You could write an entire thesis on the gay imagery and references that pepper Morrissey's work. And, in fact, some people have.
Here's my great theory of sexuality (which you no doubt have never wanted to know): I think that sexuality is a spectrum and that at one extreme are people who are exclusively homosexual and at the other are people who are exclusively heterosexual. Those people are in the extreme minority. Most people fall somewhere in between and, given the right situation and the right person, are capable of falling in love with someone of the same sex or the opposite sex.
For example, I fall distinctly towards the homosexual side of the spectrum, but I've been in a long-term relationship with a man and it was a good experience. My girlfriend of 4 years is bisexual on the hetero side of the scale. She's definitely more attracted to men than women, but we've been quite happy together for four years, and we're looking at buying a condo together so we're definitely not breaking up anytime soon.
I think Morrissey is bisexual on the homosexual side of the spectrum. He has always been extremely open and honest about his sexuality and the fact that he has been attracted to both men and women in his life. He has openly discussed going to gay bars and having been in love with a girl during his teenage years. I believe that he was in love with both Linder and Johnny Marr. I also believe that he and Jake were a couple, and that their breakup was one of the primary reasons that he left England and went into the "dark period" after Vauxhall and I.
I don't really think there's any mystery at all about Morrissey's sexuality - he has laid it all out in the open for us. However, lots of people in the gay community have a problem with bisexuality and, it's true, many people resent him because he won't "come out". But he'll never "come out" because he already IS out - as a sensitive bisexual man with a history of heartbreak and bad sexual experiences who chose to abstain for many years rather than risk further pain - and always has been, from "Hand In Glove" through "At Last I Am Born"... and onwards.
But... having said all that, I do think that you'd have to be blind not to see that gay culture has played an enormously important role in Morrissey's iconography and that the gay "experience" is one of his primary lyrical themes. Obviously, some of those themes are universal to anyone who feels like an outsider - that's why we all love him so. But there's a reason why such gay/bisexual icons as James Dean and Oscar Wilde are featured on his backdrop, or why t-shirts were printed with WIDE TO RECEIVE along the bum, or why that image of Robert Wagner suggestively jumping up behind Jeffrey Hunter was used as a t-shirt image and backdrop or why Spencer Cobrin licked that ice cream cone suggestively in the "We Hate It..." video. Morrissey loves to celebrate homoerotica - and thank goodness for that. It's one of the most enjoyable aspects of his celebrity.
