Manti Te'o GAY

Interviewer: Are you gay? Manti: Far from it, very far from it. heh heh. Couldn't have given a more revealing denial if he'd tried.

• No, not "very far" but "FAAAAAAARRRRR"

  http://gawker.com/5978789/manti-teo-tells-katie-couric-he-is-double-plus-ungay%3Futm_campaign%3Dsocialflow_gawker_facebook%26utm_source%3Dgawker_facebook%26utm_medium%3Dsocialflow

• "Far from it" usually means "bi curious". Otherwise, he would have said, "No, I'm not".

• No, girl! I am not gay, gurrrrrrl!

• OP? Let it go, Mary.

• How much do we care. Not al all. FAAAAARRRRRRRRR from it.

• Yep, he's gay.

• Katie: Are you gay? Manti: Ooooooh, Miss Thing, Miss Thing! Listen hunty, this that you are seeing is aaaaaall man. Yes, Miss Question, Miss Manti is all about the pus-HAY, girl! But NOT yours, baby. No. Just, no.

• What's the difference between Faaaaaar from being gay and near to being gay? They're both NOT GAY, right?

• I totally think he could be gay, but, seriously, if he were straight, how would you expect him to answer the question? He's on national TV, nervous, possibly surprised by the question, embarrassed. Again, I could easily believe he's gay based on this whole situation, but not because of that answer.

• What kind of parents name their child Manatee??

  Emily Latella

• This is the first I've paid any attention to anything to do with this guy. Have heard bits and pieces but two things spring to mind. 1. his answer didn't really convince me he's anything but gay 2. maybe he's just an incredibly stupid straight guy

• Well what was the point of the question. If he is so closeted he made up an imaginary girlfriend and told his parents, his fellow players, and the whole world about her; then what chance is there he would admit to it?

• the desperation on this board to declare anyone famous gay is so predictable and pathetic. there is no reading of the facts or evidence that logically leads to the conclusion that manti is gay. none. on the flip side, there is tons of evidence-- visual, written, and audio-- that he believed he was communicating with a woman.

• Don't forget too, he's Mormon, which means he lives with attitudes out of the 1950s on a daily basis.

• yeah, r11, he probably would have been more convincing if he had just said, "[italic]Nah, Katie, I'm just an incredibly stupid straight guy. Remember Sarah Palin? Kinda like that, but with a dick[/italic]."

• He's not dumb, he just has an abnormally low energy level which makes him seem dumb.

• Leave him alone about his sexual orientation. He gets to decide how he will identify, and it is no one's business. Obviously, if he is not heterosexual, he does identify that way and does not want to be known as that way. So what? It's his life. Let him be.

• I tweeted that I think he's gay.

  Rosie%20O%27Donald

• r16, how do you get to be considered one of the best college football players while having a low energy level? r17, he shoved the details of his personal life in the nation's face. It's not like Katie Couric knocked on the door of some random dorm room and got nosy.

• [quote]He gets to decide how he will identify. Oh, no he doesn't.

  The%20Mormon%20Church

• [quote]"Far from it" usually means "bi curious". Otherwise, he would have said, "No, I'm not". This attributes to him a degree of discernment I have seen no evidence of him possessing.

• R10 He's fat like one

  http://mantiteo.blogspot.com/2012/12/manti-teo-training-shirtless.html

• He is perhaps fit fat. He has a nice chest and arms.

• Manti Te'o has the AIDS you know.

• [quote]Don't forget too, he's Mormon, which means he lives with attitudes out of the 1950s on a daily basis. You misspelled 1850s.

• r23, "fit fat" is otherwise known as faaaaaaarrrr from not fat.

• Okay, R3 cracked my shit UP.

• He loves women so much that when there aren't any women around, he pretends that there are.

• Have you heard the recordings of his 'girlfriend' ? I've heard Trannys that sound more like a woman. Something's fishy here .......ewwwwww . Meanwhile, are Samoans known to have big cocks ?

