In telling Freddie Mercury's authentic story, Bohemian Rhapsody had a difficult task. The Queen singer was notoriously private about many aspects of his life, but one particular aspect has remained a point of interest among fans even today, nearly 30 years after his passing: his sexuality.
“Bohemian Rhapsody’s approach to those aforementioned benders in gay clubs and the singer’s eventual diagnosis with AIDS are inaccurate at best, and at worst, insulting to Mercury’s life and the LGBTQ community at large.”
During one emotionally fraught scene in the new biopic, Mercury (portrayed vividlyby Rami Malek) cautiously looks up at his fiancée and soon-to-be-friend Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) and says, “I think I’m bisexual.” His lover looks down at him, almost pityingly, and retorts. “No, Freddie. You’re gay.”
For many out there, this particular moment almost rang too true to real life. Bisexual people face the reality of bi-erasure on a near-daily basis, being told that they’re either “too gay” or “not gay enough,” with little to no attention paid to their actual sexual identity. So it’s natural that many critics and Twitter users would call Bohemian Rhapsody out for attempting to erase Mercury’s bisexuality in this scene, especially in a film meant to celebrate him.
But was it really erased?