Introducing the Stromo! Why Straight Male Stars are Going Gay(ish)

On June 14, a warm Sunday, hunkily dressed Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer and Adam Rodriguez cruised the WeHo streets on an LA Pride parade float, kicking up their heels and waving to a crowd of very appreciative male onlookers. Yes, they were promoting the second installation of Magic Mike XXL, but it wasn't the Warner Bros. marketing team or even publicly out Bomer who made that call: It was straight, married Tatum who rang Bomer last minute and suggested the idea.

On the day before in Pittsburgh, Nick Jonas, a man of many girlfriends of the model-actress-Miss Universe variety, performed at the city's LGBT Pride festival. It seems these days that straight male stars aren't stressed out at being perceived as gay or extremely gay-friendly. Far from feeling stigmatized, they welcome the gay gaze, staring invitingly and modeling shirtless on the covers of such gay magazines as Out and The Advocate, or both. With the current crop of "straight homos" — call them "stromos" — some very blurred lines have emerged.

These are not your mother's metrosexuals, a term coined in 1994 by British social critic Mark Simpson, who called out straight men for indulging in feminine-seeming pedicures and hair products. Today's stromos are the flip side of gay actors who want to read straight for their careers: They are straight actors striving to read gayish to optimize their appeal — and maximize the number of butts, gym-molded or otherwise, in movie theater seats.

The number of straight actors who have appeared on Out covers — Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, Kit Harington and Josh Hutcherson, among others — has jumped in recent years. In 2011, there were two out of 12 covers; in 2012, three. By 2013, there were five, nearly half of the year's available covers. "When Channing Tatum did the cover for Magic Mike for the June 2012 issue, it opened the door for other guys," notes Out editor-in-chief Aaron Hicklin. "We've had straight men who are comfortable with their sexuality on the cover before. Keanu Reeves was on the cover of our 20th anniversary issue in 1995. Now a lot more straight guys are playing gay roles than ever before — and are happy to be on our covers. They request our covers, gay role or not."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/introducing-stromo-why-straight-male-804291