‘Homophobic’: Aussie star slams Instagram

In the artistic image, the Savage Garden frontman is seen sitting on a bed while fully dressed in a suit, with a naked man lying on his stomach across him.Hayes, 50, captioned the image: “#HappyPrideMonth, #Homo and #Queer.”In a post shared afterwards, the singer claimed the image had been removed by Instagram for violating its rules on “sexual solicitation”.“The full picture of this was just pulled for “soliciting sex” lol,” Hayes wrote. “It is me, fully clothed, with a nude male model lying across me with his butt censored. Homophobia much? It’s #pridemonth lol.”His fans quickly threw their support behind him, branding the social media platform’s decision “ridiculous”.“Well I saw the full one before it got deleted and it’s amazing,” wrote one.“If it were a nude female laying over a male, it wouldn’t have been an issue right I bet! It’s 2022 for Gods sake, bloody ridiculous,” said another.“What?! Exactly what century are we in?!” one user asked.However, Instagram appear to have since reinstated the photo, following Hayes’ public complaint.Earlier this month, the singer made headlines with his truly wild story about his close encounters with Madonna.Hayes – a lifelong fan of the Queen of Pop – told Fitzy and Wippa on Nova that he had dated not one, but two, members of her inner circle, including her brother.“I guess I can say this now because I’ve been married for 17 years, but I went on a few dates with her brother,” he told the radio hosts.Madonna’s younger brother Christopher was a close confidante to his sister throughout her career – but the pair famously fell out after he penned a 2008 tell-all book, Life With My Sister Madonna.And Hayes confessed he also briefly went out with Alek Keshishian, director of the 1991 warts-and-all documentary In Bed With Madonna.Hayes wed his childhood sweetheart, makeup artist Colby Taylor, in 1994, but the couple split in 1998 at the height of Savage Garden’s fame. He publicly came out in 2005, the day before his marriage to now-husband Richard Cullen. He’s currently in Australia promoting his new solo material – new single Poison Blood is out now – and 2023 national tour.