The whole fandom seems to be way to obsessed with who the boys date and their sexualities, Harry’s response of ‘who cares?’ I can agree with.
In reality only they know their sexuality and it may be different to what they share with the public but that’s their choice and fans should respect that. At the moment all the boys are dating women and have only publicly dated women in the past. Not everyone believes that these relationships are real and believe that the boys are queer as they’ve been in relationships with each other (Larry, Ziam). My issue is, is when people try and prove that their dating/dated, whether they did or didn’t these boys aren’t out so in reality these fans are trying to out them which I find disgusting and then these fans call those who don’t believe in these ships homophobic. Ofc there’s fans who are homophobic but I find it ironic that these people trying to out their ‘idols’ are preaching about homophobia.
Harry queer bating is a hard one. Does his brand capitalise off the LGBTQ community? Yes definitely. But do I think he should be forced to share his sexuality with the world? No. I see sexuality as no one else’s business but that persons. I’m queer myself but would I be really open about my sexuality if I was as famous as him? probably not, for many reasons just like I’m not hugely open about it now. Part of me feels like seeing he profits off it, he should talk more about issues affecting the community and show he’s an proper ally (rather than just waving a pride flag on stage) but that’s up to him/Management, he didn’t sign up to be an activist and there is so many better ones that he would be.
What annoys me is fans push him as this massive queer idol and get upset when people in the community reject that idea. Like I said he’s done nothing for the community. They think it’s groundbreaking that he’s wearing a dress when in reality it’s nothing new and their pushing this image that he must be queer because he’s wearing a dress. I’ve seen stuff where fans have become more open and less homophobic because of him which I think is great and I’m glad and I just hope Harry can maybe be a stepping stone for those to research proper queer idols and activists.
I don’t really care about what sexualities the boys are it’s non of my business, what I do care about though is that they’re happy and safe and if they are queer they are able to come out in their own time not feel forced to by fans.