Kevin Sessums explains why he has no problem asking closeted celebrities about their sexuality:
In the past I was like, Never out anybody. I was very adamant about that and at some point I sort of switched. I thought, You know what? I’m not going to buy into somebody else’s shame. They can deny it. I don’t give a shit. That’s fine. But I’m not going to be denied the question like it’s something shameful. Also, I’m not asking them what they do in their bedroom. I’m not asking them if they are a top or a bottom or what their sexual proclivities are. If someone is straight, that part of their life infuses all aspects of who they are. They talk about it all the time, and it’s not about being private.
I understand if you’re a movie star, you’re selling an image and people have to be able to project things onto you, especially if you are a romantic lead. I understand all of that in the abstract. But I’m not an adjunct to their career completely. I’m there as someone who’s got a job to do. I’m there to have a conversation. I’m not their agent. I’m not their PR person. That’s not my job. My job is to have conversations with them as people.
I remember the first time I was asked this. It was in the back of a cab filled with former Yalies. Rich Blow (my then house-mate and now called Richard Preston Bradley) was in the passenger seat and looked over his shoulder and asked the question as if it were the equivalent of “are you asthmatic?” It floored me (I think I was around 22).
In a casual conversation, it was jarring – almost thirty years ago. But now, in the context of a consensual interview, it seems to me to be as valid an inquiry as “Are you straight?” It’s not outing someone if it’s a question, asked out of mere curiosity and non-judgment. It’s outing someone if it’s a statement made without their consent, as an act of public shaming.
The Dish 