Lance Bass once said, ‘If you don’t want to be in the spotlight, get out of it.’ He should take his own advice.
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KEVIN NAFF
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
POOR LANCE BASS. You really have to feel for those downtrodden millionaire celebrities who crave publicity and attention and then cry foul when people talk about anything other than the latest pet project they’re hawking.
After much blog-fueled speculation about his relationship with “Amazing Race” winner Reichen Lehmkuhl, Bass did the coming out deed on the cover of the current issue of People magazine, declaring in bold headlines, “I’m more liberated and happy than I’ve ever been.”
If that’s the case, then the former ‘N Sync-er ought to be thanking the bloggers who reported on his recent carousing at a popular Provincetown gay bar accompanied by boyfriend Lehmkuhl.
But the snoops at the New York Post, Andy Towle of Towleroad.com, Cyd Zeigler of thedooryard.typepad.com, and I probably shouldn’t expect a thank you note from Bass, despite all that newly discovered liberation.
The Post, Towle, Zeigler and the Blade all reported that Bass and Lehmkuhl were spotted over the July Fourth weekend partying in P-town. Some of us wrongly assumed that Bass had come out, what with all the public bar hopping and all.
Bass told People that his mother got wind of all the online chatter and decided to Google her son. That’s when she discovered the gay rumors, triggering the coming out conversation.
My own report on Bass, posted to the Blade’s website on July 13 after reading the Post and Zeigler stories, triggered an avalanche of e-mail assailing the Blade for engaging in “outing.” The activists at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation weighed in, telling ABC News, “Media speculation about people’s sexual orientation is not something we support.”
The same ABC News reporter called me for a comment and confessed that he wasn’t happy about having to write a story about the outing of a celebrity.
Some of those who wrote in to protest the supposed outing of Bass were more reasonable than others. One reader wrote, “Even if these celebrities are staying closeted because of how it would affect their star status, that should be their choice.”
Others were decidedly more colorful in their criticism. “First of all you don’t even know Lance Bass. What crime did he commit? He actually went to a gay event or a gay bar without making a pronouncement to the world detailing his sexual status. How shocking. Let’s crucify him! No wonder people are afraid to associate with anything gay with vultures like you waiting to pounce.”
Still others were looking for revenge. “Let’s all chip in and give Kevin Naff a ticket for Jerusalem so he can participate in the World Pride Day to discover why gay people don’t announce themselves to the world!”
To be fair, not all Blade readers are so vitriolic. One closeted gay teen wrote, “I know it would give me confidence if a prominent male celebrity came out of the closet.”
THE KEY POINT that many readers — and mainstream media reporters covering the Bass story — missed is that Bass outed himself. Gays and lesbians are under no obligation to keep each other’s dirty little secrets and partying in P-town’s gay bars on a holiday weekend with a celebrity boyfriend in tow is not the behavior of someone living a closeted life.
Here’s the thing about privacy: it’s an easy thing to attain. Go home, lock your door and draw the curtains and you have privacy. Bass’ days as a teen heartthrob are long over. There are no paparazzi camped at his doorstep anxious to chronicle his every move. He is fully capable of living a quiet, private, closeted life. He made another choice.
Outing involves investigating and reporting on the private behavior of a public figure who denies being gay. Hanging out in gay bars doesn’t constitute private behavior. It didn’t take any sneaky detective work to uncover Bass’ sexual orientation. No one peered through his windows or sorted through his trash. He walked into a gay bar with his boyfriend and witnesses connected the dots. Sorry, but there’s no outing in this case.
Gay blogger Perez Hilton, who has been writing about the Bass gay rumors since 2005, understands what mainstream reporters do not.
“It upsets me that people think what I’m doing is a bad thing,” Hilton told Access Hollywood. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. If you know something to be a fact, why not report it? Why is that still taboo?”
The simple fact of sexual orientation is not an inherently private thing. Openly closeted celebrities like Bass and an army of others (CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Fox News’ Shepard Smith, actress Jodie Foster, singer Ricky Martin, GOP Congressman David Dreier and actor Sean Hayes come to mind) do a disservice to fellow gays by perpetuating the damaging and false notion that being gay is something to hide and to be ashamed of. And the reporters who omit any reference to sexual orientation when it comes to writing about gay public figures are only enforcing outdated double standards and enabling cowardly behavior.
IN HIS PEOPLE interview, Bass said, “I think the gay community is going to hop on my back because I’m not going to lead the parades and be this crazy activist. I don’t want to be a poster child.”
So the activists working for the equality and acceptance of gays that Bass now enjoys are “crazy?” Don’t worry, Lance, no one will mistake you for a poster child for gay causes. There are far more worthy poster gays out there who are actually taking risks and leading lives of honest courage.
At least all of this attention is coming at a convenient time. Bass told People that he and former ‘N Sync member Joey Fatone are shopping a new “Odd Couple” rip-off sitcom in which Bass’ character will be gay. Also, Lehmkuhl is peddling his book “Here’s What We’ll Say: A Memoir of Growing Up, Coming Out and the U.S. Air Force,” which comes out this month.
I’m sure the timing of all this outing drama is coincidental.
Bass should take some of his own advice.
“You know, once you get in the business you know what you’re getting into,” Bass told Access Hollywood in an earlier interview. “Unfortunately, if you don’t want to be in the spotlight, get out of it.”
Kevin Naff is managing editor of the Washington Blade and can be reached at knaff@washblade.com.
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