January 26, 2004
circle gets a square
1/26/04
On the way home tonight, Tessa asked when was the last time we had an openly covert homosexual bandleader, you know, the kind of lead singer that was so gay that he almost wasn't gay anymore. She thought it was Boy George, and I made an argument for the Smiths, but we both agreed that there is just no space in our culture for the don't-ask-don't-tell flamboyancy that saturated our youth.
I mean, let's take two people - Charles Nelson Reilly and Paul Lynde:
All throughout my childhood, it never even occurred to me that they might be gay. And this was after 13 years of Lynde's gossamer-thinly-veiled fairy jokes on "Hollywood Squares," and Reilly? He was one Roman concubine away from exploding all over the set of "Match Game '74."
I miss those times, the über-gayness of Liberace and the Village People. I'm amazed at my naïvete, even now. Here was a band called THE VILLAGE PEOPLE. How about a band called QUEEN, whose lead singer looked like this:
Here's Rob Halford of Judas Priest in 1984, fifteen years before he came out:
I mean, you could do that back then. These days the politics of homosexuality are so labyrinthine and bizarre that people like Michael Stipe are forced to put up an elaborate array of smokescreens. I mean, Elton John and George Michael came out – a few press leaks and admissions at a time – but it all seemed rather miserable. Perhaps people shouldn't bother coming out, if it'll be that redundant and serious. Let us bask in the glow of the cloyingly homoerotic! I miss the days of Paul Lynde on "Bewitched!" slurring, "Oh, TABITHA!"
I equated all of those flamboyant personalities to that of being clowns, that's how naive I was. To me they were no different than Red Skelton, Charlie Chaplin, Rowan and Martin and the gang from Laugh In. Their slapstick gayness was funny and over the top.
Part of me hopes they were doing it on purpose to see what they could get away with. "Look at how gay we are, and you people just think we're funny. The jokes on you".
I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I read your blog today. I have had a similar debate with my husband on several occasions. Each time starts out with him observing how interesting it is that Bob Mould of Sugar/Husker Du is the only openly gay frontman for a rock band that he can think of, practically inviting a challenge from anyone listening. Names that you have identified get mentioned, and he proceeds to raise various objections as to why they don't count (not a real "band" or more pop than rock, etc. His most mealy-mouthed objection was to Morrissey and was something along the lines of "Hasn't that guy been celibate for like a decade?" implying that OPENLY gay must mean ACTIVELY gay.) We always get hung up on Michael Stipe: he can't object that he's the front man of an actual rock band, but we get stuck on whether he's actually out of the closet. (I say yes; I swear I saw an interview with him years ago where when asked about his sexuality, he said something to the effect of "C'mon. I spent most of the Green tour in a dress and eyeliner. What else do I have to do?" but no one we're with can ever confirm or deny for sure so that's sort of it.) Of course, my husband was also in denial about the homosexuality of Rudy Galindo (he's a figure skater for chrissake!). For some reason, it offended him that everyone would ASSUME that he’s gay, and he decided to make this some sort of weird personal crusade to convince our friends that Rudy Galindo is actually straight. It wasn't until someone forced him to watch a taped performance of Mr. Galindo performing in a sailor suit, followed by a quick costume change into a bizarre leotard thing with a sequined violin on the shoulder and a routine that included Mr. Galindo grabbing a violin bow and proceeding to PLAY HIMSELF that my husband finally admitted defeat. That, and two weeks later there was some tv special on the Rudy Galindo story and half of it was about him coming out to his family.
Of course, the ultimate irony is that the lead singer of the Village People (the cop) is not gay, or if he is, it is not in any conventional sense: he lives in some suburb in New Jersey with his wife and daughter. See for yourself (www.officialvillagepeople.com) - if it’s on the Internet, it must be true....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/1329994.stm
Rock band REM's frontman Michael Stipe has revealed he is gay, ending speculation about his sexual orientation.
The 41-year-old singer told Time magazine he was a "queer artist" who had been in a relationship with a man for three years.
His revelation comes after years of speculation about his sexuality and false rumours that he had Aids.
Stipe told the magazine he believed it was the right time to reveal his sexuality.
"I was being made to be a coward about it, rather than someone who felt like it really was a very private thing," he told the magazine.
Stipe said he had been in a relationship with "an amazing man" for about three years, adding that he was not a celebrity
The picture that accompanies that BBC story on Stipe is one of the most insidious inside jokes ever played by a BBC staffer. I wonder how many thousands of pics they had to go through in order to find one with his hand doing that.
What shocks me most about that photo is his uncanny resemblence to Dr. Evil.
What shocks me most about my previous entry is my uncanny misspelling of the word resemblance.
Oh well, I'm a lover, not a speller. Can I say that publicly?
Well, has no-one got anything to say about Freddie Mercury? From the beginning no-one could ever say that he was straight.
You forgot one!I almost wanted to put a gun in my mouth when Pete Townsend( The Who)announced what he had been putting in his throughout his entire career.I was crushed!Oh well....I just hope we don't get fooled again.But it does kind of make you wonder...'Who's Next'?
Personally, I think it is sick and gross. They have multiple partners in their lives. It is a rare occasion that they are lifetime perverts, oop's, I meant to say, I hope for their sake, there is no God. God did not make them that way. It is just another form of sexual perversion. To the Lord, a man sleeping with another man is an abomination. You will not escape God's wrath. I will keep praying though that the truth of this lifestyle dies in you.
I would love to be Rob Halford's boy toy for a weekend!!! DELICIOUS!!!