  Jackie%20Beat

• Manti: Far from it, very far from it. heh heh. rewind 2010: eddie long: i'm not a perfect man. when someone doesnt flat out deny unequivocally the question at hand, they're probably lying.

• Manti Te'o is HIV+ you know.

• I honestly don't understand why this has been a national news story for over a week. Jebus.....there are things going on in the world, the nation, down your block....real news. Why, why is this news worthy?

• Samoans - and most Polynesians - are tinymeat, R29.

• He's faaaaaaarrrr from fit. He's Asian in the face as he has buck teeth and slant eyes.

• Actually, Manti is a very handsome guy. I surely hope he's gay...and that he finds happiness in his own skin.

• He's my new heterosexual pin-up boy!

  Cheryl

• Te'o really looks great in a sweater. Fills it out nicely.

• Gurl, puh-leaze. I'm faaaaaaaaar from it. So shante away, okaaaaaay? *two finger snaps with a twist*

  Miss Manti

• He lost any right to privacy when he gave an interview to Sports Illustrated that included details about the relationship, such as the 8-hour phone calls where he fell asleep talking to her and woke up to hear her breathing on the other end of the phone. He also lied multiple times about meeting "her" (obviously). To everyone. That is not someone who deserves privacy. And R13, if you hate gay sites so much, you can always spend your life on straight ones, where they deny anyone's gay. You'd be better liked there.

• The news people always ask the wrong questions when they are trying to "out" someone. Katie's former cohort, Matt Liar, did this when he interviewed the Senator who played wide-stance footsie in the airport men's room. He asked "Are you gay?" and followed up with "Well, then are you bisexual?" Only a small percentage of homosexuals are ever going to say that they are "gay". Very few people want to be identified with the "gay" movement, pride parades, drag shows, and all sorts of freaky behavior associated with the "gay" movement. If you ask someone like me, "Do you suffer from unwanted same-sex attractions?", then I will probably answer that it is none of your business. But if you ask "Are you gay?", then I would tell you immediately and emphatically that I am not gay, that I have never been gay, and that I will never be gay.

• He's obviously gay. He's also obviously not nearly ready to come out. He may never be.

• R40, yet you're on a gay message board. No un-wanted same-sex attraction message boards out there?

• R42, that's right, the only "unwanted same-sex attractions" websites that I know about are Roman Catholic or sites that promote ex-gay hypocrites. For someone who has reluctantly accepted the fact that I am homosexual, even though that is a personality trait that I did not choose and cannot change, there is no support system whatsoever. You have people trying to force you to be "gay", and you have people imploring you to become "ex-gay", but there is no support that I know about for reluctant acceptance of that which I cannot change. I am posting here to let it be known that I exist, and I will not be forced into a mold, or remade into some image that other people made up.

  R40

• It must be very difficult for you to be hear, with "gay" plastered so radically and emphatically on this website. Have you contacted the webmaster to request it be removed? Maybe they'll remove it. After all, you should you shouldn't be molded into posting on a "gay" message board. Another thing, how would people know you exist? You emphatically deny being gay. Do you identify as a reluctant homosexual?

• Here not hear. Sorry .

  R44

• Ronaiah said he thinks he is gay

  http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/30/dr-phil-ronaiah-tuisosopo-gay-today-video/

• R40/R43 is truly pathetic. I sincerely hope R40/R43 is about 16 years old. Anything older and it makes the situation even more pitiful than it already is.

• Ronaiah being gay is the only plausible explanation of why he would keep up a long running hoax. My first thought upon hearing the story was what did he gain? There didn't seem to be a monetary angle. So it was a gay cover-up of both sides or the hoaxer was in love/obsessed with Te'o or the hoaxer derived some sick sadistic pleasure in scamming someone. Has Te'o explained why he claimed he had met his girlfriend? Has he explained why he never met the love of his life even though they were in a relationship for 3 years? That just doesn't make sense at all.

• And is he attractive enough for anyone to CARE if he is gay? FAAARRRRR from it.

