Did people actually think Freddie Mercury was straight?

They thought he was a Queen.

People thought Gays were fems and dandies. They didn’t know we were everywhere.

He started out wearing very girly stuff, long hair, and nail polish.

Maybe people thought he was a straight cross-dresser.

I honestly didn’t until that drag video came out. Everyone in the 70s dressed like that.

Why wouldn't they, OP?

Don't label me.

I know he never came out during his lifetime. But after he broke up with Mary Austin, did he ever make any effort to appear straight?

Other than awkwardly dancing with girls in a few videos, of course.

If this isn't coming out, then what is?

I was ten. I just thought he was very British.

He lived the last 6/7 years of his life happily and openly with his partner, Jim Hutton. So perhaps it was all a bit more ambiguous in the early 70s, but I don't think there was any doubt in the 80s. Didn't matter, he already established himself as an icon by then.

My Mum took a lot of convincing that Freddie, George Michael And Rock Hudson were gay. A lot. I think she still secretly thinks they were bi or heteroflexible or the subject of cruel gossip. She’s 74.

I think back then, the average music fan didn't give performers' sexuality much thought. Remember the public at large was even oblivious to the not-so-subtle innuendo in songs like The Village People's 'YMCA' and 'In the Navy.'

I only learned (at age 14) that George Michael was gay because Boy George would out him all the time in the media back then. He revealed to a UK music publication that Pat Hernandez, whom GM was supposed to be dating at the time, was "one of the biggest fag hags who ever lived." BG has also repeatedly outed Hugh Jackman, but that aside.

EXACTLY R12. He was the lead singer of a rock band in the 70s. Nobody got the irony of the band name back then.

Seriously, R13? Even my grandmother did.

Mercury largely stopped talking to the press early in the game, after this article came out.

Which doesn't seem to have hurt the band commercially, and which might have slowed down speculation about his private life. In the press, at least.

Didn't he leave all of his money to a woman who was his "great love?" It was implied that she was like his wife or something. I thought it strange, since he was gay as a goose.

r14, your grandmother must have been an old hell's kitchen whore. Get real.

Wow, I found that article/interview mentioned by R15. It's awful! In hindsight, it's so INCREDIBLY myopic, small-minded and bitchy that I feel ashamed for this Chris Wood person, whoever he is. No wonder Freddie wanted nothing to do with this kind of trolls anymore.