KISS Frontman Paul Stanley Doesn't Mind If You Think He's Gay

"I’d be proud to be whatever I am," the legendary rocker said.

KISS's Paul Stanley has opened up about long-standing rumors about his sexuality, saying he wouldn't be ashamed to be a gay man.

"If I were [gay], I’d be proud to be whatever I am," the 63-year-old rocker told New Zealand's The Breeze. "As long as you’re a good person, sexual orientation and stuff like that is totally irrelevant."

Stanley, who has been married to his second wife, Erin Sutton, for 10 years, says the media's scrutiny of his sexuality has left him scratching his head.

"That’s always been really interesting -- that some people can’t find a way to take my comfort with sexuality to misreading it as something it’s not," Stanley, who has three children with Sutton and a son with his first wife, Pamela Bowen, said. Then he cheekily pointed to his glam rock band's well-known reputation for womanizing, and he quipped, "Well, the boys may not understand, but the women always did. They got it in more ways than one!"

Commemorating KISS's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, The Montreal Gazette published a profile of Bill Aucoin, the legendary rock manager who discovered the band in the early 1970s and who also happened to be an openly gay man.

In the article, longtime partner Roman Fernandez suggested that the "flamboyant nature" of Aucoin, who died in 2010, found its way into KISS. The band's performances continue to be defined by the now-iconic make-up and costumes that Stanley and his original bandmates introduced in the 1970s.

"It’s no accident that Bill managed KISS,” he said. “It wasn’t a coincidental match... KISS was always a reflection of Bill’s personality. It was a Never-Never Land of sorts."

We're thrilled to have you as an ally, Paul!

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