Things we aren’t sure about: Michael Blosil, the son of Marie Osmond who took his own life last week by leaping from his Los Angeles apartment building, was gay?
We heard the one about her gay daughter Jessica, and now the rumors are running around that Michael was family, too.
It’s something we’ll never be able to independently verify, and which the Osmond family might never confirm, and which is probably immaterial — except to a site like this one, which tries to find the gay in everything. This isn’t merely an exercise in reckless speculating; we’re just curious if one of our own was lost to depression, which is never something we like to see.
romeo
Kind of makes you wonder. Don’t know how gung-ho Mormon Marie is. Not good to totally speculate like that, but for us, it does make you wonder. Poor guy.
trickstertara
Marie has been enormously supportive of Jessica and has spoken in favor of civil rights for everyone (which is more than her brother Donnie has done). I don’t doubt she would have/did support Michael if he was. Either way, this is a tragedy.
B Damion
He was a beautiful Kid. A lot of young people feel left out and lost in there Middle to High school years if your seen as not a “type”.
But I want any young person thats reading this story n feels the same way that Michael felt to know that there is a big world out there of misfits etc..but thats what makes us unique.
Someone will like you for you if u just keep being yourself and stay positive. You can’t buy real friends. A true friend is earned n is something to cherish. “Different” is cool. I won’t let anyone make me belive that I’m not attrative,good,lovely or otherwise. Because someone loves me. No matter how the world may view me. someone out there loves me.
Josh
He was an 18 year old fashion student. He was a young fashion student who struggled with depression and a feeling of not belonging. So the odds are good that he was one of us.
Marie does have a lesbian daughter that she supposedly accepts.
But Donie and Marie were on Larry King Live last year and they became uncomfortable when it seemed like Larry was going to ask them about Prop 8 and they changed the subject.
Marie even made some comments that seemed homophobic to me. She made a negative joke about brokeback mountain.
I was surprised that there wasn’t any reaction in the media or on the blogs about Marie’s comments.
terrwill
Most likely another victim of the Moron Churchs own special brand of love………..
ewe
What a shame. Devastating for him and Marie Osmond. Tragic. Sad.
alan brickman
Marie doesn’t sound onboard with the gays….
Annie
if you are mormon you can not be cool with the gays
sal(theoriginal)
well if he was on our team we lost him ….SAD!Any way it is all sad r.i.p.
Paul
So sad for him and his family. I have heard Marie speak and she is totally on board with GLBTQ rights….
MoHoHawaii
He died on the 10 year anniversary of the well-known suicide of a gay man on the steps of his local Mormon church. The timing is either significant or a weird, weird coincidence.
Bertie
He texted his girlfriend that he left a note for her. When his roommates let her in and she went to his bedroom and found the note. He had already slipped out the sliding glass door and off the balcony from apt 804. She then heard ambulance sirens approaching the courtyard where he lay.
If he wasn’t a depressed lonely closeted gay,
he was a spurned heterosexual drama queen
Sean Srnik
This is Michael’s roommate, Sean Srnik. Michael was friends with a few gay/bi people at FIDM, but he himself was not gay. Although he did go to fashion school, he was studying product development. If anyone has any further questions, feel free to contact me @ [email protected]
BradSA
Sorry you lost your friend, Sean.
terrwill
Sean, The vast majority of suicides among teens is dealing with Gay isues……Pressure to stay closeted is tremendous. And one would assume the pressure from the family because of the celebrity and ties to the Moron church may have played a role..Maybe he was begining to deal with emerging issues……….Sorry you lost your freind.
Pip
More importantly, was it the Osmond’s psycho Mormon doctrine that drove this young person to his death? We can only hope not.
John Gagon
Of course he is!
a) he attended school at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising
b) blonde highlights
c) didn’t fit in
d) total gaybrow.
I went to highschool in provo (Timpview) and had the exact same issues. I almost did this myself!
Cam
One thing Marie did that doesn’t seem like a huge issue to those outside the church but was a major shot across the Church leadership’s bow was her saying she supported her daughter as a lesbian. The church holds excommunication over the heads of family members. They are basically told that their child isn’t the same child they knew, that they are evil and rotten on the inside etc.. and if they family members argue too much are question this formerly they could have been excommunicated as well. The church will NEVER excommunicate an Osmond, so by Marie coming out in support of her daughter publiclly it did cut some of what the church could do off at the knees, because now you would have families saying “Hey, Marie Osmond supports her child and she isn’t excommunicated.”
I know it sounds like a small thing, but every chip out of the wall of homophobia in that church can help.
drewbrown
@terrwill: Sorry but there is actually no proof of this. I took a course on GLBT issues in college where we tried to find the root of this claim, and it’s simply unfounded. There may be slightly higher rates of suicide among GLBT teens, but I’d like to see proof of your assertion that it’s the “vast majority” of teen suicides. I doubt you’ll find it.
drewbrown
@Sean Srnik: “Although he did go to fashion school, he was studying product development.”
Oh, well THAT clears it up. He wasn’t a designer so of course he wasn’t gay. Why didn’t someone just say so in the first place.
terrwill
@drewbrown: Drew, I am no expert, but……………..
http://www.english.iup.edu/liberalstudies/gay_teen_suicide.htm
And you need to factor in the fact that most likely a very high percentage of teen suicides that are in fact Gay related are subsquently covered up by the surviving families and never counted as such……….
drewbrown
@terrwill: I’m no expert, either… my point is we need to question these assumptions that all gay teens are psychologically damaged, and that the “standard” experience for all gay teens is traumatic and alienating. Frankly, all teens experience some degree of trauma and alienation. YES, of course society makes life more difficult for some/many gay teens, but let’s not automatically assume all these teens are killing themselves because they’re gay. And let’s not regurgitate “facts” without verification just because we’ve heard them a million times before.
Michael
Gay male youth are ten times more likely to attempt suicide and make up over 1/2 of the youth suicides…
drewbrown
@Michael: And again I ask, you got this information where?
ossurworld
Good grief, let the boy rest in peace.
Robert
As usual, you’re trying to signal concern when your real intent is to get the dirt to up your readership! I’d say I hold you in the utmost contempt but you really are beneath contempt!
Maybe Baby
@drewbrown: LOL. Slightly off-colored remark for sure but no more (or less) biased than the other comments that assume going to FIDM is evidence of being gay. He goes to FIDM so he’s gay, he’s in product development and not design so he’s not gay. All amounts to the same stereotype, doesn’t it? We’ll probably never know the sexual orientation of Marie’s son (we’ll never know what he acknowledged to himself, much less his friends or family) and it seems from the posts, the only “evidence” people have is 1) he went to FIDM and 2) he committed suicide (as many gay teens do, perhaps up to 50% of suicides may be gay-related, so there a 50-50 chance he was gay…). Gay teen suicide is a very real issue, the homophobic stance of the Mormon Church is also real… making this guy a symbol of all of that is a bit of a stretch considering it’s all speculative. Michael didn’t sound all that caught up in toeing the religious line — from rehab to even describing that last cigarette! Mormons don’t even drink coffee. That said, I realize this doesn’t mean he wasn’t morally conflicted. Perhaps he was building up his transgressions from seemingly lesser ones to the big one, a revelation that he was gay. But again, that’s just a guess. A wild, wild guess. So sad. Suicide leaves so many questions. If we have all these questions, imagine what his family is going through.
I found Cam’s post interesting.