Columnists

Andrea Cleary: The rush to accuse Harry Styles of ‘queerbaiting’ is unfair

If we have learned anything about the next generation of queer activists, it is that gender and sexuality labels are rapidly becoming redundant

Harry Styles performing at Coachella earlier this year in Indio, California: accusations of queerbaiting stem from how the singer has presented himself during his solo career. Picture: Getty

Back in 2002, while appearing on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, David Bowie was asked to clarify something important. “What’s the deal,” Ross asked, “you were gay for a while, then you were not gay, but were you bisexual, were you pansexual, were you try-sexual?”

Bowie, ever the chameleon, refused to answer the question as it was put. Labelling his sexuality, he has said, was one of the biggest mistakes he’s ever made, and it’s ...