I am oblivious to celebrity gayness.
I have in the past had a hard time believing in the queerness of famous people. Chalk it up to internalized homophobia or what have you. For example, I did not know, in high school, that the Indigo Girls were gay. One might think that somehow I missed hearing it, but it was more that I managed to rationalize my way around it or just ignore it.
I remember at one of the GSA meetings the teacher (who was incidentally a very cool person and who I picked to be my advisor for my senior exhibition project) gave me a newsletter for queer youth, and it hd a whole article about how an Indigo Girls concert was cancelled at some high school in South Carolina or somewhere I like that.
"Oh, how sad," I thought. But it didn't occur to me that that could mean they were, y'know, gay or anything.
Also, about that time, the radio station I listened to a lot (Alice 97.3, one of those corporate-run alternative rock stations that's also supposed to appeal to women in that it tries to play more female artists, and, yes, my senior exhibition in high school was about the music industry), they played the Indigo Girls' "Shame On You." A lot. And this song happens to mention "beautiful ladies" in the lyrics, which I had memorized, and sort of gives the impression that the narrator likes women.
Did I think that meant anything? Nah, see, a lot of popular songs are about women being pretty and all, so they were just, you know, singing a regular pop song, because popular music is supposed to be about pretty girls. Nothing strange about that.
I have since been told that, no, really, the Indigo Girls are gay like a gay gay thing. I think I'm willing to believe it now.
The other night, precipitated by the fact that I had no idea Allen Ginsberg was gay until I read a poem yesterday all about the things he's had in his butt, lysimache found me a big list of non-straight famous people. I had absolutely no idea about a lot of them. I'm willing to accept that, okay, every person from antiquity I've ever heard of wasn't straight. Especially Agathon. But James Dean? Really? Really really? I thought he was, like, an icon for rebellious young (straight?) guys and women looooved him. Which I guess doesn't preclude gayness, but you'd think someone would have told me that before now. And Amelia Earhart? Okay, okay, the list says "speculation," but dude. How could I not have heard of this? I suppose it's not the thing children's biographies of famous historical women like to say, which also explains why I didn't know about Susan B. Anthony. (I liked to read a lot of books about famous women when I was a small child. I must have read my library's book about Nellie Bly, oh, many many times. I thought she was the coolest.)
I think lysimache was willing to forgive me for my ignorance until I got to Boy George on the list. I didn't know, honestly. Was I supposed to assume he was gay? Maybe he was straight and just liked looking like that. I didn't want to assume. I also didn't know about Liberace. Jen has permission to hit me the next time she sees me, because apparently I really should have known that one.
So, yeah. I am embarrassingly oblivious. But! I knew the Beatles' manager was gay!
Also, I have just watched a South Park episode which had what I think was the first cartoon gay orgy I have ever seen, though I could be wrong.
I remember at one of the GSA meetings the teacher (who was incidentally a very cool person and who I picked to be my advisor for my senior exhibition project) gave me a newsletter for queer youth, and it hd a whole article about how an Indigo Girls concert was cancelled at some high school in South Carolina or somewhere I like that.
"Oh, how sad," I thought. But it didn't occur to me that that could mean they were, y'know, gay or anything.
Also, about that time, the radio station I listened to a lot (Alice 97.3, one of those corporate-run alternative rock stations that's also supposed to appeal to women in that it tries to play more female artists, and, yes, my senior exhibition in high school was about the music industry), they played the Indigo Girls' "Shame On You." A lot. And this song happens to mention "beautiful ladies" in the lyrics, which I had memorized, and sort of gives the impression that the narrator likes women.
Did I think that meant anything? Nah, see, a lot of popular songs are about women being pretty and all, so they were just, you know, singing a regular pop song, because popular music is supposed to be about pretty girls. Nothing strange about that.
I have since been told that, no, really, the Indigo Girls are gay like a gay gay thing. I think I'm willing to believe it now.
The other night, precipitated by the fact that I had no idea Allen Ginsberg was gay until I read a poem yesterday all about the things he's had in his butt, lysimache found me a big list of non-straight famous people. I had absolutely no idea about a lot of them. I'm willing to accept that, okay, every person from antiquity I've ever heard of wasn't straight. Especially Agathon. But James Dean? Really? Really really? I thought he was, like, an icon for rebellious young (straight?) guys and women looooved him. Which I guess doesn't preclude gayness, but you'd think someone would have told me that before now. And Amelia Earhart? Okay, okay, the list says "speculation," but dude. How could I not have heard of this? I suppose it's not the thing children's biographies of famous historical women like to say, which also explains why I didn't know about Susan B. Anthony. (I liked to read a lot of books about famous women when I was a small child. I must have read my library's book about Nellie Bly, oh, many many times. I thought she was the coolest.)
I think lysimache was willing to forgive me for my ignorance until I got to Boy George on the list. I didn't know, honestly. Was I supposed to assume he was gay? Maybe he was straight and just liked looking like that. I didn't want to assume. I also didn't know about Liberace. Jen has permission to hit me the next time she sees me, because apparently I really should have known that one.
So, yeah. I am embarrassingly oblivious. But! I knew the Beatles' manager was gay!
Also, I have just watched a South Park episode which had what I think was the first cartoon gay orgy I have ever seen, though I could be wrong.