Gay Boy Band Singers Okay in the U.K.

“I am gay and I’m very proud of who I am,” Mark Feehily recently told London’s Sun newspaper. For any gay man, this is a healthy proclamation, reflecting self-acceptance, honesty, and pride. It’s also a brave step, especially when the man outing himself is a singer with one of the U.K.’s most successful boy-bands, Westlife, which has already scored 12 Number One hits on the U.K. charts, with the promise of more to come.

In outing himself, the 25-year-old Irishman joins the ranks of fellow U.K. boy band member Stephen Gately, late of Boyzone, and Pop Idol winner Will Young, in publicly declaring their sexual orientation.

In his Sun interview, the handsome Feehily went on to reveal that he’s in a relationship with another band bon-bon Kevin McDaid, 21, formerly of V. Although Feehily has said that he’s not asking to be a role model, he, and the other out U.K. boys, may inspire countless others, both celebrated and obscure, to new levels of openness.

Across the U.K., most people are happy for Mark Feehily, we’re told by Mark-Feehily.com; a web-site dedicated to his fans. In his homeland, Mark and Westlife’s fans have reacted, by and large, as did Kat (one name, like Cher), Feehily fan and Web-mistress of Mark-Feehily.com, who writes in response to his coming out, “Mark’s sexuality doesn’t affect my fan-ness for him one little bit. Unless it stops him from being a brilliant singer and lovely guy, it never will matter, either.” On her site, Kat posts a warning to homophobes: “If for any insane reason you have a problem with Mark in light of today’s news, then stay away from here.”

Feehily has already received support from gay former Boyzoner Stephen Gately. Gately told ContactMusic.com: “What he’s done will help thousands of other youngsters who fear the effect coming out will have….”

So is it more okay to be openly gay in the U.K.? Opinions differ. A friend of mine, a former San Franciscan working in London for the past five years, tells me, “Being openly gay in the U.K. is dangerous. Outside of central London, there is a culture of homophobia on a scale I never witnessed in the U.S."

“When I first moved here, I could not believe the openly bigoted, anti-gay statements I was hearing from people at work, on the tubes, buses, and on the street. “I would compare the U.K. as a whole to Mississippi in 1965. London is only slightly better. Maybe I have a jaundiced view. I am a straight man. Still, the integration of gay and straight culture, which I took for granted in California, simply does not exist here.”

A retired U.S. Navy fly boy, now a Londoner, sees it differently. “It seems that the British are a lot more confident with their own sexuality,” he tells me, “and more accepting of other peoples’ diversities.”

Barely legal and wholly hot, we’re endlessly fascinated by the twinks in the boy bands. We love their talent, their energy, and their lithe, hard-bodied physiques. It matters little whether the group is Westlife, Menudo, New Kids, Backstreet, *NSYNC, or today's new kids on the American boy-band block, The Click Five. We embrace the boys in the bands on many levels, and never more so than when the gay among them stand out and proud.

Unfortunately, there are no Americans among their number.

Although we’ve speculated about Ricky Martin’s sexual orientation for decades, through his Menudo, Les Miz, and La Vida Loca incarnations, he’s approaching middle age and still not talking. Over the years, we’ve wished, hoped, and prayed that Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, or some other American boy would open wide his closet door. No such luck.