However, the article itself doesn’t say he was gay. It was just the headline, so that changed, but it may not change in Google’s cache.

Regardless, I’d hate to be remembered as straight in obituaries if I ended up settling with a woman. I’d hate being remembered as gay too if I settled with a man.

Having a long term relationship doesn’t, in my mind, invalidate the relationships that came before it, or someone’s prevailing attractions.

Considering how much of a counter-culture prophet and free-thinker Vidal was, and that he came out in the 1950s and was a staunch and visible advocate of gay rights his whole life, I think if his attractions were predominantly gay, he would have said so. He doesn’t strike me as the type to shield himself.

Incidentally- no matter what I put there someone, somewhere was going to kvetch about it. I’ve been around long enough that I know that if I had said ‘queer’ someone would have kvetched that I was being insulting. If I had said ‘bisexual’ someone else would have complained about how he was with one man for ages. If I had said gay…well, since I did you see what happened.

I swear- there is no pleasing people out there.

You’re still more wrong, choosing a title that contradicts his stated feelings and his life’s history. How about changing the title to ‘queer’?

Look- I’m not changing the headline because it won’t matter. Can we just please stop the bloody argument because it doesn’t appear that he wanted to be labeled as gay, bi OR straight- so you’re as wrong as I am.

It is well-documented that he ardently refused to be labeled ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’. That he settled with one person doesn’t mean anything. If he had settled with a woman, would you call him straight?

“We are all bisexual to begin with. That is a fact of our condition. And we are all responsive to sexual stimuli from our own as well as from the opposite sex. Certain societies at certain times, usually in the interest of maintaining the baby supply, have discouraged homosexuality. Other societies, particularly militaristic ones, have exalted it. But regardless of tribal taboos, homosexuality is a constant fact of the human condition and it is not a sickness, not a sin, not a crime … despite the best efforts of our puritan tribe to make it all three. Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. Notice I use the word ‘natural,’ not normal.”

It’s pretty obvious he was bisexual.

However, I will say that you are reading into what I said something that I did not say.

I mentioned the fact that he had sexual affairs with both men and women- I have no information beyond that regarding how he considered himself, but do know that he was involved with the same man for many, many years. So I would say that your criticism falls off the mark. Many lesbians and gays have sex with members of the opposite sex before adopting a purely lesbian or gay identity. Without knowing anything other than the fact that Vidal had affairs with people of both sexes and settled with a man for a long period of time, I had to make a call. Nothing I have seen directly states that Vidal was bisexual in his orientation; however, if I am wrong and he considered himself bisexual, please let me know. I am not omniscient and there is only so much that can be gleaned from the sources that are out there.

This is the last site I would expect to defend a man like Buckley.