TXT Sexuality Analysis (Update!)
Decided to do a small update on the TXT analysis since it’s been a while! Unfortunately, there haven’t been any dramatic changes of opinion on my part, but there has definitely been a lot more content to analyse, which is a big reason why I think this needed an update. All of the members are now adults, and there have been a lot of changes in the group dynamic!
I want to emphasise again that this is my opinion and it’s okay for you to not agree with me. I’m not trying to force anything on the boys, I’m just writing what I personally think. -Helen
My opinion from the previous TXT analysis still stands. I haven’t seen a change in Soobin’s behaviours to make me think he’s anything other than gay. He still gets very obviously flustered and shy around guys in a way that a straight guy wouldn’t, while he still doesn’t show any interest in females at all.
Other than what I previously said for Soobin in the old TXT analysis, I’m afraid I don’t have much to add. He seems to be the type of person who everyone collectively notices and agrees is not straight, and that’s perfectly fine. I honestly think I would have a much harder time writing about the reasons why I think he is straight.
During his time as an MC, it was extremely obvious that he enjoyed the attention he got from male idols while he was interviewing them. Sure, he smiled and acted friendly with female idols as well, but it felt a lot different, like he was finally treating his MC position as a job instead of a chance to get attention from other boy groups. I’m not trying to say Soobin is an attention-seeker or anything, I more meant that he very much prefers male attention to the point that interactions with females seem very professional and no-nonsense. At times, he does seem to feel uncomfortable around female idols though, so I’m not sure what to make of that entirely. My best guess would be that he doesn’t really know how to act around them, but that sounds condescending since Soobin is a grown man who is more than capable of having conversations and friendships with females.
I also feel like his relationship with Huening Kai has changed a little, but I’ll go into more detail about that in Huening Kai’s part of the analysis since the most drastic change came from him. It seems like Soobin still has a ‘crush,’ but now that we know that he gets giggly and shy at nearly everything, I feel like it might not mean as much. He still pays special attention to Huening Kai and gets extra flustered around him, but not like before. It’s like it been toned down now, which could mean their ‘crush’ has dissolved. Their dynamic honestly needs its own analysis because of how much there is to talk about.
Anyways, I feel like my previous statement stands: almost everyone agrees that Soobin is gay and there is very little debate around him. He's pretty much equivalent to Sunoo from ENHYPEN. They are the two members from each group who everyone agrees are gay.
Yeonjun, my bias wrecker. My opinion from the previous analysis still stands. I feel like it’s definitely an unpopular opinion on most social media nowadays, but for some reason, I’m unable to shake it. He does a lot of things that could be considered “suspicious,” but I’ve always had the feeling he was straight since day one. Don’t get me wrong, I have definitely thought about and entertained other possibilities, but none of them have stuck with me enough for me to change my mind. I also haven’t seen anything genuinely convincing enough that couldn’t be chalked up to fanservice/being the most popular member/stan-attractor.
Now that TXT are an established group and we’ve gotten to see more of Yeonjun’s personality through variety shows and interviews, it seems to me that a lot of his behaviours on camera contain an obvious element of insincerity. I know that idols don’t show their true personality to the camera, but Yeonjun’s seems extra fake sometimes, as if he’s been appointed a certain personality to pass off as his own.
He’s very famous for his over-the-top fanservice, which is another thing that makes so many people think he’s LGBT. Like I said in the old TXT analysis, it just feels like he’s doing his job to me. He knows what the fans want to see, he (probably) knows that his ship with Soobin is among the most popular in the fandom, and he’s very good at delivering. I don’t think his willingness to hug and cuddle the other members says anything deeper about his sexuality, especially since he throws the affection around like nothing, possibly attaching no meaning to it besides knowing that it will bring more viewers/fans in.
I’m also aware of how “woke” he is, but I struggle with figuring out how much of it is actually his true self, and how much is just stuff the company tells him to do. He is the “stan attractor” of TXT, and the most popular member, so it’d make sense to make him pile on the fanservice, flirt with both male and female fans, and “break gender stereotypes.” However, I see the whole “breaking gender stereotypes” thing as... not exactly that. It’s popular nowadays; it’s essentially a trend, so I don’t think it says as much about Yeonjun’s personality/sexuality as others might think. I don’t want it to seem like I’m diminishing anything Yeonjun has done, it just feels like a lot of people are giving him way too much credit for things can either be taken at face value, or things that could have been the work/direction of someone else. I saw a post on social media a little while ago that said something along the lines of: “When an idol wears something offensive, it’s the stylist’s fault, but when an idol wears something gender non-conforming, they’re a woke king and the stylists have nothing to do with it.” Anyways, to close off the “Yeonjun’s fanservice” portion, I just think he does way too much of it for any of it to have another meaning. He knows it’s an important part of being idol and he does a damn good job of it, but that’s all it is, I think.
