Is Clive Barker gay?
Yes, he is. While he never made any effort to conceal the fact, he did talk openly about his sexual orientation in 1995 interviews in the magazines “OUT,” “The Advocate,” “Genre,” and “10 Percent.” Many Barker fans had already guessed this from some of the themes that reoccur in his work. He writes: “As a gay writer/filmmaker, I think it’s inevitable that some of my characters and situations echo my orientation. It is, however, a problem to push these elements as far as I would like. By and large, the horror audience is curiously conservative when it comes to erotic matters.” [1] Naturally, however, Barker is a little too complex to be so easily defined. He also writes: “I define myself as a gay man who’s had relationships with women. […] I am bound, by political reasons much than anything else, [to] say, well, I’m a gay author. And, I’m very happy to be identified that way. Proud to be identified that way. Is it a simplification? Yes. Is it a politically useful simplification right
