HomophobiaEllen Page 1-Year Before Identifying as Elliot Page: "I was distinctly told, by people in the industry, when I started to become known: ‘People cannot know you’re gay.’"

submitted by yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries" from cosmopolitan.com

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[–]yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries"[S] 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Very true. Homosexuality in Hollywood is viewed as not marketable. Aside from a few people, high profile actors and singers marketed to have wide appeal who actually date the same sex tend to have their same-sex relationships obscured and sometimes even covered with fake relationships with members of the opposite sex. Meanwhile people come out left and right as queer/LGBTQ/bisexual/pansexual and then either continue to exclusively date the opposite sex or any same-sex relationships they may have are hidden. The paparazzi and social media are used as tools to facilitate this nouveau-closeting and image of functional heterosexuality.

[–]insomniahurts 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

For real. I think Neil Patrick Harris succeeded in not getting his entire career plummet after coming out in 2006 because he played an extreme caricature of a straigh man so convincingly, most people didn't even know, belive or care he is gay. It seems you have to really have that wide appeal to the masses and an already blooming career and all the connections that come with it, to not have producers and casting agents not drop you. Good luck to all new faces in coming out as exclusively homosexual if they don't want to be typecast as "the gay guy/the lesbian" for the rest of their career.

And what you said about coming out as "queer/lgbtq/bi/pan" and then dating opposite sex is so true. You can come out as word soup as long as you don't act on it by actually dating the same sex.