For as long as he has been making music, Harry Styles has had his sexuality questioned by fans at every turn. Whether it’s in the lyrics to his songs, the cover art for his albums or his proclivity to hoist up Pride flags when performing live, fans have found «evidence» online that they believe points to the star being bisexual.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Styles finally spoke up about the online rumors. During a conversation about his decision to occasionally wear stereotypically-feminine clothing, and what he sees as the «freeing» time we’re living in, interviewer Tom Lamont steered the conversation toward his sexuality, asking if he’d ever been asked about it. «Um. I guess I haaaaave been asked?» he responded. «But, I dunno. Why?”
When Lamont asked if he was wondering why people ask the question, Styles confirmed, saying that he wasn’t hiding anything from anyone. «It’s not like I’m sitting on an answer, and protecting it, and holding it back,» he said. «It’s not a case of ‘I’m not telling you cos I don’t want to tell you’. It’s not ‘Ooh this is mine and it’s not yours’ … It’s: ‘Who cares?’ Does that make sense? It’s just: ‘Who cares?’”
Lamont presented Styles with the observations his fans made about his Fine Line album cover, comparing it to the bisexual and transgender Pride flags. But Styles quickly shut down any speculation that he may be queerbaiting his fans. «Am I sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity to try and be more interesting? No,» he said, before saying that ultimately, he’s just trying to do what he thinks looks cool. «I want things to look a certain way. Not because it makes me look gay, or it makes me look straight, or it makes me look bisexual, but because I think it looks cool. And more than that, I dunno, I just think sexuality’s something that’s fun. Honestly? I can’t say I’ve given it any more thought than that.”
Later on in the interview, Styles made it clear that he actually doesn’t mind being asked about his sexuality, but that he gets bothered when people demand him to answer those questions. «What I would say, about the whole being-asked-about-my-sexuality thing — this is a job where you might get asked,» he said. «And to complain about it, to say you hate it, and still do the job, that’s just silly. You respect that someone’s gonna ask. And you hope that they respect they might not get an answer.»
Read Styles’ full intertview with The Guardian here.
This article was originally published by: Billboard
