The increasingly popular British-Irish boy band One Direction performed to thousands at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte on June 27.
Band members Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson rose to fame after competing on the British version of “The X Factor” in 2010. Each had entered the contest as solo acts. After failing to individually qualify for the “Boys” category, the five teens combined to form their current five-guy ensemble. The group didn’t win the competition, instead coming in at third place. Regardless, they soon took Britain, and now America, by storm.
As is natural, the newly-revived boy band craze has plenty of critics. But, at least one gay blogger has found a silver lining. Unicorn Booty’s Kevin Farrell was passed along a YouTube-posted reel of One Direction’s so-called “gayest moments.”
Farrell wrote in May:
[A]fter four different UB readers sent us this reel of One Direction’s gayest moments, I finally broke down and watched it. And while they aren’t exactly doing body shots off one one another, these boys are awfully touchy.
They kiss, they hold hands, and they openly discuss which of their bandmates would make the best boyfriend and bedmate.
They’re cute. There, I said it. When I was a wayward gay youth, it was almost inconceivable that Lance Bass and J.C. Chasez would be caught snuggling on camera, even though C’MON! These boys are clearly quite fond of one another, and while to what degree exactly is uncertain, we should be celebrating the fact that the next generation of teens get to grow up fawning over a group of boys that aren’t scared to show affection to other boys.
With what Farrell calls One Direction’s “not-so-secret homoeroticism,” gay youth today are being shown that same-sex affection, whether sexual or not, isn’t something from which one should run or be ashamed. And, if it’s totally not clear that sexuality is one thing these up-and-comers aren’t afraid of, two of the band members’ recent on-stage near-smooch in Texas should settle the question.
Theyre not seriously gay. Everyone jokes about it, but they’re not honesty gay. They’re just extremely close. They’re basically brothers! And that picture of Harry and Niall, Harry layer tweted “i was tellin him something but it looks like we got freaky…”