No longer are adult actors the only targets of vicious gay gossip, in some cases probably true (John Travolta, Queen Latifah), in others, probably not (Jeremy Renner, George Clooney). Now, teen stars are smeared with the same ink, hence: Queering the Str8 Teen, a new semi-regular Queerty feature where we, arbiters of queer truth, decide whether the meddling press is being accurate with teen’s sexualities or just publishing rubbish to push copies and pageviews. Today, tween-lebrity Selena Gomez is hit with rumors of lesbianity, and One Direction singer Liam Payne (they sing that insanely popular “You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful” song) tells a U.K. tabloid that he used to play dress-up with his sisters.
* Claim: Selena Gomez is a lesbian! Hollywood Life published a photo of a girl, who bears a certain resemblance to Selena Gomez (girlfriend to fellow teen star Justin Bieber at the moment), kissing some blonde girl. Verdict: Totally fake, you can barely see Selena’s face and it could be any girl with a small face and black hair. Even Selena’s rep dignified it with a response, saying it was a “fake.” The truth here: Selena and Justin are probably doing it.
* Claim: One Direction heartthrob Liam is a cross-dresser! The Sun runs with a quote that Liam Payne gave them, accompanying it with a ridiculous photoshopped image of him in a dress and heels: “My sisters used to dress me… They used to try to influence my fashion a bit. Which you know… may have involved a heel or two.” Verdict: His sisters forced him to cross-dress as sort of a fun-bullying move, he didn’t choose to do it himself (as Yours Truly did with his grandmother’s slips so many years ago). Mine counts! His doesn’t.
That’s it for this week’s installment of Queering the Str8 Teen. Stay tuned and send us tips when you see teen stars in the crosshairs of the media/blogosphere/an actual sniper rifle (actually, call the police on that last one).
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EdWoody
I agree with both, with the following exceptions: Teens don’t care so much these days if they experiment and play around a bit with the same sex. It’s not a big deal these days and they accept that it doesn’t necessarily define them for life. So Selena could well have made ut with a girl but not be a lez.
And there’s a quite a bit of evidence out there that two members of 1D are in an extremely close bromance-verging-on-romance. They insisted on living together when the rest all live alone, they’re often pictured holding hands or hugging or playing grab-ass. Again, doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it’s nice to imagine.
J
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONE DIRECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Larkin
Kids need to be left alone by both the straight and gay media.
It’s hard enough figuring out who you are at that age, but being nationally famous for it? Some have embraced it, like Chris Colfer and more power to him, but how quickly we forget what it was like when we were 17… let alone having multiple multi-million dollar contracts at stake.
Famous or not, these kids are still kids.
Santana
Great article, Evan but I thought I should let you know that the boy in the image you used is actually of 1D member Louis Tomlinson and not Liam Payne, though Liam is hanging out in the background.
Larkin
You really can’t expect Queerty to get things like facts right, can you?