Gay Norfolk

Q&A Quickie: Lance Bass on Gay Marriage, Boy Bands, and His Love of Dance After climbing the charts as a member of the boy band 'N Sync, Lance Bass came out publicly in 2006 with amazing support from his fans. On June 13, the Sirius XM Radio host will host the West Coast Liberty Awards, honoring The New Normal 's Justin Bartha, The Magic Johnson Foundation's Eric Webber, and Super Bowl champ Brendon Ayanbadejo. At the red carpet launch of the first national tour for Shaping Sound a new contemporary dance company featuring Emmy-nominated choreographers Travis Wall, Nick Lazzarini, Teddy Forance, and Kyle Robinson Gay.net caught up with Bass to chat about marriage equality and the future of boy bands.

Gay.net: When you came out in 2006, could you imagine it would come to this, where three states have legalized gay marriage within the last few weeks? Lance Bass: Oh, I think its amazing. It s the snowball effect right now, which is great.

America has always been a bandwagon type of country. Now that everyone says it s OK to be cool to go with the trend, it s like, Yeah, I ve been supporting it the whole time. So that s what we re seeing right now.

It s a nice, pleasant feeling for sure. Has anything surprised you since you came out in the media? Everything surprised me when I came out.

I ve been out since I was 21, but the world knew in 2006 and I didn t expect the public to really accept it, especially then . The fact that it wasn t a big deal to a whole lot of people really surprised me the most. I think it s so important to be very visible as a gay celebrity.

I m always for the privacy of celebrities, but right now in this time and age, I think its very important to have people like Neil Patrick Harris and everyone else to really show who they are, because as a kid I didn t have anyone to look up to. I didn t open up People magazine and see a gay actor. It would be nice.

What would you say to a young boy in Minnesota which just legalized gay marriage who now knows that he can actually have a husband one day? The future looks a little brighter for him, that s for sure. I think its great.

The more that people get to know those types of people in small town cities, the better it s going to get. Once you get to know a gay person, it s like, Oh, this is what it's all about? Great to see you here supporting Shaping Sound.

Have you been a dancer all your life? No. God no.

Laughs I ve never been a dancer. When I joined 'N Sync, I thought we were an a cappella band, so I had no idea that dance would be a prerequisite which it wasn t. But then once I started getting into it and learning choreography, I really fell in love with dance and it's something I really enjoy doing.

I don t think I m the best at it, but it s so much fun to do. Can boy bands make a comeback? I hope so.

Laughs I m still waiting for the American version of One Direction here.

They ve been doing so great, but I d love to see an American boy band come back and really take that market. Continue reading →