Page 1 / 2 / 3 - Next
Gossip vends the truth that gay people are, indeed, everywhere, and reminds the public that despite religious or political beliefs and social ignorance, millions upon millions not only respect us, but love us to obsessive extremes.
We want desperately for Oprah to be a lesbian because she'd grant the entire GLBT community a level of respect we just don't have now. How could our families, friends and all the folks in middle America take issue with homosexuality if Oprah, the queen of personal responsibility, spirituality and goodwill, is a lesbian?
So we throw what we know about her and her best friend, Gayle King, out there for the public to chew on and digest, because the next best thing to Oprah actually being a lesbian is the illusion that she's one.
It's not surprising that journalists (or anyone else, for that matter) might run amok with even the tiniest morsel of gay-suggestive information about the famous. In fact, it's rather logical. One doesn't have to be a physicist to deduce that the law of averages dictates there are a lot more gay celebrities in the closet than out of it.
Remember, too, that most gay rumors don't just appear out of thin air--there's usually a factual base. However weak that fact might be, it's still a juicy actuality.
For instance, not that long ago Oprah booked a suite, sans her boyfriend Stedman, in the Bahamas, where she was giving a wedding for her niece. In walked Gayle, with luggage and also without a man. That's a fact. What's not clear is whether they shared a bed and body fluids during their stay. It's likely they didn't. But is it possible? Sure.
Print it!
But gossiping about influential, gay-supportive celebrities in ways that question their integrity and good intentions isn't the best way to thank them for all they've done for the gay and lesbian community. We're better than that.
Aren't we?
Yes. But graciousness isn't the name of the gay gossip game, and the game isn't played to win as much as it's exploited to feed itself.
Everyday gossip about this entertainer or that serves, primarily, to raise Hollywood revenues and make red carpets and dinner parties more interesting, but gay rumors about our most beloved entertainers serve a much bigger purpose--to feed authenticity and suffocate deception. The rumors say to celebs, “Come on, get over yourselves! Be honest!”
But the thing is, even when they are honest, like I believe Jake and Oprah have been, we still can't let them be. Even after they've told us they're straight, even when they've proven time and time again that they're on our side, starred in gay movies, done pro-gay television episodes, we tell them that all they've said and done isn't good enough, and try to make them one of us--as if that's possible.
Oprah is not a lesbian. She's said so a gazillion times before her most recent denial in her own magazine, and I believe her. Even though I've done my share of spreading the Oprah-is-a-lesbian innuendo in search of a laugh, no matter how often I suggest that she's gay, my wisecracks and wishful thinking are not going to make her gay.
As for Jake, AfterElton's own Michael Jensen has also had fun with the joke that Jake is secretly his boyfriend. It's all meant in jest, but one has to wonder if Jake would be amused.
We can find hundreds of pictures of Jake in spandex on the Internet, but all that makes him, I believe, is a straight man in "gay" clothing. He can ride a bike with Lance Armstrong and, yes, play the bottom to Heath Ledger's top in a film, but he still prefers girls. He can even kiss Elton John in a pup tent on George Michael's front lawn, if the occasion arises, but that won't make him gay … or British, for that matter.
What the gossip might make him, though, is angry.
Oprah's frustrated with the gay and lesbian community, that's clear. She's tolerated the lesbian rumors for years, but she won't tolerate being called a liar. Jake's got to be telling Andy Towle, a blogger on a tongue-in-cheek mission to make Jake gay, to get a life. Do these stars have a right to be upset, or is the rumor mill a price they must pay for being famous? Both, I suppose, but when is enough, enough?
We get angry with filmmakers for making too few queer-themed movies, and get frustrated with stars who refuse gay or lesbian roles, but can we really blame them for not wanting to play in our yard when we're not exactly cordial hosts? Many in Hollywood probably think they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Page 1 / 2 / 3 - Next