• I've just stopped trying to follow this story...it's like three crazed telenovelas crammed into a single episode.

• I think it is becoming clearer that Rononiah was in love with Manti, and keeping up the ruse of being a woman allowed him to express his love and affection in a "safe" manner. As for Manti, not only does the evidence NOT support the assertion that he is gay, it points quite clearly in the opposite direction.

• Uh oh, thanks to Dr. Phil, the dreaded "g word" is now linked to Manti. He'll never live this down. He'll always be known as the guy who "dated" a dude for four years. This won't end well.

• It's like M.Butterfly, except it's really not.

• The voicemail messages that are supposedly from "lennay" do NOT sound like they are from a guy but he says he is the one who phoned Manti. Hmmm......

• It's stupid to think he would give an honest reply to "Are you gay?" when he's spent so much time and energy pretending to be straight. Between his Mormon family and the Catholic college, he knows he needs that closet.

• Emnbarrasing. Katie has never been a gay supporter and the audience thought the whole thing was funny like being gay is still the punt of jokes. Emabarrasing.

• Like people expected this idoit to come out.

• Ronaiah just admitted he was deeply in love with Manti.

  http://gawker.com/5980197/manti-teo-hoaxer-tells-dr-phil-he-was-deeply-romantically-in-love

• I think Manti is sexy and likable. I love his beefy thick build.

• Yeah, it really is sad when you think of everything Te'o went through. Love is a powerful thing, it can make you do and think irrational things. What I feel most is sadness that this seemingly wonderful guy (Te'o) who's world was trashed at the hands of a really sick and deranged human being. How can Te'o ever trust another person outside his family ever again? He'll NEVER get his reputation back. Sad on so many levels.

• i have been on datalounge way too long to continue to be surprised by this, but the absolute insistence on this board that any word, any action, or any life circumstance-- involving any male of any positive or negative notoriety-- is absolute PROOF! that they are gay is so irritating and juvenile. in the manti teo case, it is not only irritating. it is absurd. absolutely everything about this case indicates that manti believed he was interacting with a woman. not only do we not have evidence of manti's homosexuality, we have evidence of his heterosexuality. but, i know, telling katie couric he is "far" from gay just "proves" he is gay and deeply closeted.

• R61, I guess you're just not very bright then. The nuance in his response is telling. If she had asked him, "are you a Martian?" and he had said, "Far from it, heh. Very very far from it", it would be laughable in the sense that it affirms the concept of "Martian" as a real existing class of creature, while nervously disputing the appelation in reference to himself. Everyone but you sees it. Why is that, you think?

• [quote]absolutely everything about this case indicates that manti believed he was interacting with a woman. not only do we not have evidence of manti's homosexuality, we have evidence of his heterosexuality. Where is there ANY evidence of his "heterosexuality"????? Any interviews with ANY female he ever dated? NO! Show us evidence that he has had any link to any female? Did you not read that he claimed to have actually met the love of his life in person? An obvious lie since she didn't exist. Absolutely everything about this case indicates that Manti is a liar.

• r62, it is because you are projecting, and you desperately want to believe something despite these little irritating things called 'facts'. you are a dope.

• R62 makes more sense than you do, R64, in either of your posts. No one is claiming to have facts. It is a case of "Methinks the lady doth protest too much," whereby the denial is so vigorous as to raise legitimate suspicion. Most of us would consider a guy "far, far from gay" if we knew he banged dozens of women. This guy is so precious he presumably gave his heart to a woman he never so much as sniffed. That is unusual to say the least. The very, very least, as Te'o might say.

• R4...gay gossip site, Mary. GO away.

• "absolutely everything about this case indicates that manti believed he was interacting with a woman. not only do we not have evidence of manti's homosexuality, we have evidence of his heterosexuality." The straight guys I know have sex with real women, they don't cling to "romances" with girls they have never touched...

• Roniaiah really blew up. He used to be a football in good shape. How did he get so big besides calories?

