In which we decline to play Mika-boo any further

You may have noticed by now that we have a bit of a bee in our bonnet over the way that Brit pop star Mika has chosen to market himself here in the US, particularly to gay audiences. To get you up to speed: Mika refuses to speak about his sexuality, whatever it may be (and again, we could seriously care less). But he is actively courting a gay audience and has enlisted the assistance of celebrity outer Perez Hilton to help him promote his album. It goes without saying that Hilton's silence on the matter of Mika's sexuality is the height of hypocrisy given his "the closet doesn't exist anymore" mantra. But that's another story entirely.

The story here is that we have a gay-vague celebrity aggressively marketing himself to us while telling us that we are a part of society with whom he would not want to identify. He constantly refers to not wanting to be "labeled", which is beyond offensive to those of us who don't see sexuality as being a label, but rather a fundamental aspect of who we are. Does it define us? No -- not any more than "tall", "Hispanic", "enthusiastic" or "big-boned" would.

But we wouldn't be who we are without it, and we have no interest in pretending it isn't there, or in supporting an artist whose coy public image sends a message that there's something wrong with identifying either as a gay man or a straight man or as a bisexual man or a man who has a sexuality of any kind. Even if Mika were to come out as a heterosexual eunuch it would be a relief given all this relentless peek-a-booing.

The last straw? The full Out magazine cover story that we referenced last week is online, and it doesn't pull punches when discussing how widely unaccepted and potentially damaging Mika's actions are. It's obvious that Mika is courting controversy in an attempt to draw attention to himself here in the States. And it's attention that we're no longer willing to direct towards him.

The slogan for our site is "Because Visibility Matters", and we firmly believe that. We are tired of following Mika's is-he-or-isn't-he PR game, and don't care to legitimize it with further coverage. So as of this day, we will not be covering Mika or his music or anything else about him unless he decides to drop the theatrics and show some respect for those audience members whose pockets he's trying to pick (and who aren't falling for his shtick, overall).

Or perhaps we'll pick his story back up when the lame "Post-Gay" argument holds water -- you know, when people aren't being beaten bloody every day for being gay, and when gay people have the same rights as everyone else, and when we are represented equally and in a balanced manner on television, in movies, and on the airwaves. Until then, "Post-Gay" is a fantasy.

Sorry, Mika, but in a world where visibility still matters ... you don't.