Kiss and tell: ‘queerbaiting’ PR gives showbusiness a free pass

Gay as the spring they come, one straight male celebrity after another, to eagerly bank the pink pound. “Queerbaiting” is in season. The OED defines the term as the “targeted provocation of LGBTQ+ people”, and it has never been more fashionable than it is right now. Or more profitable: last month, the gay romance Heated Rivalry became the most-watched TV series in HBO history. The network hasn’t shared its revenue figures yet, but the low-cost production has likely raked in tens of millions of dollars. Its surprise success with gay and straight fans alike has caught every studio’s eye.

Harry Styles made light of the trend in his opening monologue to Saturday Night Live! on 14 March, referring to his often flamboyant style. “People used to pay a lot of attention to the clothes I was wearing, and some people accused me of something called ‘queerbaiting’. But did it ever occur to you that maybe you don’t know everything about me Dad!?” he joked. At the end of the routine, he kissed SNL cast member Ben Marshall before turning to a close-up camera. “Now that’s queerbaiting,” he added with a wink.

Faced with criticism from the LGBTQ+ community, Styles, who is currently in a relationship with actor Zoë Kravitz, dug in his platform heels. He’d already been doing it for years, notably kissing singer Lewis Capaldi onstage at the 2023 Brit awards and Nick Kroll at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.

We’ve come a long way since David Bowie smooched a male fan during his 1974 Diamond Dogs tour. Such antics are no longer so shocking. But Bowie’s kiss could be interpreted as a genuine expression of his desire as a self-identified bisexual – a remarkably brave admission at the time. Madonna and Britney Spears’s snog at the 2003 MTV Music Video Awards felt altogether different. Done without any comment on the homophobic policies of the then-Bush administration, could it have been anything other than a publicity stunt? This was five months after the Dixie Chicks were cancelled for voicing their opposition to the Iraq War. It’s much easier – not to mention less costly – for the rich and famous to shut their mouths and lock lips.

The question is who stands to benefit when the act is over and the rainbow confetti gets swept away. Kissing your same-sex bandmate or co-star for likes doesn’t materially change anything for queer people. Homosexuality is still criminalised in 65 countries. Transgender people face horrific levels of discrimination and violence right here in the UK. According to the Home Office, hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people in the UK have increased nearly 20% over the past five years. For straight stars, retreating to the relative safety of a heterosexual life after the thrill of such a public transgression is the sexual equivalent of slumming it. Role play is not the same thing as representation.

Queerbaiting isn’t limited to the lips. At the world premiere of Pillion, a gay BDSM biker film, Alexander Skarsgård – who recently had a child with a woman – wore a sleeveless oxford shirt, cut in a halter, with a leather tie and lace-front leather trousers by Ludovic de Saint Sernin. The press lavished Skarsgård’s stylist, Harry Lambert, for what seemed like an audacious – if thematically appropriate – one-off. Then, Skarsgård did it again. And again. Six months later, he is still sitting for interviews and strutting red carpets in leather and lace. Odds are this wardrobe update won’t last, but it has drawn attention to the film, a niche art-house production that outperformed box office expectations. Pillion’s writer and director, Harry Lighton, is openly gay – as is Jacob Tierney, the showrunner of Heated Rivalry. But even for shows produced by LGBTQ+ talent, the queerbaiting of promotional junkets can have unintended consequences.

After a whistlestop publicity tour of New York in January, Heated Rivalry co-stars Connor Storrie and François Arnaud were photographed at JFK airport together. Online, fans pointed to the pictures as evidence that the two might be dating. Convinced that Storrie would be better matched with Hudson Williams, who plays his love interest in the show, they inundated Arnaud with death threats and other forms of harassment.

Arnaud is the show’s only openly bisexual star. Horny people on the internet can be relentless, parasocial trolls – but their behaviour is also not the kind of allyship you’d hope a show about LGBTQ+ acceptance would encourage. HBO did not come to the actor’s aid.

Instead, management has been content to let the rumours fly. Fans mocked Arnaud for dressing more conservatively on the red carpet at the Oscars, while Storrie and Williams were seen arm-in-arm, dressed in pearls and transparent mesh. Williams’s girlfriend waited patiently on the sidelines.

Hollywood is still what activist and film historian Vito Russo called “the celluloid closet”. There are almost certainly many more LGBTQ+ actors, they just haven’t come out yet. Queerbaiting doesn’t make it any easier for them, but it does allow the industry to profit from the performance of liberal values without committing to the hard work of creating lasting change.

Photograph by Will Heath/ NBC via Getty Images