Luther vandross was he gay
With a velvety voice that could provide you goosebumps by hitting just the right note, Luther Vandross is responsible for some of the sexiest songs in modern pop music history.
But the sad reality is that the belated, great soul and R&B singer-songwriter spent much of his life alone, waiting to find that special someone, someone worth singing about.
Though warm and gregarious on stage, Vandross kept his confidential life very confidential. It wasn’t until after his untimely passing in 2005, at 54, that folks began to talk more pointedly about the rumors surrounding his sexuality: Was he gay?
How about we receive this to the next level?
Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ fun and pop society, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Then in 2017, Vandross’s companion Patti LaBelle recognized he was, indeed, gay, but chose to stay closeted out of anxiety over how it could impact his career.
Her comments, in particular, sparked an outrage over “outing” someone against their will. Sure, Vandross had passed many years prior, but was it really Miss LaBelle’s place to utter on something he was intentionally k
Luther Vandross, Gay Icon?
For most of his career, Luther Vandross trim a puzzling figure. A charming romantic whose songs were so celebrated for bringing men and women to the bedroom that he was considered as much aphrodisiac as artist, Vandross, by all accounts, spent much of his life alone. He was surrounded by friends, many of them famous, but Vandross was open about there being something—someone—missing from the center of it all. He never linked himself to a partner, even for show, which inevitably led to the kinds of … questions … often posed to a suspiciously solo man.
In Luther: Never Too Much, an eye-opening new documentary on the late singer that recently premiered on CNN, archival footage shows interviewers pressing Vandross about his sexuality. He stridently refused to confirm or deny any rumors about his personal existence, saying that he owed fans only his talent and complicated work. However, when viewed from a certain perspective, the movie, from director Dawn Porter, steadily suggests that Vandross was the one thing he would never publicly admit to being: a fabulously gay man.
To be obvious, Porter follows the lead not just of Vandross himself but also that of several
Patti LaBelle opens up about why Luther Vandross never came out
In a metropolis known for its happy hour tradition, summer can be an even excel time to obtain advantage of post-work drink and dine deals. Interns are in town, summer Fridays are in full swing, and patios and rooftops are aplenty. Here are a rare prime, non-comprehensive spots for an afternoon deal with besties, colleagues, and recent connections.
Alfreda. Dupont’s Alfreda, a tribute to the chef’s grandmother, offers relaxed pizza and traditional Italian eats. The delighted hour runs Monday-Friday 4-6 p.m., featuring $8 spritzes and BOGO pizzas. Not many do spritzes love the Italians, and Alfreda leans in on five kinds plus one N/A spritz; our go-to is the rose and mezcal with grapefruit or the locally made Don Ciccio limoncello spritz with basil.
Lyle’s. Especially leaning into the spritz side of summer is at Lyle’s, fully embracing the fizzy ephemera of the season with the Summer of Spritz. The Dupont Circle hotel restaurant imagines cocktails from France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Spritzes feature limoncello and vinho verde. For those that hit Lyle’s every week during the spritz special—and become a literal seal on Lyle
By George Johnson
The “closet.” A colorful phrase used to describe the lives of people like me who were too afraid to live as a homosexual people publicly. The place where we brought all of our lovers to do sexual things in the dark. The place where we could sneak off to and party with our gay friends, only to return assist to work, or college, or home, and sham that we were “too busy with _______ to have time for a girlfriend.”
The closet, for many of us, became our place of safety and a second home. Often, that closet door is a shield, and not always just for ourselves. Sometimes, it is a shield used to safeguard the ones you affectionate so much that you could never embarrass them by not being ideal in a world that says queer can never be.
On a recent episode ofWatch What Happens Live!, Andy Cohen casually asked Patti Labelle about Luther Vandross’ sexuality. The singer stated that Luther “did not want his mother to be [upset]–although she might have known–he wasn’t going to come out and say this to the world. He had a lot of lady fans. He told me that he just didn’t want to upset the world. It was strenuous for him.”
Many stood divided as to whether Patti was right to hold said what