In 2008, while Hardy was promoting another movie in which he played a gay man, British gay lifestyle magazine Attitude quoted him saying “I’ve played with everything and everyone.” Hardy later denied that he ever had sex with men and said he was misquoted. Regardless, these questions are especially relevant given Hardy’s past statements and his role in this movie. (Asking how much someone makes or how much they spent on a dress, however, is still off limits.) Straight people hardly ever get asked whether they’re straight or gay and might be taken aback by the question, but they seem to never have a problem setting the record straight. Gay people are, in most cases, happy to tell you that they are gay. If you ask someone whether he or she is gay, and he or she is not, they should not feel badly about themselves or about you. The reason why some people don’t want to ask-both at press conferences and at cocktail parties-is because there is still that little lingering doubt in the back of their minds that there is something wrong with homosexuality. Those are, of course, personal matters that should never be asked about (unless by a very close friend at a boozy brunch). It’s not asking about which sexual positions a person prefers or how often they masturbate. Just because being gay affects who a person has sex with, this is not a question about his or her sex life. Asking someone if he or she is gay is the equivalent of asking if they are married, if they were raised Christian, of if they have a bachelor’s degree.
There is nothing dirty or taboo about it. There is nothing embarrassing about being gay. Digg posted the video with the headline “ Tom Hardy Has The Perfect Answer To Reporter Asking Him About His Sexuality.” But if anything this should make Hardy look bad, not the reporter.