Of course the fact that straight guys like Eno and Pete 'n' Bob from Saint Et and Momus (who I forgot to mention but fits totally: his critiques of "pseudo-primal" in rock i.e. nick cave, pj harvey; his valorisation of the "fake" aesthetic, his whole empire-of-signs decorative-not-expressive japanophile shtick), the fact that their sensibility can intersect with Merritt's at various points (and some of these guys aren't just heterosexual, they're rampantly heterosexual), well that would suggests that the anti-authenticity/"sincerity = bad art" sensibility is not indexed to a particular sexuality, that there are other forces behind its emergence as a potentially hegemonic mode of relating to culture. And, conversely, there's plenty of gay men who have absolutely no problem with rocking un-ironically, indeed go about it in deadly earnestness--Bob Mould and Rob Halford spring immediately to mind. (Wasn't it kinda sweet when Halford did that "experimental" solo album on Nothing back in the 90s, Reznor/Manson-ed up his whole image?)

gnu