But he could take the totally principled stance not to be pressurised into disclosing anything about himself that there is no onus on him to.

Exactly. He's just 18 and may not even be sure of own his sexuality. It's bordering on disgusting that people already seem to want him to make some kind of definitive statement. Is this the 'liberated' and 'accepting' age we live in, trying to force an 18 year old talent show contestant out of the closest?

Almost getting to the bottom of all this speculation now.

*whispers "sorry. I don't understand"

There seem to be plenty of people desperate to definitively out him as straight though... Why don't you find that disgusting?

Most people on here aren't suggesting (or should be suggesting) that they know anybody's sexuality for sure: for all we know, Olly might actually be gay, Rachel a lesbian, and Lloyd straight - whatever. It's just people who are interested in the show and the contestants trying to peek behind the veil of bullshit that the X Factor casts over them. And there's nothing wrong with that.

The only people who seem take it as some sort of evil attack tend to be the people who are either homophobic and who view the suggestion that someone is gay as a vicious slur, or are more concerned about getting the homophobic votes for their contestant than anything else. For some reason, these seem to be particular issues for Joe's fans - Lloyd's fans generally dealt with all the speculation around him (which was a lot more lurid anyway, if you remember) without getting all upset about it. And that was despite the fact that a fair chunk of his fans are teenage girls...

Complete rubbish. I just don't think it's right stating that someone's gay if they're not. If they announce they're gay, fine. I think it's better to let the actual person state whether they're gay or not. If they do, there you have it then.

I'm afraid I don't give a stuff about the contestants' sexuality. If I decide to vote, it will be based on the contestants' performances, since this is a talent contest, not a sexuality contest!

Voting for someone purely because they're gay is as bad as refusing to vote for someone because they're gay.

So can you not see that some people actually get annoyed that being gay is hidden and treated as a dirty little secret yet speculation about being straight is positively encouraged?

Is it so hard to see why that annoys people?

But you're quite happy with people declaring someone is straight if they are not. Nice.

Being gay isn't some dirty little secret people should be ashamed of, you realise? Speculating that somebody might be gay should be no different than speculating that someone might be straight.

Precisely. Contestants should be voted for by how good they can sing, and NOT, by how good looking they are - if they're gay - if they're straight, but unfortunately though, quite a few out there will most likely be voting for reasons other than pure talent.

I've posted several statements about how I think it's stupid that people are trying to say that they "know Joe is straight" and how they treat any suggestion that he might be gay, in the same way you might suggest somebody has commited some kind of crime. You're just trying to marginise people who have a different view as to a persons pivacy, by attributing or assuming stances to them that they don't hold.

The first poster didn't speculate - they stated that Joe was gay. I've nothing against speculation, but statements that are made without proof are silly.

Please quote the part where I said this.

That's what to me you seemed to be implying in what you were saying.

But if you do actually take the view that we shouldn't automatically assume everyone in the world is straight until we have definitive proof otherwise, then I wholeheartedly apologise for misinterpreting you - sorry!