• "How did he get so big besides calories?" Eating to kill the pain of being in the closet. He comes from a fundie, religious background. I think he played in a Christian rock band.

• Have they dropped the "Manti was really quite a player with the ND ladies" part of the narrative yet?

  The Voice of the Night

• So r58, the boyfriend has decided to take the fall, eh? How very noble of him.

• [quote]The straight guys I know have sex with real women, they don't cling to "romances" with girls they have never touched... so fucking stupid. and the gays you know ARE clinging to romances with girls they have never touched? carrying on for months or years with a person you know only to be a beautiful woman-- complete with thousands of messages and phone conversations-- these are the actions of a gay man? even a 'deeply closeted' gay man? how and why? no, they are not. not at all. FAR from it. see what you want in the facts. it's not new here. loudly and boldly and counterfactually deeming good looking men gay is a time-honored tradition here on the dl. carry on.

• I think there's a very good possibility he's gay, but I hardly think the "far from it" comment is proof. Put on the spot on national TV, it seems like something a nervous straight guy would say, or a closeted gay gay." Again, I can see him being gay, but I don''t see how the "far from it" comment seals the deal.

• Wow. Saw that the Ronahiah guy said he was in love with Te'o. And, then admitted that meant he (Ronahiah) is gay, but then said he was confused. Lol.

• [quotee]not only do we not have evidence of manti's homosexuality, we have evidence of his heterosexuality. True, about the lack of concrete evidence as to homosexuality, but what good evidence is there of his heterosexuality.

• "carrying on for months or years with a person you know only to be a beautiful woman-- complete with thousands of messages and phone conversations-- these are the actions of a gay man?" Please, carrying on makes it sounds like they had sex. They didn't. Straight dudes want to fuck chicks, not spend hours talking to "women" that they never bother to meet.

• bump for dr. phil interview...

• I can't believe that he didn't realize at some sort of subconscious or semi-conscious level that he was talking to another guy. It had to register somewhere in the brain.

• why, why, Manti?

• r76, not truly religious (Mormon) ones. Yes, there are fake religious people who fornicate, but most conservative religions teach it is a serious sin to fornicate. Mormons certainly teach that. A lot of my friends are religious conservatives, and most of them go to great lengths to avoid sex before/outside marriage.

• Yes, R72, you are 'so fucking stupid.' Every time you post, you prove it. And if you detest people presuming that everyone's gay, why have you spend such a long time on DL? Straight gossip sites presume the opposite, and you'd clearly like that better. You're bending over backwards to 'prove' that Manti isn't gay and we're all idiots, but what you can't explain away is a red-blooded athlete who, over the course of 3 years, didn't meet the 'love of his life' in person once, and was content to have a love affair conducted via telephone and/or text. It's not idiotic to point out that a gay guy, particularly one who's not out yet, might much prefer a long-distance girlfriend. It's not idiotic to point out that a gay guy would be more likely never to fly to her side or fly her to his games. He not only didn't have sex with her, he never set eyes on her. He never kissed her, never held her hand. Yeah, that was a deep and abiding love, all right.

  %27my%20girlfriend%20who%20lives%20in%20Canada%27

• The guy who was pretending to be a woman admitted to Dr. Phil yesterday that he had romantic feelings for Te'o and that he may be gay.

• [quote]Please, carrying on makes it sounds like they had sex. They didn't. Since the woman didn't exist, of course Teo and the woman didn't have sex. But in consideration of the constantly changing stories and the lies by both men, it's probable that Ronahiah and Teo had a long-distance gay affair for three years. All Teo's talk about the girlfriend was to cover up the fact that he's gay.

• r82=Captain of Late in Delivering Old News

• I think it's like being farsighted so I guess far gay means he can see a penis from far away but when they're up close he really never knows what it is until he puts it in his mouth for 5 or 10 minutes to investigate.

  Harvey%20

• Don't worry, people, Ronaiah is saying he is trying to recover from his homosexuality so it's all gonna be just fine.

