Sasha Mallory says she isn't afraid to
tell people she's gay.
The season eight runner-up of Fox's
reality dance contest So You Think You Can Dance? recently
told lesbian entertainment website AfterEllen.com that she's proud to
be a lesbian despite keeping quiet about it during the show's
broadcast.
“It's not important for America to
know that personal side of me,” Mallory
told the website. “They just needed to know if I could dance
and if I had a personality. They didn't really need to know if I was
gay or straight. Who I'm sleeping with is not important. This is my
craft, my art, it's what I do and who I sleep with doesn't really
change that, I don't think.”
“I'm not afraid to tell people I'm
gay. I'm proud all over the place. Ask anyone! It's just something
that never needed to come up because it would just take the focus off
of my dancing and it will put it into 'I'm gay,' you know?”
Mallory's comments come roughly a week
after Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer of So You Think You Can
Dance? and American Idol, said
sexual orientation wasn't relevant on either show.
“To be frank, I didn't understand why
we're talking about contestants being gay or not gay. I don't go
into my dentist and say, 'Are you gay?' I don't say to contestants
on So You Think You Can Dance, 'Are you gay?' What does it
got to do with me? What does it got to do with anybody? When does
privacy stop in this country? If somebody wants to say they're gay,
it's up to them. You don't expect us to turn around and say, 'Are
you gay?' Why would we do that? 'By the way, he's Catholic and he
supports Obama and here's his sexuality' – what does that have
anything to do with singing talent?”