The gays are asking: can straight men be divas, too?

Here in the queer community, we love our divas and divettes. We love a diva when she’s up, and we certainly love a diva when she’s down. Because mess is mess, honey, and we love it however it comes to us.

But in this age of shifting categories and general fluidity, one question remains: can straight people, technically, be divas? It’s a controversial question and a puzzler for sure. But if these days you have to be a little fruity to pull a bad b*tch, how fruity do you have to be to earn the right to a diva classification?

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Let’s start with the facts. We know that some ostensibly straight men get a full pass when it comes to their participation in queer culture. Case in point, Stanley Tucci, one of the most beloved straight men we have in this impoverished world, and one of the few people we’ll allow to play gay onscreen—his excellence as Miranda Priestly’s gay bestie in The Devil Wears Prada earned him this right! Also, his sock choices.

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But who else has earned this rare rite of passage? Obviously we can’t even begin to talk about straight male divas without talking about THEE icon herself, Prince.

Prince may have set the mold for the straight male diva: all others exist in his purple shadow. Prince taught a generation of men that it was okay not only to be a little fruity, but a LOT fruity.

And who among us could forget the way Dennis Rodman absolutely owned the runway in the 90s?

Some Cillian Murphy fans nominated our favorite male lesbian for consideration…

And we’d be remiss to leave Chris Meloni off this list.

There’s fashion icon Lenny Kravitz, whose diva status cannot be questioned…

And baby boy Keanu Reeves absolutely belongs in this excellent company.

A delightfully c*nty Robert Downey Jr. also makes the grade.

But wait a minute…this list doesn’t have to just include real people. Fictional characters are also doing the important work of creating straight male divas for us to obsess over and admire.

For instance, who could forget Charlotte’s divalicious boyfriend who all but screamed “diva down” when he saw a mouse in his kitchen (relatable)?

And we can’t forget Tom Wambsgans, queen of the crossed leg…

Puss in Boots may well have invented the genre…

We’re not all the way convinced that Jafar is straight, but we’ll take it.

And never forget the OG diva himself, Hamlet Prince of Denmark.

It just goes to show: a diva is in the eye of the beholder.