I was born in 1978 and I remember “knowing” he was gay in the late 80’s. I only put “knowing” in quotes because you folks are making me realize that he wasn’t definitely out as gay.
I thought he was as well known to be gay as Elton John or any other well known gay person.
Clearly, though, I was wrong. I must have just heard the rumor and thought it was a widely known fact. Obviously, it is correct, but I didn’t even consider it speculation the last 25 years.
That test is terrible. Picture quality is amateur or below. And gaydar is more than just looks. It’s about seeing the whole behavior pattern of the person. I’m not saying it’s prefect, but some people you just know are gay, and they are. Not that there’s anything wrong with it!!
I don’t actually like the test either because it’s too long and it doesn’t tell you who you were right on.
But the point I was trying to make is that people make snap judgments about other people all the time and 99 times out of 100 we never find out if we’re right or not. Then someone like Barry Manilow comes out of the closet and people think this validates all the other times they assumed someone’s orientation but it doesn’t.
Because the OP was going by the (borderline insulting, IMO) assumption that everyone already knew, and that the only way NOT to know is to be totally clueless.
People in this thread cite as evidence that he played piano in gay bathhouses with Bette Midler. Even if us random people who don’t live in NYC even knew this, it’s not evidence of anything. “Starving artists” take jobs in all sorts of places. And since Bette Midler also performed there, and last I checked isn’t a gay man, simply performing there doesn’t prove anything.
It isn’t like the radio stations said “and here’s Copacabana by that flaming gay singer, Barry Manilow, who’s like totally gay, people!” If we even thought about it, or cared, how would we know for sure, if he never came out?
To “know” someone is gay because they act a certain way is indulging in the same stereotypes that led to so much gay bashing in the first place.
I said I assumed he was gay, but didn’t know for sure, and didn’t much care. I liked some of his songs, enough to make a decent greatest hits CD, but never paid him much mind.
I always assumed Manilow was gay, but I don’t know why. The bathhouse thing doesn’t mean anything. I knew a straight guy who was a stripper in a gay bar and a hairdresser.
They were. I pretty consistently clicked on the less obvious looking people, and didn’r use my “gaydar” to be honest. Also, whenever you had a choice between a woman with lots of make-up, and a woman with none, or minimal make-up, I’m pretty sure the heavily made up ones were drag queens. I picked all of them.
Yeah. Gaydar is more than a photo. I have good gayday, but I scored high one the test by psyching it out, not using my gaydar.
He was briefly married to a woman. Just like Elton John was. And that was it… He was never known for being a patriarch of a sweaty family of four, a long married man… Nor was he ever out being a swingin’ dick, a “ladies man”, compulsively dating dating dating, grabbing pussy right and left… Right there, not much female companionship in his life, that screams ‘confirmed bachelor’ of a certain sort. (though compulsive womanizing also could just be a cover.)
I read that most of those gay porn stars? Straight, married men with children, just doing a job . After all, they have to work to support their families somehow.
Hmm, I tried your “don’t pick the obvious one” approach the second time around, and I only got 45%, whereas I got 67% when I took the test at face value and picked the ones I really thought were more likely gay. So the contrarian approach doesn’t work with me.
(I’m still unsure why I got even as high as 45% the second time around. One would think it’d be closer to 33% if I really picked the opposite answers, but I obviously don’t remember what all my answers were yesterday.)
ETA: Well, just to check, I tried picking all A, and then all B, and both times it returned 50% success rate, so it looks like my gaydar is quite variable. At any rate, I got the higher score when I wasn’t trying to “outsmart” the test or use any game theory to my advantage. I don’t think the test is trying to trick you–especially since we know the average score on it is above the rate of chance. I doubt the majority of people taking the test would be taking a contrarian approach to it, but rather answering on the level.
I can’t believe anyone thinks this is news. It’s been obvious since the 1970’s. I can’t possibly think anything different about Barry Manilow. His music has always sucked, unless you were a 50 year-old lady, living alone with cats or a very small dog that was stuffed into your handbag…
