Desperate rumors

The gossip that Keith Lockhart may be gay says more about us than him

by Christopher Muther

September was a rough month for husband hunters with high expectations. First, there was John F. Kennedy Jr.'s nuptials to the slinky, blonde Carolyn Bessette. Then there was Boston Pops Orchestra Conductor Keith Lockhart's wedding to violinist Lucia Lin. In Kennedy's case, at least, few were surprised when he married a woman. After all, we've been bombarded for years with news of his relations with slinky blonde women. So there was little hope that the 35-year-old John-John would charge into the gay community on a white stallion wearing his mother's famed pearls and sweep some lucky guy off to Camelot.

But Lockhart's wedding was far more damaging for Boston's gay singles. Ever since the handsome maestro packed his bags for Beantown, gay men have kept a close watch on Lockhart. His sexuality has become the stuff of urban legend and his marriage to Lin has yet to quell the rumors. People just don't want to give up any hope that Lockhart may be gay.

It's easy to see why. With his piercing blue eyes and hair flipped up just so, the 37-year-old Lockhart has breathed new life into the Pops since he was named conductor last year. Unlike the stoic, graying, and rotund John Williams, who passed the baton to concentrate on writing film scores, Lockhart is a cute, lively spark. When he conducts, he dips up and down, shimmies about, and flashes an electric grin.

When the announcement was made that Lockhart had been chosen to conduct the Pops after an extensive national search, one item in his biography set off gaydar across the city: Lockhart's status as a single man. That tidbit was enough to shoot him to the top of the list of Boston's most eligible bachelors and start a firestorm of gay rumors.

Soon, we had more clues to Keith's orientation. When I attended my first Lockhart-led Pops concert last summer, I flipped through the program and quickly noticed the small acknowledgment that read: "Keith Lockhart's tuxedo courtesy of Giorgio Armani." John Williams probably got his tux at Filenes' Basement and wore it for every concert during his 13 years at the podium. No straight man cares what designer makes his clothes.

It wasn't long after that concert that I started hearing the rumors. I heard that Lockhart was condo shopping in the South End, Boston's gay ghetto. Then a friend heard from a friend who heard from a friend who is somehow connected to Keith that he and his gay lover (his status moved quickly from "maybe gay" to "gay and attached") were cohabitating in the rumored South End love palace. I braced myself for rumors of Keith and his fictitous lover pounding out show tunes on the baby grand at Napoleon's. Fortunately, I never heard them.

Within months, the rumors became fact in the minds of many in the community and gay men smugly spoke of Lockhart as family. I frequently heard people ask matter-of-factly, in coversation about the Pops, "Oh, you didn't know he's gay?" So when the news hit that Keith had popped the question to his first chair violinist, it hit hard. I remember sending an e-mail message to my mother that day saying I could hear the crash of gay hearts breaking all over the city.

But don't think for a minute that something as small as an engagement could slow down the rumor mill. If we could get half the free world to believe that David Geffen and Keanu Reeves were married, keeping the Keith Lockhart fantasy alive would be a snap. Sure enough, before long I heard an explanation for the engagement that was good enough to satisfy even the most nit-picky gossip queen: when Lockhart accepted the post as Pops conductor, the orchestra's board of directors had allegedly told Lockhart they didn't care what he did with his personal life, as long as he got married within his first few years as conductor.

Satisfied with the bogus marriage explanation, the community once again claimed Lockhart as their own. The secretive nature of the ceremony cemented the rumor in many gay minds. One friend told me he didn't believe the wedding had happened because he never saw any wedding photos in the papers. Not to mention the fact that the couple had taken a "secret" honeymoon at their secluded Maine cabin.

An unlikely gauge of gay trends, the personal ads, even showed that the Keith mystique was still strong after the engagement and wedding. One read "Lucia Lin seeks Keith Lockhart" and "Keith Lockhart is my fantasy, you can be my reality."

Even though these rumors can be fun, they betray a sense of desperation. We're so anxious to find our own set of heroes and hunks to identify with that we jump on any small clue to claim strangers as our own. At work we sit and wonder if the woman with the short hair is lesbian or if the man without a wedding ring on his finger is gay. When we drive, our eyes are scanning for tell-tale rainbow flags or pink triangles stuck to bumpers.

In the case of Keith Lockhart, all we needed was the knowledge that he wasn't married to start the rumor mill. But with so few people in the public eye willing to come forward as lesbian and gay, it's no wonder that the gay community resorts to making up heroes.

So maybe, just until a few more actors, singers, athletes, millionaires, and society types come out of the closet, we can just pretend that Keith Lockhart's marriage was bogus, and that David Geffen and Keanu Reeves are really married. And since we're making up a list, I'd like to add Chris Isaak (after all, he's from San Francisco) and the Baldwin brothers (too cute to be straight, as the popular t-shirt slogan goes), and of course, all those other Hollywood hunks rumored to be gay: Tom Cruise, Richard Gere and John Travolta. Now, if I could only make a list of people who I wish weren't gay.

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Christopher Muther is a frequent contributer to One in Ten; he can be reached at cmuther@aol.com.