Mika is a flamboyant pop singer who compares himself to Grace Kelley and Freddie Mercury in his best known single. That song’s video is a veritable pride parade of rainbow outfits and fabulous dancing. An Horse is an emotive Australian male/female duo whose debut album was produced by lesbian Tegan and Sara member, Sara Quinn. They were recently listed as a “gay band at SXSW” in Wilmington, NC queer blog “Be yr own queero.” English artist Morrissey spent his time in The Smiths, and the superstar solo career that followed, writing artfully queer songs while winking and sidestepping 20 years of questions about his sexuality.

That’s what these three artist have in common. All occupy different rungs on the ladder toward musical success. All have their own fan bases and record contracts and high-profile tours. And all of them are furthering the idea that being gay is shameful through the simple act of refusing to discuss their sexuality.

Morrissey’s secrecy runs so deep that he no longer grants any interviews. When I worked at the Washington Blade, Mika’s publicist gave me the run-around for a month and finally told me that an interview with him wouldn’t be possible. And the official stance on An Horse, according to their publicist, is that, “They make great music and have a large gay following.” That’s it.

Granted it’s not the obligation of a musician to discuss their sexuality anymore than a famous painter should have write press releases announcing a particularly voluminous bowel movement. It’s not technically relevant to their craft. That’s the only reason I’m not making blanket statements like “the hottest place in indie hell is reserved for artists that refuse to discuss their sexuality.” (That and I’m not enough of a blowhard.)

So lets go ahead and assume that Morrissey has a wife and An Horse are actually dating each other and Mika has eaten more pussy this week than I have matzoh. If that was the case, do you think they’d still be so coy about this corner of their personal lives?

Me neither. Straight artists never treat their sexualities as a taboo subject. Can you imagine Sir Mix-a-Lot telling Bill Bellamy that he didn’t feel comfortable admitting that “Baby Got Back” was about girls’ asses, and not boys’? What if Stevie Nicks got all bristly whenever a journalist asked her about her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham?

This leads me to my final point: Being gay is not something to be ashamed of. When an artist treats a simple query about their sexuality as a major invasion of privacy it furthers the idea that queerness is something icky and abhorrent. Something to be pushed into the furthest reaches of their closet like a pink triangular skeleton. Folks tend to make as big a deal out of your sexuality as you do. Look at Clay Aiken. He denied the obvious truth for so long that it was a worldwide media event when he spilled the beans. Compare this to someone like masterful queer rapper Shunda K, who has been upfront from the beginning. As a result, she is treated as a talented artist who happens to be gay, not a carnival attraction.

The reason this is so important to me is a thing I like to call the “13 year-old boy test.” The test goes as follows: when I was a closeted, lonely 13 year-old boy would I have benefited from knowing that my favorite musician was gay? The answer is an unequivocal yes. I was aware of artists like Elton John and Melissa Etheridge, but what relevance did they have to my life? On the other hand, I listened to Automatic for the People every day. If Michael Stipe was out, then he could’ve done so much to give me hope.

A queer musician once told me, off the record, that a member of an extremely popular indie band was gay. This band has blown up to near-stratospheric levels in the past year, managing to skirt ubiquity while not losing any public love for their quirky, preppy pop. If said member actually was a ‘mo, think of how much good he could do by simply being out. He wouldn’t have to march in a parade or give a tell-all interview to The Advocate about whether he’s a top or a bottom. He’d simply just have be honest about who he was.

Music is unparalleled in its ability to bring people together. Freddie Mercury died of AIDS, but an entire soccer stadium can still sing along to “We Will Rock You.” Imagine the kind of bridges he could have built if he was was out while he was alive?

For this reason I commend a current crop of indie artists who aren’t shy about their sexuality, but who do not let it define them either. The Blow’s Khaela Maricich once told me the following:

“I’m not hiding it but I don’t have to talk about it all the time either. That does more for making people feel that being queer could be something normal.”

Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste has managed to garner universal acclaim for his band while being completely open about who he sleeps with. The aforementioned Tegan and Sara have done more to give hope to queer teenage girls than the entire combined run of the new “Degrassi High.” Aaron Harris is the drummer for Islands. He’s not a household name and you won’t see him with his shirt off on Queerty, but when I emailed the band for an interview, he replied to me the next day, saying he was queer and would be happy to talk to me about it. No big deal, no pulling teeth. Just a couple questions about queer indie culture before we moved on to the real focus of the interview: his music.

So for this reason I set a challenge to An Horse: if one of you is gay, just go out there and be gay. You don’t have to shout it from the rooftops or hire a skywriter to proclaim it in the clouds above Coachella. Just treat it as a simple fact and the rest of the indie-verse will follow suit. Hell, I can even promise you the world’s most respectful, least salacious coming out interview.

An Horse is already being recognized for their considerable musical talent. But they could also be known as heroes.