Seven years after the death of Whitney Houston, not well into a time of consciousness about gender and sexuality, one of the most sensational story lines in the late singer’s life has remained. Whitney and Robyn were teenagers with connections to the Black church, so their experience with same-sex love was hearing how it would send them to hell or give them AIDS and kill them.
“The public concluded that Whitney was a closet lesbian and she and Robyn were star-crossed lovers doomed by the oppression of society and Whitney’s religious family,” Kennedy writes. Whitney Houston never publicly identified as a lesbian or confirmed any gay relationships. However, in her memoir, Robyn Crawford, Houston’s close friend, revealed they had a romantic relationship in the early s, which ended due to outside pressures.
After years of rumors and gossip, Bobby Brown confirmed that yes, Whitney Houston was in a same-sex relationship with her best friend, Robyn Crawford. Was neither drove the two apart, Crawford does reveal that after Whitney signed her record deal, Whitney gave her a Bible and told gay that their physical relationship was over. Robyn Crawford has garnered headlines in the wake of her memoir, A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houstonand the impressive media campaign behind it.
Shortly after, Houston returns to home and tells Crawford that she has slept with singer Jermaine Jackson, leading to their first big fight. People see Robyn houston me, and they draw their own conclusions.
This was very much a time when you were gay if you had sex with the same sex, period. After Whitney asked her label to fly Robyn out to meet her during a Black radio convention inher appearance made the straight radio jocks and program directors perk up, and they spent the weekend buzzing about the pair. But none of this framework existed in when Whitney made her debut. Naomi Ackie in character as Whitney Houston.
By Gerrick Kennedy. I Wanna Dance with Somebody charts the life of global superstar Whitney Houston in an epic narrative of talent and struggle.
Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. When Whitney was christened the Prom Queen of Soul in by Time, she was asked about the tabloid chatter on her sexuality. Expand the sub menu Film. Even so, this exchange shows progress has been made and that is to be commended.
Was broke the news to Robyn. There are so many, so many female artists who have women as their confidantes, and nobody questions that. The Motown era presented Black women as docile romantics in houston to achieve crossover success, gay the sexual freeness percolating across funk, disco and glam rock allowed Black women to present different ideas of female sensuality.
Related Stories. If Whitney was of the Jazz Age, her relationship with Robyn would have whitney raised an eyebrow. Black queer artists lived openly, even as they risked persecution for engaging in homosexual acts. Are Whitney and Robyn a couple? Even as a little girl, Whitney felt different.
Not owe it to my friend to share her story, my story. The liberation they found in their bodies and their embracement of queer fans made them all gay icons at a time when even allyship from mainstream artists was considered risky. She had no path forward that allowed her the space, or the grace, to figure out herself — and especially not in front of the world. She could flip the debutante act on and off, and it was typically those moments of being asked about Robyn or about Bobby [Brown] or about the drugs where code-switching went off and she slipped into Nippy, who was tougher and brasher than the Whitney Houston who pertly smiled for the cameras.
Michael Arceneaux.
Copyright ©boonsin.pages.dev 2025