The ongoing fallout over the Aaron Hernandez-themed documentary Killer Inside on Netflix continues, as Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, tells Good Morning America she didn’t know if he had same-sex attraction.
Jenkins and Hernandez began dating in 2007 and had a child together in 2012. They had something of a tumultuous relationship, with Jenkins complaining of Hernandez’s infidelities. She stood by Hernandez during his trial and conviction for the murder of his friend, Odin Lloyd. The couple never married before Hernandez’s suicide in 2017. Jenkins also continues to believe in Hernandez’s innocence.
Related: Netflix hopes to get to the bottom of those Aaron Hernandez bisexual rumors once and for all
Now Jenkins has gone public following allegations in Killer Inside that Hernandez was secretly gay or bisexual, expressing her hurt and frustration.
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Killer Inside reviews the meteoric rise of Hernandez as a star NFL player of the New England Patriots before his shocking arrest and conviction for murder. The series also interviews close friends and relatives of Hernandez, including a former teammate who claims the two had a gay relationship.
The series also features statements from Hernandez’s family who believe the footballer was gay. Killer Inside also suggests that Hernandez’s internalized homophobia contributed to his decaying mental state, as did drug use and brain injury. It also hints that Hernandez may have been responsible for other murders besides that of Odin Lloyd, and that he may have killed Lloyd after he discovered Hernandez’s closeted sexuality.
Smith David
You guys, my neighbors two cats are bullying me. I’m wondering, should I say something? Or will the cats find out an retaliate?
TimothyBeauchamp
They will find out. Cqts have their ways. Danger… danger… danger… meow
thisisnotreal
This is getting ridiculous, the guy is DEAD. he committed suicide in 2017, that’s almost three years ago now if your counting. yet people are still playing this “was he or wasn’t he” game over his cold corpse. it blows me away that some people in the lgbt community are so obsessed with filling our ranks with more out celebs that they are willing to forcibly out people against their wishes, or play this endless speculation game over someone’s sexuality when they are DECEASED. WHO CARES what his sexuality was or where he landed on the spectrum, he’s still gone at the end of the day and finally dissecting where he was in the Kinsey scale isn’t going to bring him back or change anything for our community except give some catty people one more celeb to look at and say “yup I knew it I had him clocked years ago” before they move onto the next person they want to gossip about and try to out. get on with your lives people and let the dead be dead in peace.
ShiningSex
He was a POS regardless if he liked d*ck or not. I would believe the man who claimed to have been involved with him. He is taking a big risk. This is also something that was ligering before his death. The gay rumors were there prior.
I think the issue is if it played a role in where he ended up because of this other person who was killed knew something or was going to say something. No one in the LGBT want murderers among our roster. please!
JED08
Who knew talking about a dead person would trigger you so badly? Do you also freak out if someone brings up Al Capone or Jesse James, you know, since they’ve been dead for a long time? Contrary to what you think, there is absolutely no problem with talking about Aaron Hernandez. In the end, he turned out to be a piece of sh$t, and we are definitely better off with him being dead. He was also gay, like us, so that is why we are talking about him.
flippermagee
“Acceptance is the key to all my problems today. “
ShiningSex
GAY GAY GAY!!!
He probably killed that guy because he was going to out him or knew something.
He’s dead. Good. BYE.
DanTaylor
The guy sort of reminds me of Craig Lenti.
ryanM
When “Dr.” Phil asked the girlfriend if Hernandez was gay, she denied it by saying, “He’s all man…”
JED08
That’s because she was clueless. She didn’t think anything of it when he went on vacation to the Dominican Republic with Ryan, and not her. Hello.
Donston
There’s a lot to unpack and discuss: mental health, childhood abuse, hetero pressures, CTE, the orientation spectrum, etc. But one of the things that is annoying me is how problematic some of these women are being on social media. Some refuse to believe Aaron was anything but hetero. Some have nothing to contribute outside of “no, he was bi”. Aaron referred to himself as “gay” to his mother. So, the word isn’t off the table.
We need to talk more about how some women contribute to male homophobia, masculine pressures, hetero pressures and gay shaming, and how some women use hetero pressures and identity politics to their advantage. They have wet pussies for him and viewed Aaron as a “real man”. Therefore, he couldn’t have been “gay”. Or at least “he was bi dude who was more into women. He just experimented with guys and was molested. But he wasn’t a ‘real gay’. All he needed was a good woman to fix him”. Even if you don’t like how the media is handling this, even if you don’t believe Aaron was “gay”, a lot of females are revealing their problematic viewpoints and their insecurities. Even a lot of “queer” women contribute to the overall problems, just because they want to attach themselves to men they are attracted to, who they admire or who they feel sympathy towards. This type of shit needs to be called out more. This is partly why I am critical of both identity politics and of a certain percentage of the “queer community”.
Hussain-TheCanadian
The documentary is great, everyone on Queerty should watch it. Listen carefully to his conversations with his mother, its extremely sad.
His explosive anger is not normal, killing people for just spilling a drink on you is crazy, something is beyond wrong with him, it could be the brain disease he had, I dont know.
Man About Town
Yes, I watched the documentary, and his mother kept reminding me of Allison Janney in “I, Tonya”
charlieeod74
As in the words of the immortal Bill B., who gives a sh!t.
Donston
I do feel like the media has handled this in an exploitative, sensationalized way (what else is new?). And I’m not comfortable tagging Aaron as “gay” or “bi” or “straight” or anything else. We don’t know his sense of self and self-identity. We don’t know what type of fluidity he may have experienced throughout the years. We don’t know exactly where he fit within the romantic, sexual, affection, emotional investment, relationship contentment spectrum. It’s important not to use people’s lives to push identity politics, especially with situations like this. And it’s important to stop sensationalizing homo behaviors. (Though apparently Aaron did tell his mother he was “gay” while he was in prison).
Nonetheless, I don’t agree with the people who say we shouldn’t talk about Aaron and his struggles with his sexuality/orientation. I want for things to be handled with tact and for his life not be used to push agendas. But he was a public famous. And this was a huge “story” even before the gay stuff was revealed. His incarceration alone was huge media fodder. While CTE, childhood abuse/trauma, homophobia, parental and societal hetero pressures/expectations, traditional masculine pressures, toxic masculinity, internalized homophobia, gay insecurity, mental health struggles, perhaps confusions/convolution all at least contributed to what became of him. They are a part of his “story” and what became of him. And even Aaron’s brother has talked about Aaron’s struggles with “gay”. Aaron’s lawyer has talked about it as well. So, it’s not like this is just something the media is pulling together or something a few couple of dudes who slept with Aaron is putting out there so they can get some exposure. These things shouldn’t be dismissed. And these are all things that as a society we need to be more comfortable openly talking about without fear or judgement and without sensationalism and identity politics.
o.codone
Wow. Aaron Hernandez really wakes people up. He woke me up ! He was beautiful. I would say his problems were all about his CTE. And though he was a normal kid, he adopted the whole gangster personality as he grew older. The combo of CTE and gangster killed him. Sure he was gay.
flippermagee
Thank you for that. Helps to understand so much. Peace.
gavo92
Aaron was an idiot/killer, period. Who cares about his sexuality.
JED08
Since this is a gay forum, we gay people care about his sexuality. It’s part of the story. No one on here said that his being gay excuses what he did, so don’t imply that.