John Whae says ‘people my life’ told him ‘don’t be too gay’
Contents:
- STRICTLY HAS GONE ‘GAY’? WHAT DO PEOPLE THK THEY’VE BEEN WATCHG ALL THE YEARS?
- STRICTLY: JOHN WHAE SAYS ‘PEOPLE MY LIFE’ TOLD HIM ‘DON’T BE TOO GAY’
STRICTLY HAS GONE ‘GAY’? WHAT DO PEOPLE THK THEY’VE BEEN WATCHG ALL THE YEARS?
Strictly has featured a female same-sex uple before, boxer Nila Adams and Katya Jon, who peted durg the 18th season 2020, but Whae and Rabe (who both intify as gay) will be the show's first gay male pair. "Bee I'm dog the first all-male partnership, I genuely did thk that I was gog to receive a fair b of hate bee you do as a gay man, you get a lot of hate.
Homophobia is a ser and ntug problem, but was difficult this week not to enjoy aspects of the hoo-ha over Strictly Come Dancg. In what felt like a historil re-enactment of classic 1970s’ curta-twchg, 189 viewers plaed to the BBC about two men partnerg each other on primetime telly, and was hard to know what to lgh at first: the Mary Whehoe tone of the plats, the statement on Instagram by one of the dancers – realisg the full dramatic potential of the moment – that “love knows no boundari”, or the ia that the spectacle of two men dancg uld ever be the gayt thg about Strictly.
Nohels, there was somethg vaguely fortg about the fact that, particularly the ntext of the recent LGBT teachg row, mastream culture at least, plats of this kd about gay reprentatn seem outdated to the pot of schools, of urse, the battle rag on.
STRICTLY: JOHN WHAE SAYS ‘PEOPLE MY LIFE’ TOLD HIM ‘DON’T BE TOO GAY’
I looked up the wordg of Sectn 28 and was amazed to fd that, until was overturned 2003, not only did ban lol thori om “promotg” homosexualy, but that, like somethg drafted by the Wtboro Baptist Church, banned “the teachg any mataed school of the acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship”. Bt to refer them to Alan Partridge: “For cryg out loud, if I really uldn’t bear to nsort wh homosexuals, do you really thk I’d have pursued a reer televisn? Strictly Come Dancg nttant John Whae has said that he was advised not to “be too gay” by people close to him.
”Stipulatg that he didn’t want to name anyone, Whae said there were “people my life” who told him not to be “too gay”. "I was at a weddg once, for example, and I was dancg my ltle heart out, and this person said to me, 'don’t be too mp, don’t be too gay', as though was a bad thg, ” he said. We pay particular attentn to how the dancers’ genr and sexualy are nstcted, and whether the media reprentatns promote the visibily of gay men on TV and dispt the heteronormativy of partner dancg.