First, just to get it out there, I’m very pro-LGBTQ rights, and anyone should be free to be what they want sexually so long as it doesn’t hurt someone else.
Second, I care about who is gay only as a matter of curiosity; e.g., if people say someone is gay, I might wonder, Oh, is that really true?
So… it would never have crossed my mind that Clooney is gay. I hadn’t thought much about it. But my gay Pilates teacher not only thinks so but was telling the whole class his theory about how he is gay and the studio has him marry beards and whatnot. He was quite insistent that it was so! I also asked my gay friend on FB with whom I talk just about every day what he thought, and he agreed that Clooney was gay, though he couldn’t cite an exact reason.
I also happened upon a theory that Jay Z is gay and Bey is his beard. I was just looking up his status as a rapper (good or bad), and this theory was all over the place.
Not everyone, but I do agree they seem likely to overestimate while straight people seem to underestimate. And when it’s a particularly attractive person, there’s probably an element of wishful thinking involved.
Still not an answer to the OP’s question, though. Is there a common belief among gay people that Clooney is gay–and not just among the ones that think that “everyone is gay”?
I would imagine that beards do very much still exist. Remember, the rest of the world is not necessarily as liberal as we here. I do find it hard to believe in Mr. Clooney’s case, if no other reason than Mrs. Clooney doesn’t seem as though she’d cotton to that sort of scheme. As for Jay Z, if it’s true he sure picked a high maintenance beard! (I don’t think it’s true but I really have no sense of him).
I believe there are beard hookups and marriages as much as there ever were. I believe there are contracts specifying when and where the happy couples should appear, and for how long the happy relationship should last. Things haven’t changed a BIT since Rock Hudson days. (As for George Clooney, he was a happy bachelor living for years in his mansion in Switzerland, with a bunch of his buddies. Then for some reason he hastily married the lovely Mrs. Clooney. I don’t know what happened to the buddies or anything much about the newlywed’s lives, but I can see how the gossip starts.)
Old guy here, but you are using a definition of “beard” that I am unfamiliar with. I think (given the context) that it refers to a woman who marries a gay man as a ‘cover’ and has nothing to do with the growth under one’s chin, correct?
Because otherwise I am going to be most unhappy…
As for the OP, I have no idea what orientation Mr. Clooney or Mr. Z are and figure it’s none of my damn business, so apologies for any derailing, just learning the English language as it constantly evolves.
Or they just tell you or indicate it (Facebook: “Is interested in men/women,” etc.), which, thankfully, is more common these days.
Yeah, I don’t care if an actor is gay. It doesn’t affect my perception of the performances (“Only a straight guy can play straight guys!” etc.), and I am typically uninformed about the personal lives of stars (I don’t read tabloids; occasionally I’ll see something online and more rarely actually look up someone’s history on Wikipedia).
But if an actor is gay and is hiding it, it makes me curious about the social situation that has led to that.
Correct. It is a woman a gay man dates or marries in order to appear straight. I’m not sure, but does the concept beard require the woman to be complicit? Or is a woman that is fooled into such a relationship also a “beard”? Perhaps more knowledgeable people here can answer that!
Yes, I think straight people (to the extent they think about it at all) do assume everyone else is also straight unless told otherwise. I mean, I know the world is making progress, but hetero *is *still the default, no?
Hey, I generally assume that people are like me in other ways as well, no matter how many times and how many ways I find out I’m wrong. The first inkling I have that pretty much anyone is gay is when they tell me something like “We shop at the his and his department.”
I’m sure beards still exist, but I imagine they’re not as necessary to provide cover as they once were. I have absolutely no idea if Mr. Clooney might need one (see above).
Brad Pitt once said that he and Angelina would get married when the day comes that George and his partner can legally do the same. (Intended as a joke) So the idea is definitely out there.
