Hello to everyone. I used to be a member of these forums a few years back but had all sorts of problems with my account that have now been sorted.

Wanted to start with something thats been bothering me. As a young gay man, I was so happy to have 4 openly gay finalists in the live shows this year. But it seems that despite their openess in the media, the show still does its best to make them appear straight. Aside from with johnny, who they camped up as much as possible. Its as if they think the British public can't deal with a gay act unless they are a novelty act thats over the top. I find it upsetting that both Craig and Marcus are still changing lyrics to songs to make them sound straight ("I won't stop until that girl is mine"). And Dermot insinuiating that Marcus was flirting with the female dancers despite knowing he was gay. People will argue that sexuality doesn't matter and is irrelevant to the competition, but if that were true then singing a same sex gender reference shouldn't matter either. The message the show seems to be sending out is that to get anywhere in the entertainment buisness you can't be gay.

They showed a picture of Marcus and his boyfriend in the first live show, though...

Marcus, craig, johnny

who is the 4th!?

Sami. Not that you'd know from Kelly telling her she was singing about a man.

Sami?

Glad to hear your account problems got sorted op, how did they manage that?

Sami who supposedly said she and Derry from The Risk had a little fling in the house! One of the tabloids came up with that one I presume.

To be honest I don't care what the contestants sexuality is and do not feel it is any of my business.

Welcome back OP

Lost password and email addresses changing but details being the same meaning I ouldn't open a new one. I gave up in the end lol.

It's is silly to change lyrics and all but overall X-Factor is very gay friendly but in the end of the day it has to cater to a "family friendly wanting" audience.
I think it says a lot that contestants can be open about their sexuality now when a few years back they would still hide it and only come out afterwards.
There is no excuse for Louis Walsh and his pink elephant though,

Marcus hasn't changed any lyrics, the songs he sang already had the female pronoun, he just sang the original lyric. Only Craig has changed the gender in a lyric.

Yeah I can't really remember Marcus changing lyrics either.

"family friendly wanting" Frankie was allowed to be showed womanising and getting drunk....only straight sexuality is family friendly...

What are you talking about, with Louis its referred to all the time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYea8TziunY

On Russian Roulette he changed, at the start of the song:
'Take a breath, take it deep, Calm yourself, he says to me' Marcus was saying she

oops totally missed that one Really there was no need to change that one, leaving it as he would have worked not as obvious as Craig singing until that boy is mine.

I wonder if any of the posters realise what a good thing it is to have four gay people become finalists?

Thirty years ago they would have been joke acts (if they were out?) Fifty years ago they could end up with a prison term.

Just celebrate the progress we have made.

I'm celebrating but it doesn't mean we should stop fighting for it to be equal. The X Factor is the most watched show in the UK and is hugely influential on the younger generation. It needs to send out the right message.

Yeah Craig did change the lyrics which was a bit weird. I would understand just keeping the lyrics the same if it was 'girl is mine' but changing it to girl when he's gay...bit odd.

But then again, on the last xtra factor they had tabloids about Craig and Danyl and were discussing with Craig whether it was a date or not...it's not like they try to hide it.

They did with Lloyd Daniels though

Good lad!!

My friend knew a group on last year (F.Y.D.) who had primarily gay members and were told by the show to hide that fact.

its not about the x factor pressuring them to be straight

the brutal truth is that craig singing about another man would be wierd and bring people out of the moment of the song.

and they wouldnt vote for him.

if he wants to win the competition he needs to appeal to the broadest section of people as possible. And he wouldnt be doing that if he chose to sing about another man.

the smartest thing he can do is whatever it takes to win. Then when hes got the position, money and status he can try and change the world by singing about another man.

the dumbest thing he can do is try to ram his own personality down peoples throats regardless of the effect on his popularity.

Ask katie waissel and kitty how far being yourself gets you.

Until people become brave enough to sing about another man on primetime TV the public wll never get used to it. Ignorance is mostly caused by non-exposure. It took me and I'm sure many others out of the moment when he sang girl.

They did the same with WIll Young when he started his career.

It's unfortunate, but many established gay artists don't use a gender in their songs. Look at George Michael, and WIll's later stuff. I'm not sure why they don't, but hopefully it's the last taboo to break.

What has that got to do with sexuality?...