Boy Gee reveals when he knew he was gay, says David Bowie helped him feel he... - Rad X

Contents:

• WAS HE GAY, BISEXUAL OR BOWIE? Y
• BOY GEE REVEALS WHEN HE KNEW HE WAS GAY, SAYS DAVID BOWIE HELPED HIM FEEL HE WASN'T ALONE
• BOWIE: ‘I’M GAY AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN’
• 1983. DAVID BOWIE CHANG HIS MD ABOUT BEG GAY.

WAS HE GAY, BISEXUAL OR BOWIE? Y

Bowie, 69, was not jt a pop idol but a the days sce his ath, lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr fans have shared how the rocker fluenced their liv and helped brg queer culture to the mastream the 1960s and 1970s. “Feelg those sentiments was important, pecially as a gay youth who was not out at the time. “I’m gay, ” he said to the journalist Michael Watts 1972, “and always have been, even when I was David Jon, ” his name at years later, an article for Rollg Stone tled “Straight Time, ” Mr.

Bowie, who married two women and had two children, would still face the qutn terviews years later: Was he gay or bisexual?

” In other words, he was not a mpaigner for gay rights, but Mr. Lowr ntued, “but, pecially at the begng of his reer, he was regnizably ‘gay. ’ It didn’t matter whether he was gay, straight or bisexual, he was a massive role mol.

BOY GEE REVEALS WHEN HE KNEW HE WAS GAY, SAYS DAVID BOWIE HELPED HIM FEEL HE WASN'T ALONE

The 22 January 1972 issue of the Melody Maker rried a groundbreakg terview wh David Bowie, which the sger admted he was “gay, and always have been. “I’m gay, ” he says, “and always have been, even when I was David Jon. We were all pretty broad-md on Melody Maker so the gayns didn’t put off him.

But there you BowieMojo, July 2002Although Bowie was not yet a hoehold name, the story was picked up by the Eveng Standard newspaper, which republished the “I’m gay” quotatn. Bowie’s former manager Kenh Pt was not imprsed: “I wasn’t at all happy when the ‘I’m Gay terview appeared’, ” he said.

BOWIE: ‘I’M GAY AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN’

‘I’m gay, ’ he said, ‘and always have been, even when I was David Jon. Well, laws on homosexualy had been reformed only five years prevly.

He’s gay, he says. A few months back, when he played Hampstedt’s Country Club, a small greasy club north London which has seen all sorts of excg ocsns, about half the gay populatn of the cy turned up to see him his massive floppy velvet hat, which he twirled around at the end of each number.

1983. DAVID BOWIE CHANG HIS MD ABOUT BEG GAY.

Acrdg to Stuart Lyon, the club’s manager, a ltle gay brother sat right up close to the stage throughout the whole eveng, absolutely spellbound wh admiratn. As happens, David don’t have much time for Gay Liberatn, however. You Pretty Thgs’, the Peter Noone h, is one strata, particularly the chos, about the feelgs of a father-to-be; on a eper level ncerns Bowie’s belief a superhuman race – homo superr – to which he refers obliquely: “I thk about a world to e/where the books were found by The Goln On/Wrten pa, wrten awe/by a puzzled man who qutned what we were here for/Oh, The Strangers me today, and looks though they’re here to stay.

“I’m gay”, he says, “and always have been, even when I was David Jon. It’s jt so happened, he remarks, that the past two years people have loosened up to the fact that there are bisexuals the world – “and – horrible fact – homosexuals.

He has a great need to believe the legends of the past, particularly those of Atlantis; and for the same need he has crafted a myth of the future, a belief an imment race of supermen lled homo superr. ‘Pretty Thgs’, that breezy Herman song, lks this fatalistic attu wh the glimmer of hope that he se a birth of his son, a sort of poetic equatn of homo superr. 1972: Comg out an terviewIn a magaze terview 1972, Bowie said he was gay.