When Gee Michael me out as gay on live TV and spire a generatn - Smooth

Contents:

• WHEN GEE MICHAEL ME OUT AS GAY ON LIVE TV AND SPIRED A GENERATN
• THE NTROVERSIAL MOMENT THAT LED GEE MICHAEL TO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE HE WAS GAY
• 'I NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WH BEG GAY': GEE MICHAEL, LGBT RIGHTS CHAMPN, REMEMBERED
• GEE MICHAEL HELPED A GENERATN REALISE WAS OKAY TO BE GAY
• WHAT MAK A ‘GAY IN’?

WHEN GEE MICHAEL ME OUT AS GAY ON LIVE TV AND SPIRED A GENERATN

Gee Michael appeared on televisn 1998 revealg he was gay for the first time and spirg the world wh the words: "I don’t feel any shame whatsoever. ""I thk people like to thk they n spot a gay person as opposed to a straight person bee mak them feel somethg … a ltle more fed themselv.

Watch: Gee Michael's last ncert - his fal words were heartbreakgly poignant"I spent the first half of my reer beg acced of beg gay when I hadn’t had anythg like a gay relatnship. I want people to know that I have not been exposed as a gay man any way that I feel … I don’t feel any shame for... And neher do I thk I should, " he Gee Michael's heartbreakg poetry at 11-years-old prov the star's early talentJim go on to ask Gee about his life-changg reveal, sayg: "Was a difficult cisn for you to e out publicly about beg gay?

He adds: "I fe my sexualy terms of the people that I love and my life right now is very happy livg a gay relatnship. "And I’m perfectly prepared to believe that as long as I am tthful to myself and tthful to the people who are out there wh my mic then I have nothg to fear, " he Moret has sce said of the famo terview: "Gee Michael believed the Brish tabloids were gog to out him as gay and he wanted to beat them to the punch and he me out to me, his own words, his own way, "After g out as gay, Gee Michael beme a public activist for HIV and AIDS, shg a light on the plight of sufferers worldwi and donatg lns to charable throughout his life.

THE NTROVERSIAL MOMENT THAT LED GEE MICHAEL TO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE HE WAS GAY

Michael: "I spent the first half of my reer beg acced of beg gay when I hadn't had anythg like a gay relatnship". When Gee Michael me out as a gay man an exclive terview wh CNN April 1998, public attus about homosexualy were far different om how they are today. Same-sex marriage was illegal, vlence agast gays or lbians was not classified as a hate crime, and HIV and AIDS still rried a heavy stigma.

Michael, then 34, told CNN’s Jim Moret that he did not have his first gay relatnship until he was 27 and that he had cid to keep his sexualy private bee of the way he was publicly sctized earlier his reer.

“I spent the first half of my reer beg acced of beg gay when I hadn’t had anythg like a gay relatnship, ” Michael said the terview. Michael told CNN that by the time he realized he was gay and stopped havg relatnships wh women, he was so angry at the way he had been publicly treated that he cid to keep his sexualy to himself.

'I NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WH BEG GAY': GEE MICHAEL, LGBT RIGHTS CHAMPN, REMEMBERED

Over time Michael beme one of the world’s most regnized gay-rights activists. A look at Gee Michael's three- reer pop, and how he found unparalleled pop succs as a gay artist by hidg pla sight. To be gay requir watchg for hts.

When nearly 100 percent of pop songs aren’t about or for the queer life, gay fans learn to study shifts emphasis, to stay alert. Dpe the pleasure wh which Michael and Ridgeley flnt their washboard abs and toned legs, the homoeroticism is the sexls kd, of swimwear ads men’s talogs.

Fe wh queerns so long as the artists didn’t ask or tell, the 1980s were the last time pop stars uld wear fgerls kchen glov whout dienc assumg the stars were gay. “One More Try” is the gay “Maggie May, ” and topped what was then lled the Hot Black Sgl chart for a week — not bad for a whe Englishman of Greek scent.

GEE MICHAEL HELPED A GENERATN REALISE WAS OKAY TO BE GAY

Durg this time he put more energy to his alignments wh gay pop stars as if hopg the flamboyance of Elton John and Freddie Mercury uld shake the blu. Aga, worked: his live ver of John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (gutg John himself, and beg his 10th and fal Hot 100-topper ’92) and show-stoppg rendn of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” for the same year’s Mercury tribute ncert not only projected a fan’s ardor but worked as a gay man’s valent to artists who had probably saved his life. Was the most fabuloly gay thg that ever happened.

Here 2022 we’d like to thk that pop mic has shed s old prejudic — that a gay mician would no longer have to nont the kds of choic Michael did. “People would ask me if he was gay and I didn’t have the answer, ” Lippman says.

”Acrdg to Gav, “Olr” was Michael’s favore of his albums — and also the one where “gay people knew Gee was speakg to them, ” even if s sometim-d language may have limed s broar standg as a queer sger’s attempt to ntrol the way his work was perceived — to ntrol the way he himself was perceived — was a through le his life, and remas one now that he’s gone. ”“Are you worried about Amerin fans — now even, wh this new album — acceptg you as a gay artist? “I’m not really terted sellg rerds to people who are homophobic.

WHAT MAK A ‘GAY IN’?

“So firstly, unrstand how much I love my fay and that Aids was the predomant feature of beg gay the 1980s and early 90s as far as any parent was ncerned.

”Dpe personal and psychologil stggl, Michael beme almost as well known for his outspoken views support of gay rights as he was for his bt-sellg mic, g his 1998 arrt as a platform om which to highlight and make light of mon prejudic wh vio for “Outsi”, the first song released by Michael after his Beverly Hills arrt, is a particularly strong work of satire – the sger pos as a Los Angel police officer performg a dance a public toilet styled out as a the climax of the vio, two male officers arrt numero upl prevly shown engagg “lewd acts”.

And Gee Michael: Portra of an Artist — me out as gay 1998, two years to his relatnship wh bsman Kenny Goss, which lasted until 2009. “I spent the first half of my reer beg acced of beg gay when I hadn’t had anythg like a gay relatnship. In fact, I was 27 before that happened to me, ” he told CNN at the time, later sayg he felt forced to reveal he was gay followg his arrt a Beverly Hills park.