Lady Sovereign comes out - but does anyone care?

"Magazines would always ask about it but [questions about my sexuality] would get stopped by my publicists. It was my choice, too, because I was a bit worried but now I don't really give a shit." Lady Sovereign confirmed what a lot of people already suspected with an interview in lesbian magazine Diva this month, and she's not the only gay musician who doesn't really care about disclosing their sexuality. Earlier this year Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij opened up to Out magazine, describing the band's song Diplomat's Son as "a six-minute dancehall song about a gay relationship". XL signing Holly Miranda similarly shrugged to the New York Times: "I don't want people to listen to it because I'm gay or not listen because I'm gay."

She's right. It shouldn't matter. Even the phrase "openly gay" now sounds hopelessly old-fashioned. But Miranda added something else. "At the same time, to hide it feels like a horrible thing, maybe for some young girl or boy who was in the position I was in 13 or 14 years ago, in a religious home and not knowing if it's OK." In a recent interview he gave to the Guardian's Alex Needham in Butt magazine, Bloc Party's Kele Okereke said that he's talking about his sexuality more now, with gay magazines at least, because "whenever I go out, I'm always stopped by young, gay kids who say it's really encouraging to see someone like me being out in a relatively mainstream band".

Being a role model – inevitably part of being out and famous – is admirable, but there's another reason why it's nice to have pop stars who aren't hiding what they are. Rock'n'roll thrives on outsiders, and gay culture has always been pillaged for its rebellious streak, from Madonna's Vogue-pinching to Gaga's insistence that she was raised by a pack of homosexuals in the wilds of a New York gay bar. It's satisfying to have genuine diversity in pop that isn't simply borrowed or appropriated.

However, once an artist discloses their sexuality, they are guaranteed to be asked about it for the rest of their career, as Michael Stipe once complained. Which made me wonder if it's just the media that is obsessed with sexuality, playing catch-up the rest of the music world. But what do you think – is it important for a musician to be out, or is it nobody's business but their own?