'I never had a problem wh beg gay': Gee Michael, LGBT rights champn, remembered | Gee Michael | The Guardian

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
• GAY POP LEGEND GEE MICHAEL TO BE IMMORTALIZED ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME
• GAY SGER GEE MICHAEL WAS FOUND DEAD ON CHRISTMAS OF 2016 & BURIED UNMARKED GRAVE FOR YEARS
• 'I NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WH BEG GAY': GEE MICHAEL, LGBT RIGHTS CHAMPN, REMEMBERED
• 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.

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

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.

GAY POP LEGEND GEE MICHAEL TO BE IMMORTALIZED ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME

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.

GAY SGER GEE MICHAEL WAS FOUND DEAD ON CHRISTMAS OF 2016 & BURIED UNMARKED GRAVE FOR YEARS

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. 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.

“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”. Was the most fabuloly gay thg that ever happened.

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

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’?

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? Prce’s inty may have been the most ambiguo of this tr, as his relig nservatism remaed tensn wh his s-long stat as an androgyno sex, on the other hand, clared himself gay, and then later bisexual, and married women then there’s Gee Michael, who me out as bisexual at age 19 but later renounced his bisexual inty and me out as gay.