Mika: Why don't the gays love him?

Brit/Lebanese pop sensation Mika is confused. And I don't mean sexually confused, because even though he refuses to speak about his sexuality publicly, I'm quite sure he's got it all figured out, personally. Which is why the shaggy-headed chanteuse can't fathom why, with his Freddy Mercury falsetto and colorful clothes and defiantly flamboyant posturing, the gays haven't fallen for him hook, line, and swisher.

Just a thought: maybe gays don't like being pandered to any more than any one else does. And Mika's mixed signals have a whiff of opportunism about them, something that can turn off many gay folks faster than the words "Don Imus sex tape". He actively markets himself to a gay audience and yet won't acknowledge his own sexuality, be it straight or gay (does it matter? No -- and that's what makes his coyness so bizarre). He is notoriously tight-lipped about his personal life, yet has "Queen of all media" Perez Hilton -- who became famous for outing gay celebs -- on his promotional tour, and has somehow kept Perez from digging into his personal life and splashing it across his pages with hot-pink "HOMO!"s and "GAY!"s scrawled across it. Doesn't smack of collusion at all, does it?

While I myself find the guy's music catchy (almost annoyingly so), I'm not a fan of the accompanying feeling that he's patting my head and picking my pocket at the same time -- and maybe I'm not the only one, by the sound of it.

Maybe this just further proof that the gays are a more cautious audience (or "target market") than many people think (something that was touched upon recently in an article on gay-specific advertising). Otherwise, what could explain Mika's failure to grow a healthy gay following? He fed them, watered them, and did everything else it said to do on the box. Let's just hope he didn't feed any of them after midnight, because we all know what happens then!