Does the Media Gay-Bait Celebrity Sissies?

It's been almost a week since Clay Aiken ripped Diane Sawyer a new one for dropping the Are-You-Gay bomb on 'Good Morning America.' (You can catch the video of it here.)

Since then, I've talked to friends and acquaintances about what happened, and I'm still not sure about what I think of Sawyer's question, or Clay's five-minute non-answer.  (Some say that his non-answer was the equivalent of "Yep, I'm gay.")

He's an entertainer, which in this day and age means he pretty much has no privacy. She's a reporter, so it's her job to investigate and report. But did she go too far? Was her question "rude," as Clay said, or doth the Clay protest too much -- and is he being naive thinking people shouldn't ask?

I am not for outing per se, but I am not against it, either. If some right-wing congressman votes against gays during the week, and then spends the weekends putting dollar bills in the socks of go-go boys at the local gay strip club, he's fair game.

On the other hand, if a performer isn't ready to divulge his or her sexuality, I don't think they owe it to anyone to do so. Entertainers have a legitimate concern about how coming out might affect their ability to make a living in their chosen profession. Just ask Rupert Everett, who writes in his new book that homophobia in Hollywood prevented him from landing star roles that went to straight men instead. Regardless of whether we like that or not, or whether people should play into it, right now, that's how it is.

As for Diane Sawyer, my question is, why Clay? Why now? Here's what I think: Clay is a sissy-boy, and sissies and butches are easy targets for the press. The Diane Sawyers of the world pick and choose which celebrities get put on the gay hot seat, and Sawyer saw the sissy factor as an open invitation.

Nathan Lane can tell you all about it. A big sissy if there ever was one, God love him, he was asked the gay question plenty of times before he finally decided to come out. He dodged the question until he was ready, and it took Matthew Shepard being murdered for him to get there.

But does the press pose the gay question to rumored-to-be-gay celebs like Tom Cruise, John Travolta or George Clooney -- to their faces? No, and it's because those guys aren't sissies. They are also big-name celebrities, and it would work against the media's own interests to alienate them with inappropriate personal questions, but traditional masculinity (or femininity, in the case of women) makes it easier for the media to avoid asking the gay question.

Poor Clay Aiken is neither powerful enough nor butch enough to be afforded such polite interviews. He was an ugly duckling, got cuter, and was then made over to within an inch of his life, which includes wearing too much make-up and sharing k.d. lang's hair. The joke was partly on him when 'American Idol' staged the meanest moment on TV ever. And just last week, Clay told Jay Leno, "I have to have everything very meticulous. Everything in the kitchen has to be blue." 

He's precious. That's fine, I love sissies. And so does the press.