:laughing:

Apparently Roddy Bottum (huh huh huh), the keyboardist from Faith No More is gay.

It's a fact, he's openly gay.

Well, he is kinda hot.:D

They're correct; most of the people who play it are homophobic (heteronormative?), and most of the people who listen to it are as well. We could argue about whether it's as strongly homophobic as, say, country western or rap - but homophobic it is.

But I suppose you're coming at this from a "homophobia is bad" angle, eh?

Ermm.... who gives a shit? It makes no difference to what music they make does it?

I don't think that Rob Halford is homophobic! :laughing:

(But his music is:confused:)

Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution.

Anyone else find it hilarious that Gaahl the anti-religious somewhat satanic black metaller is also gay? He's the ultimate outcast.

I'm actually asking this thread for personal reasons. I'm a metal fan and musician, and also I have strong homosexual feelings. People can't seem to see how someone who is like me can also be involved with a music genre which has a reputation for being homophobic.

I'm trying to demonstrate that some people who are at the top of their respective metal sub-genres are also openly gay, and have been accepted for who they are by the metal scene generally.

You're right, it doesn't. And I'm not saying that it does. But the fact is that behind the music is a real person and generally, people don't just listen to the songs, they look towards the person also. And given metal's reputation for homophobia, it makes my case if I can prove that the metal community has accepted an openly gay musician, to the point where they can reach the top of their respective sub-genre, it helps my case that metal is actually quite accepting, possibly more so than what people are making out.

Judas Priest are awesome. I kinda stopped listening to them until this thread reminded me.

I don`t necessarily think of metal as being homophobic or even racist in any real context (talking about modern day) it just happens to exclude a gay or a black following in general, in that a large amount of gay people and even black music followers are not going to identify with metal for either historic or cultural reasons. I`d say if they identified themselves as metal lovers, they probably get more flak from their own social and cultural circles than they ever would from metal followers. Also, the concept of metal being homophobic, even racist and sexist is largely an old concept anyway and fairly outdated. Metal since the 1990s has grown immensely in terms of genres, there is something like 20-30 genres out there depending on how the styles are classified, point here being that it continues to grow creatively and incorporating greater musical diversity all the time, thus in turn attracting a more varied crowd of people. Rob Halford is the perfect example of being both gay and a metal god, I doubt metal lovers ever really debate about the fact that he`s gay.