• On Dr Phil now?

• Katie Couric sings

  http://www.youtube.com/user/schmoyoho%3Ffeature%3Dwatch

• I think he's real cute with all his young muscles and stocky body. And islanders have nice smooth skin and big cocks. I bet he fucks real good and all night long. I wish his boyfriend would release a dick picture of Manti. Oh I can just feel him releasing his love juice, moaning loudly with each shot deep into me. Oh God, Manti, please lets be gay together and fuck me. Please!

• Did they have phone sex?

• I wonder about the results of the voice test on Dr Phil.

• R89 is very, very, very fucking scary.

• R92, how is it any different than anything else that gets posted here?

  Not%20R89

• He prepped for the interview. Probably considered similar situations "Far, far from it." Manti Te'o to Katie "..you know, I'm Far from gay". Magic Johnson to Arsenio

  3%20out%20of%204%20

• r89, leave your sick fantasies out of this. stop being gross and vulgar.

• why, why Manti?

• Do you think Manti is afraid to come out to his parents? Is that what's going on here?

• I honestly don't know what's going on here. Every time a new revelation, admission, or angle is supposed to clear something up, it only makes it more confusing. Could totally believe the gay possibility (and it gets my vote), but have no idea.

• Maybe he doesn't want to come out to his teammates. Being a gay football player is still taboo.

• i think he is straight.

• Yep, he thought he was talking to a chick the entire time. No evidence otherwise.

• Gay! Gay! Gay!

• The "is he gay?" debate seems a bit false at this point. The original claim that Manti must be gay was based on one of two theories: 1) he couldn't possibly have been fooled like he claims. He perpetrated the whole thing and made up the girlfriend to cover for his sexuality; 2) he was in a relationship with a man and Lennay Kekua was just a cover story to hide that relationship. Theory 1 is the idea that Manti simply made up the girlfriend to not have to deal with getting a real one. But that theory makes no sense in light of all the evidence he produced proving he really believed he was dealing with a woman, and there is a lot of it (including the admission by Rononiah T that he was pretending to be a woman and is good at it). There wouldn't be thousands of text messages and phone calls if Manti himself had just created the whole thing. There would have been nothing, only his claim that he had a girlfriend. Also, while there was lots of initial skepticism that he could have been taken in like this, many others have come forward with their own stories about falling for online relationships with someone who wasn't what they claimed. Catfishing happens. Theory 2 falls apart for a lot of the same reasons Theory 1 does: all the evidence that he is able to produce (voice / text / phone records) that make it clear he thought he was dealing with a woman. "The man behind the woman", Rononiah, was pretty much 'fessed up to everything, including Manti's ignorance of the whole thing, which makes sense given all the correspondence between the two. The only different theory that could support a "Manti is gay" story is a more complex one that says he went along with the whole thing with this person he thought was a woman as a way to not deal with his sexuality. That is not wholly implausible, but he sure did put in a huge investment of time and energy into this non-relationship if that was his reason. If all he wanted from this 'relationship' was a cover for his sexuality, he wouldn't have had to do much to keep it going... but he did a whole lot to keep it going. Looking at everything, it seems pretty unlikely that he is gay. The far more likely scenario is that he was naive and gullible and fell for a woman that didn't exist. Apparently, it is not a unique phenomenon.

• [quote]If all he wanted from this 'relationship' was a cover for his sexuality, he wouldn't have had to do much to keep it going... but he did a whole lot to keep it going. He did a whole lot, including tales of their connection even after he found it was a fake. He didn't want the story of his grief over her death to stop. Why? It got a lot of sympathy for someone who was campaigning for a major trophy. We know he lied about meeting her. Why trust any other claims from him?

