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

Contents:

• THE NTROVERSIAL MOMENT THAT LED GEE MICHAEL TO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE HE WAS GAY
• GAY SGER GEE MICHAEL WAS FOUND DEAD ON CHRISTMAS OF 2016 & BURIED UNMARKED GRAVE FOR YEARS
• GAY POP LEGEND GEE MICHAEL TO BE IMMORTALIZED ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME
• 'I NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WH BEG GAY': GEE MICHAEL, LGBT RIGHTS CHAMPN, REMEMBERED
• GEE MICHAEL WAS THE GAY IN WE DIDN’T KNOW WE NEED
• WHAT MAK A ‘GAY IN’?

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

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.

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

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

“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.

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

“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 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.

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

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.

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

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? 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.

WHAT MAK A ‘GAY IN’?

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.