oprah: not gay.

Oprah revealed - via just about every news media outlet she could find - that she and her best friend Gayle King are NOT. GAY.

Her position is basically that the public assumes if two people are as close as Oprah and Gayle (talking on the phone - gasp! - 3 or 4 times a day for 30 years) that it must be sexual, they must be lovers.

To be exact, Oprah put it this way:

"I understand why people think we're gay...There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it--how can you be this close without it being sexual?"

I think there IS a word for this kind of bond between women: BEST. FRIENDS. What girl hasn't kissed and hugged and snuggled with their best girlfriend...girls go to the bathroom en masse, girls share just about everything, most girls have seen their friends naked, have shared everything from shoes to shampoo to swim suits.

Unfortunately, I don't think MEN have it as easy...If Jake Gyllenhaal can't pal around with another guy for a few days without being labelled gay, it can't be easy. Men aren't allowed to give one another sweet platonic kisses on the cheek or borrow each other's jeans...when men seem to be having tooooo much fun together, they MUST be gay.

I don't think Oprah's tight friendship with Gayle inspired the gay rumours...Oprah is just an easy target because extremely successful, high-profile, powerful women - particularly women with their own...dynasty to maintain - who very publicly choose not to marry their Stedmans and dismiss the suggestion with the ambiguous explanation, "The traditional role of marriage would not work in this relationship" are difficult to comprehend in the musical-relationship world of Hollywood and celebrity. If she's not dating high-profile men and if her relationships aren't tabloid targets, if she maintains normal friendships and manages - somehow - to keep her sexual life well out of the spotlight: it must be because she's gay.