Barry Manilow - I Didn't Realize I Was Gay Until I Was 35

Sure, Jan.

She was the last person to know.

How DUH FUK do people not know who they're attracted to until latter in life? Meredith Baxter had the same issue? I would love to ask these people has there never been an instance where you were at the grocery store, bank, work etc and saw someone that attracted you? Never? WTF! I find this impossible to believe.

Oh, please... 🙄

Does this dick up my ass make me look Gay?

So as children, we knew before he did.

When did he realize he writes crap music?

Soo....he was smashing puss from 1966 to 1978?

Barry - nobody believes you.

When did he know that his plastic surgery was a failure?

I wonder if Bette Midler and him ever fucked?

@ R8

dear GAWD

THUMP!!

Bette just fell over dead

LOL, crazy ass shit. Barry, I'm glad you're happy, but that is a BS story of your own sexuality, but I'm happy for you that you finally found true love.. :-)

Imagine playing the piano for Bette Midler in the Continental Baths for several years and not knowing you were gay?

Why lie now Barry?

Let's not act like women didn't crush on him all the time back in the 1980's. His concerts were notoriously filled with straight women. He was kind of like the white Luther Vandross in some ways.

I think it was Oprah or Donahue that he was on once where some woman talked about how in love with him she was. I remember the audience filled with fraus who were cheering her on.

He should have asked me. I would have cleared it up for him.

what did he wank about, I wonder

I'm with r3. I remember finding other boys attractive in elementary school, and feeling nothing for the girls. I didn't know what it meant until I hit puberty. Somebody -- especially men, who are, on average, more visually oriented than women -- not recognizing what they're attracted to early on doesn't make sense to me.

R3 well, in Meredith's case at least, it's understandable. For females it can be confusing, as we don't have a dick or elevated testosterone to make patterns of sexual attraction so clear. Our emotions make defining sexuality a diffuse and convoluted issue. Hence common instances of women switching orientations in College or later in life, or being more flexible generally.

Men, though, have obvious physical sensations that lay it all out. I don't get how a male wouldn't be sure of exactly what he liked after puberty.

Did it occur to some of you that he may have been asexual? Some asexuals, on rare occasions, experience sexual attraction.

[quote]Did it occur to some of you that he may have been asexual?

and then all of a sudden full-on gay? No, it didn't occur to me.

R14, agree. Women were encouraged to crush on obviously gay male entertainers. It put enormous pressure on gay male performers to not shatter all the make-believe that fans wanted. It was the unspoken "contract" between performer and fan.

I'm sorry, r21, who encouraged them? Women/girls have been crushing on obviously gay male entertainers since the days of Ancient Greek theater.

Oh, Barry! Please!

Well, he never sucked my dick

Bullshit Barry. If you’re happy then I’m happy for you, but bull shit. Maybe you used to tell yourself you were bi, but you know and I know you were having anonymous (before you were famous) gay bathhouse sex in NYC. It’s not like you didn’t know what went on there.

I'm guessing that Barry was addressing his remarks at his longtime frau fans and not other gay men.

Most of Barry's " longtime frau fans " are dead

It's not u common for women to not realize they're gay until later life, but men? BAHAA HA HAHA!

Barry Manilou is still playing to his pre-teen and house frau fan base, trying lessen the sting of his "choice." Problem is, the pre-teens are now old house fraus, and the previous house fraus are all dea.

R18, women have obvious sexual response to what they're attracted to also, it's just that going out to find a dick to suck isn't on their mind.

Was he a virgin until age 35??

^ Not by choice

I think women know who they're attracted to. Women have crushes. Mad in love crushes. I told my daughter and her friends this. I was driving them all to the mall or somewhere, and I got into an argument with them because the friends were saying they were bi or some bullsh***. (They're not. They're typical teen girls). I said you know by who you have crushes on. (Is it wrong that I argue with teen girls?)

Maybe what he's saying is he's not a practicing homosexual up until 35 so he's straight before that in his own mind. He most likely was in denial and suppressing any homosexual urges.

Agree with R26. These comments are for his die-hard fans who are fraus.

We spoke to Miss Manulow when we were working for her publicist Michael Ameen.

[quote] If you really wanna be with him, then you get back on that phone, and you CALL Barry Manilow and you TELL him how you feel!

So a lifetime of sucking on cock didn’t clue him in?

Oh please! He slept with my friend back when he was playing for Midler. What a fuckin' liar.

Ah, ha! R38, he slept with - didn't have sex with!

Is he losing his mind or getting senile? Such bullshit spewing from his cum soaked mouth.

That’s funny. I realized he was gay when I was 5.

Get outta here with this bullshit, Barry.

Good point, R40. Manilow is almost 80 years old and has had numerous serious health problems in recent years. It's very possible he's not playing with a full deck, in fact, I'd count on it.

Sir John Gielgud on why he never came out as Gay until late in life:" I never wanted to disappoint all those blue-haired spinsters who adored me as a matinee idol in my youth." Of course, Manilow was no Gielgud, not by a long shot. But, the sentiment is more or less the same. Isn't it?

"I never admitted to myself I was gay until I was 35, not even when I was regularly getting spitroasted in the bathhouse."

FTFY Barry.

Yes, R32. It makes you exceedingly arrogant. You don't know who they fancy better than they do..

I'm just here for the music!

Denial is a River in Egypt, Barry.

However, I am not going to trash you because every Gay man has to "cum to his own sexual awakening& awareness in his own way". I knew at 7 yrs old I was different than other boys in my sexual attraction to men (kept that to myself for years). In East Falls(Philly), you got hurt if you admitted that to anyone.

I NEVER knew that Barry is gay, said no one EVER!

Just because you exclusively think about and have sex with men doesn't make you gay. It's 2022, after all. You are what you say you are. You can be asexual and fuck ten guys a week. Facts and definitions don't exist. We're through the looking glass.

Lots of closeted types stuff their sexuality- even if others close to them know. I think he fits that category. My guess is that he had very little sex until he did come out.

Also,, I think he was younger than 35 when he chased my friend Tom around Hurrah (in NYC) in about ‘76, or early ‘77.

Physical attraction is such an unequivocal sensation - I’m sick of these people who give succour to the lie that you a) don’t know or b) decide to swap sides later in life as if on a whim. Of course, there’s denial (e.g. telling yourself it’s just a stage or whatever) but that’s not the same thing as not knowing to whom you’re attracted. Every time, that’s a lie.

r53 Still, I would rather believe he's asexual or otherwise deficient.