Conversations Of A Sistah

R&B crooner Johnny Gill was featured on last night’s edition of TV One’s acclaimed music series ‘Unsung‘. One of the subjects that viewers tuned in to hear Gill discuss were the rampant bisexual rumors that have dogged him over the years.

Gill, 46, who dated R&B singer Stacey Lattisaw when he was 15-years-old, seemed conflicted when talking about the persistent gay rumors.

On the one hand he says he has “compassion” for homosexuals, but on the other hand, he says, “it just doesn’t feel good.”

“If I could tell you why I sure would have by now … at this point in time I would have been able to cure that issue … to get rid of that issue,” he explained.

“I took (sic) for the life of me never, never understood where it came from, why it lasted as it’s lasted.”

He continued sounding confused:

“I mean, you gotta remember, before there was Twitter, and Facebook, and all this other stuff, you know there was just the rag magazines. Whatever they say it was like that was the truth. People believe whatever it was,” he said. “But I don’t feel as bad anymore, because when I go on the Internet everybody’s gay … I’ve just always been a very private person.”

“Let me make sure we are clear on something. Whether it’s being called gay, accused of being gay, accused of a thief, accused of being anything or somebody’s lying [about] you and saying something about you that’s not true, it just doesn’t feel good … I have such compassion for gay people now more than ever. Just simply because in some odd way I’ve been able to walk in their shoes or to see … how they feel and how people treat them and deal with them because of their sexuality.”

Gill, who always been considered a ladies man around the industry, said the rumors were so troubling to him that he questioned whether his own girlfriend of 5 years doubted his sexual identity.

I’m going to tell you guys something off the record that I know my girlfriend probably won’t be happy with me for saying this, to talk about this. But I’m going to say it. When we first got together – we’ve been together for five years – there was so much stuff floating around why are you dating this guy, this guy, he’s gay, blah, blah, blah, Eddie Murphy. All this stuff is going on and I’m like, ‘Do you believe it?’ She says, ‘No, I just hear everybody just keeps saying,’ and I said, ‘Let me tell you something. Here’s what we are going to do…’ Woke up, we got the yellow pages, and you know, I mean, that was five years ago … So, we called this guy, he brought out his machine, strapped down to take a lie detector test. I wrote down questions, I made her write down questions … When the guy called back with the results and we both laying there in the bed. Tears came down … I would never want to lay next to someone that might even remotely have any doubt or question of who I am.”