• He lied about meeting her and her family, for sure. Maybe he lied because he thought it could help him win the Heismann (it would be unbelievably risky and a wildly crazy scheme, but maybe). Or maybe he lied because he was completely humiliated and didn't see a need to broadcast it to the world. Frankly there is a lot of stuff about our personal lives that many of us would (and do) lie about to protect ourselves or others. There is nothing unusual about this. In any case, there is plenty of evidence of communication between the two that indicates he really thought he was a dealing with a woman. Evidence in the form of the contents of messages and emails as well as the voice mails left for him. It's not a matter of taking Manti at his word, the evidence exists. In any case, his lies still don't give any credence to the notion that he is gay; more that he was caught up in a story that he felt the need to keep going with.

  r103

• Manti will address the media at the Combine today

• I love you Manti!

• That NFL COmbine press conference was a major success for Manti. He came across as very genuine, forthcoming, and candid. He is very likeable and sweet.

• Why gay? I heard he was fucking around on the chick he had a cyber relationship with. Athletes & rock musicians cheat. This isn't the 1st guy that was reeled in on the internet, even ones that are not religious & it won't be the last.

• Now that the whole mess is out in the media, is he still talking to the dude who pretended to be the girl? Now that would be an interesting twist to this whole saga.

• I doubt it, it's a real mind-fuck. This lady Janna who did this shit for 10 yrs., pretended for 1.5 yrs. that she was a guy & even spoke to this woman on the phone (voice altering device?) After the supposed "true-love's" death the imposter & the victim met up, only this time sock puppet used her real identity (she has posed as a great friend of the deceased love from the start). I don't think for a minute the victim speaks to that crazy. In fact she tried to sue her.

• I still think he's hiding something -- that he didn't know and was completely duped, and used it for his own advantage. I guess we'll never know unless more info comes out. But, the whole thing seems to be over and judging by the combine press conference, he's overcome it for the most part. The possible gay angle was interesting, but since nothing was confirmed one way or the other, there's just nothing left to talk about. It was a crazy, out-of-nowhere story, but what's left to discuss?

• The reaction to his press conference has been almost uniformly positive. Everyone is saying how genuine, yet savvy he was. He seemed like he was at ease with himself. He really disarmed the press and brought them to his side.

• Dumb, naive kid. So was I. So were you. Let's leave him alone, for Christ's sake.

• [quote]Everyone is saying how genuine, yet savvy he was. Everyone? Your nighbors? The guys at the bar? A TV announcer? A priest at Notre Dame? The ladies on "The View"?? Everyone?????

• neighbors!

• [quote}Everyone is saying how genuine, yet savvy he was From what I read, while he acquitted himself well enough, the words "coached" and "prepped" came up an awful lot, not "genuine. And nobody under any circumstance is going to call this dummy "savvy."

• If your name is mentioned on DL it seems you are automatically presumed to be gay. Then, if you are ,and you are, in fact,heterosexual, you must prove it to the world. The burden seems to be on you. That apparently is the unwritten DL rule.

  anonymous

• He is so sweet and cute.

• I am so ready for the draft.

• [quote]If your name is mentioned on DL it seems you are automatically presumed to be gay. Then, if you are ,and you are, in fact,heterosexual, you must prove it to the world. The burden seems to be on you. That apparently is the unwritten DL rule. Life is a two-way street. If someone says Tom Cruise is gay, someone else will say they won't believe it until they have "concrete proof." At the same time, that same person can't provide concrete proof that Cruise could be straight. If people are going to deny being gay, it's only fair that they be asked to provide concrete proof. I've never seen concrete proof that Manti Te'o could possibly be straight.

• Manti was not taken in the first round of the NFL draft. How low will he go?

• I heard a sport commentator talk about that, R122. His point was that it is not whether he is Gay or not, it is whether anyone so stupid that they fall for the gag is smart enough to play in the NFL, especially in a position where you need to able to read the other team and anticipate what they are planning to do.

• Oh please as if these linebackers are rocket scientists.

• there is also the fear that he would be a distraction, something the team would have to constantly deal with.

• Please, again.

  Ray%20Lewis

• SD Chargers are great fit for Manti. Best wishes to him.