‘American Idol’ alum Sanjaya Malakar comes out, was told he’d ‘lose fans’
on “The Adam Sank Show” that while he was competing on the show’s sixth season in 2007, he was scrutinized from his talent right down to his sexuality.“I grew up in a time when being called a f—-t in school was the worst thing that could ever happen to you. You had to be as hyper-masculine as possible to fit in,” said Malakar.“And coming up in 2007, it was like, ‘Being gay is OK, but you have to define yourself, and there’s this or that.'”Malakar said that while he was on “Idol,” several of his fans speculated that he wasn’t entirely straight despite the fact that he has a long-term girlfriend at the time.He claimed several of his publicists told him that he should remain “ambiguous” about his sexuality.“‘No one needs to know anything about anything because you don’t want to lose your fans,'” Malakar recalled one publicist saying.Malakar also said that he really didn’t know how to interact with male peers due to his father not really being a role model.“I had a hard time figuring out how to interact with young boys because my dad’s from India and grew up in a temple, so there was never like, ‘This is how you are a boy,'” says Malakar.