Did Whitney Houston's Mother Dance Around the "Gay" Question?

I just finished reading Cissy Houston's new book, "Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped" and I must say that is was an interesting read for those of you autobiography lovers interested.

I'm nosey as hell, so there is nothing like finding out the intimate details of my favorite celeb's life - told from the inside out, as opposed to the outside - in perspective we often get from people who have never been in the same room with people they write about.

From my perspective, it didn't seem that Whitney and her mother were that close - in fact, she admits that "Nippy" as she affectionately refers to her, rarely called, and they went months and months without laying eyes on one another.

To Cissy's defense, she intimates that Whitney kept her at bay because she didn't want her mother to know what she was doing (drugs) and the further she kept her away, the less she had to deal with the possibility of her mother catching, and seeing her high.

I can honestly see that happening if the story is to be believed the way Cissy relays it, but what I found most interesting is that, for all of the rumors Cissy went out of her way to clear up, for as deep as she got into her story, she never once tried to clear up the rumor of Whitney allegedly being gay.

For years, rumors persisted that Whitney had been in a long-term love affair with her ex friend and, eventual business partner, Robyn Crawford - who has reportedly been out proud for years, but when she and Whitney met as high school students, Whitney never looked back. In fact, she moved out of her mother's home and got her first apartment with Robyn.

When Whitney became famous and bought her first mansion, she moved Robyn in with her. They say that Whitney had no real interest in men until Bobby Brown came along and that he turned her out. In fact, they say that Robyn and Bobby have gotten into fist fights about Whitney.

All of that is obviously what they say, but it's what Cissy did not say in her book that raises my antenna.

Check out some excerpts from the book below:

"I had my issues with Robyn from the start, as I felt Robyn could influence Nippy, and being the mother that I am, I didn't want her to lead my daughter to places that I didn't think were good for her.

I knew I didn't want Robyn around my daughter, and I told Nippy that. There wasn't much I could do, though. Nippy liked Robyn and she was past the age I could forbid her from seeing someone. I know there has been a lot of specualtion over the years about the friendship between Nippy and Robyn and whether it was more than that. I don't honestly know what exactly went on between them, back when they first met, or later on.

Nippy never shared details of her personal life with me about things like that, but I do know that Nippy and Robyn cared a lot about each other.

... I was thrilled with Nippy's new house and hoped it would be a place she could one day settle down and start a family. I was less than thrilled, then, when she invited Robyn to move into the Mendham estate with her... I didn't like Robyn any more now than I had before, but my daughter was an adult and could make her own choices.

I didn't hate Robyn; I was just concerned about what I perceived to be her influence on Nippy".