'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
• '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
• WHE LOT STAR THEO JAM EYEG GAY ROLE GEE MICHAEL BPIC
• 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.

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

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 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

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. A look at Gee Michael's three- reer pop, and how he found unparalleled pop succs as a gay artist by hidg pla sight.

WHE LOT STAR THEO JAM EYEG GAY ROLE GEE MICHAEL BPIC

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.

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. Michael: "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

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.

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.