So, he does have a very masculine side which he seems to default to, but there are times where his feminine side becomes apparent. His dancing can sometimes be more flamboyant than the other members’, but when that happens, it seems more like he’s over dancing than anything. He also tries to be sexy and flirty when he’s dancing, so I think that’s something we could take at face value given the fact that most fans of TXT are female? However, there have been some times where his expressions or mannerisms seemed very stereotypically effeminate, but none of those things have remained consistent long enough for me to really question it. They seem to pop up every once in a while, which makes me think it’s unnatural and ‘just for the moment,’ unlike Soobin, whose feminine mannerisms have remained the same since debut.
I don’t know if anyone else will agree with me, but I see a lot of Taemin in him. Back then, Taemin was very feminine and widely speculated to be LGBT, but it seems like that opinion has died down a lot. I think the same will happen to Yeonjun in the near future.
To sum it all up, I think Yeonjun is straight and very confident in his sexuality, so much so that he’s willing to be the member who does the most fanservice and receives the most speculation regarding their sexuality. I really doubt that someone who is actually LGBT would throw that much fanservice around without batting an eye. There would have to be some hesitation, some unwillingness at some point to make it at least a little more believable.
Alright, another slightly unpopular opinion. Like I said in the previous TXT analysis, I think Beomgyu is straight. I’ve been seeing a lot more people sharing their thoughts about him, and it seems like they’re divided on him either being straight or bisexual. Unfortunately, I don’t have much more to say than what I’ve already said in the old TXT analysis. Kind of like Yeonjun, I thought Beomgyu was straight right off the bat. Even though we’ve gotten more content and a glimpse into his personality, my opinion stands.
I have noticed that, like Yeonjun, some feminine mannerisms tend to pop up from time to time. Of course, that doesn’t particularly mean anything, especially in this part of the analysis, because I still think he’s straight, but Beomgyu is quite confusing at times because he contradicts himself. There are a lot of times when guys give him attention and he gets very blushy and shy like Soobin would, but the same scenario could play out again on a different day and he wouldn’t blink an eye. It’s very confusing, to say the least.
I know it seems like I’d lean towards Beomgyu being bisexual based off of what I’ve said so far, but I just don’t. I don’t know what exactly it is that prevents me from thinking he could be LGBT, but there’s definitely a block. Nothing is consistent enough and nothing is convincing enough for me to think he’s not straight. It’s also twice as hard to figure him out since he’s the wildest member of the group. He is the moodmaker/energiser of TXT, so the eccentricities that come with that ‘position’ add another layer of difficulty when it comes to looking at his personality and what’s genuine/what might not be.
He’s pretty good at doing fanservice, so I see him as kind of a baby Yeonjun when it comes to it. He’s also one of the most popular members in the group, so playing up his personality and acting quirky/relatable is definitely a great way to score praise from fans. Since I see him a bit like Yeonjun in this respect, some parts of what I said in Yeonjun’s part of the analysis applies here. They both seem straight to me despite there being some ‘signs’ that could be considered questionable.
So, despite his feminine mannerisms and some instances where his behaviour could be considered questionable, I think he’s straight. I will admit that he is the member I pay the least attention to when it comes to writing analyses because the ‘moodmaker’ types are always unpredictable and too difficult to figure out. Maybe his behaviours are a real part of his personality, and maybe they aren’t. I only know as much as the camera shows. Based on that, and my personal feelings, I think he’s straight.
Taehyun - Bisexual/Queer (Closeted/In Denial?)
I don’t even know where to start with Taehyun. In the old analysis, I said that I thought he was pansexual or demisexual. Obviously, a lot has changed since then, but he’s always been a bit different than the rest of the members in the sense that he’s the most difficult to read.
