Before Adam Lambert or Troye Sivan, Gee Michael broke down barriers for gay men mic. A new bgraphy chronicl the price he paid.
Contents:
- THE NTROVERSIAL MOMENT THAT LED GEE MICHAEL TO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE HE WAS GAY
- GAY POP LEGEND GEE MICHAEL TO BE IMMORTALIZED ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME
- GEE MICHAEL WAS THE GAY IN WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEED
- 'I NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WH BEG GAY': GEE MICHAEL, LGBT RIGHTS CHAMPN, REMEMBERED
- GAY SGER GEE MICHAEL WAS FOUND DEAD ON CHRISTMAS OF 2016 & BURIED UNMARKED GRAVE FOR YEARS
THE NTROVERSIAL MOMENT THAT LED GEE MICHAEL TO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE HE WAS GAY
After years of public speculatn about his sexualy, the former WHAM! sger me out as gay an exclive terview wh CNN. * was george michael gay *
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.". Jt go on TV and get sorted."Read: Gee Michael secretly sang to dyg "first love" dience at Freddie Mercury tributeThe landmark terview wh CNN starts wh Jim Moret statg to Gee: "Your sexualy has been a foc of tremendo attentn."Gee rponds: "Yeah, to some gree, wh pop stars or film stars, we bee the object of people’s self-fn, as well as the object of sexual fn.""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.
GAY POP LEGEND GEE MICHAEL TO BE IMMORTALIZED ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME
Sger me out as gay after he was arrted 1998 for engagg ‘a lewd act’ ont of an unrver police officer * was george michael gay *
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...I feel stupid and I feel reckls and weak for havg allowed my sexualy to be exposed this way, but I don’t feel any shame whatsoever. And neher do I thk I should," he repli.Read: 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?""No. 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 fish.Jim 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.
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.
GEE MICHAEL WAS THE GAY IN WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEED
A look at Gee Michael's three- reer pop, and how he found unparalleled pop succs as a gay artist by hidg pla sight. * was george michael gay *
”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.
'I NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WH BEG GAY': GEE MICHAEL, LGBT RIGHTS CHAMPN, REMEMBERED
Was me as I sudnly thought, 'Oh my God, I’m a massive star and I'm gay.
Clost we get is one more terview segment where Michael explaed how he knew he was gay or at least bisexual by the age of 19: "I had stayed over at this guy's hoe, " said Gee. And there li the Gee Michael himself been volved, 's likely that much more would have been ma of his stggl as a closeted gay superstar. And aga, what about his stggle as one of the world's biggt gay pop stars at a time when beg gay wasn't even somethg teachers uld legally discs at school?
“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”.
GAY SGER GEE MICHAEL WAS FOUND DEAD ON CHRISTMAS OF 2016 & BURIED UNMARKED GRAVE FOR YEARS
In 1998, he was arrted for “lewd behavr” a Beverly Hills park, and he later said he felt forced to reveal to CNN he was gay. “For some strange reason, my gay life didn’t get easier when I me out.