What I find so fascinating about this post from the Gay Porn Blog: Achin' for A Blind Item (WARNING: NOT SAFE FOR WORK) is the candidly matter-of-fact way the author discusses Barry Manilow's and Ricky Martin's sexual orientation. As for Johnny Mathis and Richard Chamberlain, well, they've both come out publicly (Mathis many years ago, Chamberlain more recently) and I therefore have both of their names on the Rainbow Lives list. But I hesitate to put people like Manilow and Martin on, even if it is an open secret, because I simply don't have a good documented source (print or electronic) for either one (requirement #2 to be added to the Rainbow Lives list).
Here's how I tend to make my decisions re: Include? or Not include?:
If the person is dead, that's easy; in that case, the historians descend like buzzards to pick over the person's life anyway, and if there's any documentation, I use it to justify including her/him on the list (my examples in this case are Sir Arthur Sullivan and Hans Christian Anderson).
If the person is still alive, and has personally come out, then again that's an easy one. They get added to the list (my examples in this case are Frank Kameny and Rosie O'Donnell).
However, it can be extremely difficult to decide what constitutes "good documentation" of someone's sexual orientation, particularly if that person has been outed without their knowledge or consent. I don't have any easy answers for that one; I decide on a case by case basis myself. If the matter is well-documented in reputable media (as opposed to tabloid gossip), especially several independent sources, then I usually include it (my examples in this case are Jodie Foster and Billy James Hargis). If the matter is documented only in a newsgroup or a blog, I don't consider that to be good enough (my examples in this case are Barry Manilow and George Takei).
I still have problems making some decisions, though. For example, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, Bill Graham. He has been outed by playwright Sky Gilbert in a column in eye, a free weekly arts and entertainment newspaper distributed by Torstar, the company that also publishes the mainstream newspaper The Toronto Star. The reason I hesitate to include Graham is that this assertion has simply not been backed up with any other documentation in more reputable media, either online or offline. This, despite the following news item which was extensively covered in all the major Canadian news media (quote from the Equal Marriage for Same-Sex Couples website):
On April 10, 2002, Alliance Party member of parliamentCheryl Gallant, who represents the Ontario riding of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, heckled Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister with anti-gay sentiment in parliament's House of Commons.
"Ask your boyfriend," Gallant shouted at Bill Graham, a reference to the Foreign Affairs Minister's sexual orientation, during debate on middle-east policy.
Alliance Party house leader John Reynolds said no one was complaining about the remark and therefore it hadn't happened as far as he was concerned. Gallant, meanwhile, went underground, refusing to speak to reporters while she remained absent in the House of Commons.
The Alliance Party's (then) new leader, Harper, also remained silent, until mounting pressure caused him to order Gallant to apologize. On April 14th, Gallant emerged defiant, speaking to the Ottawa Citizen, blaming the media for the controversy surrounding her offensive behaviour.
But on Monday, April 15th, Gallant stopped blaming the media, and responded to national outrage in the House of Commons. She admitted that her comment was "inappropriate" and she expressed "regret".
"If anyone was offended by the remark, I offer my sincere apologies," she said. However, her web site's feature, Cheryl In The News, which had noted, until her offense, Cheryl's monthly appearences in the news, failed to include her latest appearances, and eventually the plug was pulled on her website. Like John Reynolds told the press, it didn't happen.
See what I mean? Everybody's dancing around the subject, even though it's an open secret. Everybody's waiting for Bill Graham to say something, but he doesn't. So what do I do?
Well, so far, I've just left it. Not enough good documentation, as far as I am concerned. Maybe I should include him; some people would consider the mention in eye to be enough, or this quote from the same-sex marriage site to be enough.
This is one of the things that make this hobby so compelling. It shines a spotlight on the whole issue of whose business someone's sexual orientation is. People have made impassioned arguments for both sides, and I can see the merits in each. So in the hazy areas, I judge on a case-by-case basis, based on whatever documentation I have, and its quality and reputability. And, if politely asked by the person involved, I do (and already have) removed names from the Rainbow Lives list.
Whew, long post. But I've wanted to get this out for a long time, and the blog seems the best place to do it.
*sigh*...and, no, I haven't had time to add the QEFTSG five to my Rainbow Lives list yet...there's just been such an explosion of gay TV that I'm finding it hard to keep up. Nice change, if you ask me. Four years ago when I started compiling Rainbow Lives, I was having trouble finding enough names to get past the 2,000 mark.
Now I don't even have to look...they usually land in my lap. (Well, O.K., I do look a little...um, er, uh....a lot.)
"So Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, went and audio-blogged a very angry message, talking about the EW writer's suicide attempt and generally coming out because he felt he had no choice in the wake of the publication of the article. (I can't seem to access that message any more: maybe Palahniuk is trying to crawl back into the closet.)
Palahniuk then received a lot of supportive messages – if you consider death threats against the EW writer to be supportive. I guess at this point he went back and actually read the article again, and realised that nowhere was his partner mentioned, and that the closest it came to outing him was to say "he is not married". So he audioblogged a retraction of sorts, in which he urged everybody to calm down and "not kill anybody".
In the world of print media, none of this would have happened. Palahniuk would have been angry upon reading the article, but would have slept on it, and would have realised that if he did nothing, then no one would be any the wiser. Instead, in a fit of passion, he pulls out his cellphone and announces his homosexual partnership of 11 years to the world at large – something which he'd thereunto successfully kept secret. Now the secret's out, and no amount of pulling messages is going to help."
I agree...for God's sake JUST COME OUT already and stop dancing around the subject.
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© Copyright 2003 Ryan Schultz.
