings to her about wanting to basically make a porno with her and they tweet #pictureperfectgirl and use this to beat everybody over the head with Darren’s straightness while making several fans uncomfortable.

This straight guy image was somewhat shattered when he blushingly told the audience that picture perfect girl ‘wasn’t his idea’ and hinted that he thought it was ridiculous. He also didn’t write the song. 

It is no secret that in Hollywood it is hard to be gay and still be considered for the heartthrob main character roles. Why this is, I don’t know. I know that Neil Patrick Harris and Matt Bomer are both very much gay and taken but it doesn’t stop me from adoring their straight characters on their respective shows or from believing them romantically. It is called acting for a reason. Zachery Quinto is out and rapidly becoming a super-star but even he hesitated before coming out.

It is almost impossible to name a gay Hollywood actor or singer who, at some point, wasn’t telling the world he was straight, wasn’t dating/marrying people in an effort to prove their straightness and didn’t only come out after finally feeling that they had enough status to continue with their career of choice or just couldn’t live the half lives they were forced to live in the closet.

However, it seems that Hollywood is far more accepting of people who check the gay or straight box then those who are a bit more flexible with their lifestyle choices. Bisexual does not seem to exist in Hollywood and I feel that this is possibly the reason that Criss’ PR firm is coming out of the straight closet with guns blazing. I mean, who is going to want to see Criss make out with Kristen Wiig if he is…gasp, bisexual? (Um, me…just FYI).

In the two years since Criss has been in the public, not once has he addressed his sexuality other then his comment about ‘identifying as a straight man’ which is the most roundabout way I’ve ever heard a man say they liked having sex with women, BTW. He even backtracked publicly during an interview stutteringly stating that he ‘isn’t sure who he came out to as a straight man’.

Yet, in the last month alone, he has used the word straight at least 15 times in interviews set up by PR complete with questions written by Criss’ PR people so he can queasily pronounce his love of vagina and boobs again and again.

This may have backfired though.

Before the tour, he was about to start producing an album, now that appears to be off the table. Some sites are reporting that he has lost over 3000 twitter followers in just the last four weeks alone despite the tour selling out. It has nothing to do with his music. His new songs are getting tons of positive feedback. This exodus by fans (those who think he is straight, gay, bisexual or only dating purple unicorns) seems to stem from just being able to tell that something is off about this new persona they are trying to shove down people’s throats.

See, the problem with having a very pro-LGBTQ celebrity suddenly going on interview after interview repeatedly but vaguely stating that he is ‘straight’ and has ‘a girlfriend’ all while looking like he wants to openly weep, is that it looks forced and contrived and people start to pull away because it screams of subterfuge. I’m not saying Criss is gay or bisexual but he is not being the adorkable, label eschewing anti-celebrity that his fans fell in love with and I think that it will end up damaging his career. 

I don’t blame him. I blame his PR people for perpetuating this bizarre mindset that you must be gay or straight and you must appear straight if you want to get any role that might involve being intimate with a female. Hollywood is filled with liberals who publicly cry for equality while silently forcing their clients back in the closet. If Hollywood, who helps shape so much pop culture, is still perpetuating this agenda, how can we expect any real change?

I have yet to figure out what on earth being an actor has to do with who the real life person sleeps with once the camera turns off. I realize that we live in a society where celebrities lives are literally recorded on a second by second basis but shouldn’t who they love still be their decision? I know people love to say that when you are a celebrity you knew what you were getting yourself into. The paparazzi and the press and the constant fan scrutiny are all par for the course but have we really reached a point where we feel like we own these people and can now not only comment on their love lives but dictate who and how they love?

In the case of Darren Criss, being tied to a PR firm that seems hell bent on forcing you to publicly state that you are a straight male when your fan base is largely made up of women who fell in love with you because you play a positive gay role model might end his career just as it was starting to finally gain momentum. I think Hollywood and Criss’ PR firm should have a little more faith in his fans and all the potential fans he will gain just by being himself, whoever that may be. I just hope that he gets away from this PR firm before it is too late to recover.

Thanks for listening to this very long opinion…

 

 



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