No one's going to deny that a man who's artistic, eccentric, tragic/emotional, unusually single, sensitive and delicate hits a spread of common gay stereotypes. I wouldn't attribute that to Gay Goggles. Actual status of his sexuality aside, I think we can all agree it should raise quite a few flags in a rumor mill oriented town that calls hims a kidnapping pedo rapist for less and is 'giving' him a little more time to marry and breed, because he seems to understand his circumstances.

I'm not sure if it's not being said because if you really want to drive something home as an author, show, don't tell, or because the authoress doesn't want to touch the can of worms that is sexuality when just writing normal romance makes her uncomfortable. I'm not gonna buy that she doesn't see the elephant in the room, though.