Gee Michael: The gay in we didn't know we need.

Contents:

• WHEN GEE MICHAEL ME OUT AS GAY ON LIVE TV AND SPIRED A GENERATN
• 'I NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WH BEG GAY': GEE MICHAEL, LGBT RIGHTS CHAMPN, REMEMBERED
• GAY POP LEGEND GEE MICHAEL TO BE IMMORTALIZED ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• GAY SGER GEE MICHAEL WAS FOUND DEAD ON CHRISTMAS OF 2016 & BURIED UNMARKED GRAVE FOR YEARS
• GEE MICHAEL WAS THE GAY IN WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEED
• THE NTROVERSIAL MOMENT THAT LED GEE MICHAEL TO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE HE WAS GAY

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

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?

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

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.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

"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.

Gee Michael will be remembered for his work as a proment gay rights mpaigner as well as for his glterg pop performer, who died om heart failure on Christmas Day aged 53, had been a fervent support of LGBT issu, wh some of his most famo solo work referencg his me out as gay followg his arrt April 1998 for engagg “a lewd act” ont of an unrver police officer Beverly Hills.

He was fed £500 and orred to do 80 hours’ muny service for the cint, sparkg the Sun headle “Zip Me Up Before You Go Go” later said: “I never had a moral problem wh beg gay. Documentary has explaed why Gee Michael didn’t e out as gay durg his time the new one-off special tracks the rise of the 1980s pop group via archive terviews wh Michael as well as his bandmate Andrew Ridgeley. “He said to me, ‘Didn't know how to tell you this but I’m gay – if not gay, you know, bisexual, ’’ Ridgeley said.

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

In the documentary, Michael said that he had realised he was gay six months earlier after an enunter wh a man while shootg the mic vio for “Club Tropina” 1984.

Michael said he was "persuad" not to e out as gay to his father, which kept him closeted publicly.

He said to me, 'Didn't know how to tell you this, but I'm gay. If not gay, you know, bisexual, '" Ridgeley said.

GEE MICHAEL WAS THE GAY IN WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEED

"In 1998, at age 34, Michael publicly me out as gay durg an exclive terview wh CNN. 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?

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

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.