Free To Be You & Me

In a great Rolling Stone interview of some years ago when he was hitting his stride, Richard Gere said something to the effect of “If you want to believe I’m gay, then I’ll be gay. I’ll be whatever you want me to be.” It antedated the print ad he placed later on with his then consort – notwithstanding the advertisement proclaiming his heterosexuality Mr. Gere stands on the side of openness and equality. He has given us memorable gay roles on both stage and screen in Bent and And the Band Played On. His place in the current AIDS awareness ad appearing on the walls of the MTA underground attests to it. He is in good company with Elizabeth Taylor, Greg Louganis and Whoopi Goldberg et al. His career seems to be none the worse for his non-denial.

Robbie Williams solo singer of boy band lineage on the other hand will now be inducted into the Tom Cruise/Liberace Hall of Silly Poofters for suing those who have made the horrible, very terrible, earth shattering accusation that he is [shudder] gay.

Perhaps he is trying to avoid being the subject of an urban lie (legend is too good a word for drivel) like Mr. Gere’s. Before discussing anything else let it be said that it seems that straight people with not much going on in their lives are most titillated by the idea of a rodent being able to make its way beyond the human anal sphincters. The brilliant defunct TV show Action addressed the issue brilliantly demonstrating how the rumour might have happened.

That being said, Mr. Williams has to know that most people, especially the people who would listen to his music don’t care. In what way could it hurt his musical career?

Frank Rich wrote recently in the New York Times:

The history of "Brokeback Mountain" as a film project in itself crystallizes how fast the climate has shifted. [re: the public’s attitude toward homosexuality] Mr. McMurtry and Ms. Ossana bought the screen rights to the Proulx story after it was published in The New Yorker in 1997. That was the same year the religious right declared a fatwa on Disney because Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet in her ABC prime-time sitcom. In the eight years it took "Brokeback Mountain" to overcome Hollywood's shilly-shallying and at last be made, the Disney boycott collapsed and Ms. DeGeneres's star rose. She's now a mainstream daytime talk-show host competing with Oprah. No one has forgotten she's a lesbian. No one cares.

It just might be that time once again to remind the likes of Mr. Williams and others who are wont to participate in this folly that Liberace sued under similar circumstances and won. If one must sue for unnecessary money let the money then be given to good homosexual causes and let their be acknowledgment of those who are as valuable human beings.

Admittedly some of the story perpetrated by the British Press alleged that Williams had trysts. While it is also important to maintain the right to privacy, then it might be more pragmatic and less dramatic to get the paper to retract an untruth might have been enough. No, it had to be about his sexual identity and orientation; nevertheless, his lawyer made the effort to proclaim that Williams was not a homosexual as if it were an illness or a crime of which he was accused.

Since it very likely thast he of the boy band pedigree might take inot consideration that his success mightbe due to the gay among us buying his music and going to see him perform. In this Post-Modern Age others might benefit from an admission or at the very least acknowledging that there is nothing wrong with being considered a gay person and there might be something good in acknowledging its goodness. Perhaps it is time that the world become a safe place for those who are homosexual. Perhaps it is time that the last victim of a violent homophobic attack be just that, the last.

Yes, Gay is Good, Mr. Williams, it is not an accusation. Get over yourself, please.