He has talked about being single his entire life multiple times and that just puts a big question mark in my head. It could be because he wants to be in a relationship with a guy? Of course, maybe he’s lying, but for the sake of the analysis, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
So, like I said above, he’s very difficult to read. Because of the lack of conversation/opinions about him, I get the feeling that most MOAs skip over him when it comes to speculating the sexuality of the members probably because of that reason. I feel like he’s written off as ‘straight’ because he’s hard to read, he’s not as outgoing as the other members, and because he’s not as popular. If I’m not mistaken, I think he’s the least popular member in the group? Like, Yeonjun and Soobin are arguably the most popular members of the group, and all sexuality speculation seems to be centred around them—which is fine—but having such drastic, varying degrees of popularity within the group means some members will get overlooked, and I think that’s what’s happening with Taehyun.
Since the beginning, I’ve had strong opinions on Taehyun being LGBT. Nearly three years later, my general opinion remains the same. My opinion mainly stems from how he seems to be as a person, since he seems to be overly cautious when it comes to interactions with the opposite sex/same sex. I know, why do I think he’s LGBT if he doesn’t do anything with guys or girls? Well, like admins and readers alike have said multiple times on this blog, fanservice doesn’t mean anything. Yeonjun does A LOT of fanservice, and I think he’s straight. Taehyun does virtually no fanservice, yet I think he’s LGBT. His avoidance/reluctance to do fanservice is another thing that makes me question him. Again, like both admins and readers have said on the blog, an LGBT person would probably be less likely to engage in fanservice/skinship because of the potential attraction there, whereas a straight person would likely do fanservice/skinship as often as possible because there’s no reason to do otherwise. I think that says a lot.
Of course, I have to bring up the whole ‘feminine mannerisms’ thing since I’ve touched on it for every member so far. Taehyun is too careful sometimes. He seems to monitor himself very closely and only show what he wants to show to the cameras. This strikes me as really weird, and it seems like something an LGBT person would do to try to ‘fit’ in. It also seems like he’ll ‘catch’ himself sometimes and try to cover it up, which is, again, weird.
Something that has gotten more apparent over the years is his insecurity. He seems to want to act ‘manlier’ and work out all the time, which makes me think it’s because he’s insecure. Being the shortest/smallest in the group, I get why he would feel the need to bulk up, but there’s something in my mind that tells me it could be a cover up of sorts. Like, he’s trying to prove to himself that he’s just a regular guy who does ‘manly’ stuff or whatever, but it’s so forced. I think, if all that was true, he wouldn’t feel the need to go to such lengths to prove it. He seems to have an obsession with dominating the other members in strength (arm wrestling, picking them up, etc...) which is weird. And honestly, jumping at any chance to carry your bros around doesn’t make him seem straight to me lol. So, a lot of things he does now have led me to believe he’s closeted or in denial.
He’s always been a very profound person, even since their debut. He used to not care very much about what people thought of him, said about him, etc, but now, that’s all changed. He’s no longer as “unbothered” as before, and seems to care a little more about how people view him, what with working out and all. However, one huge thing has stayed consistent—his unwillingness to participate in the whole “idol being the boyfriend of the fans” thing. I see it somewhat like Soobin’s unwillingness to act sexy for fans—they both don’t want their fans to see them in that way. Given the fact that TXT fans are mostly female, it’s especially strange, but understandable if they are LGBT.
I could keep going on and on about why I personally think Taehyun is LGBT, but a lot of it is just due to my gut feeling. I haven’t seen much genuine debate about him to really know if my opinion is popular or not.
Huening Kai - Bisexual/Straight
Huening Kai has definitely changed a lot! He still acts the part of the “cute, baby maknae”, but he is also comfortably coming into his own, in my opinion. He seems very comfortable with acting sexy on-screen as opposed to before, when he would shy away from doing anything suggestive.
He still engages in skinship and fanservice with the other members, but not like he used to, I think. It’s gotten less and less, especially with Soobin. I saw on some social media that Soobin mentioned he saw a lot of negative comments about Kai’s clingy behaviour towards him. After that, Kai stopped initiating so much skinship with Soobin and became a little distanced from him. Their whole dynamic has also changed a lot, but that deserves its own analysis.
Honestly, I don’t have a lot more to say for Kai. I just feel like he’s grown up and matured a lot, and a lot of the LGBT vibes I felt from him before have disappeared. They haven’t disappeared entirely, but enough to where I would be comfortable labelling him as ‘straight’. Even though he’s an adult now, he’s still young, and I think he’s still figuring himself out.
So, I wouldn’t completely discount the possibility of him being bisexual, but I think that him being straight is more likely.
These are my own thoughts, so if you don’t agree, or if there’s something that makes you think differently, please feel free to submit it to me or message me with your opinions. Thanks for reading. -Helen
