Just in time for his new Symphonica tour, gaylebrity trainwreck George Michael has publicly stated that he seeks to make amends with an upcoming ultra-gay album for “letting young gay people down” with his repeated drug and sex arrests. But as far as I’ve seen he has nothing to worry about as most young queers think George Michael is the name of a character off of Arrested Development.
Michael said:
“It’s really a matter of thinking what can I do to contribute as a gay man, because I have a serious problem with the fact that every time I would let myself down, I felt definitely that I was letting young gay people down, because they would then witness the homophobia that is thrown at me and the wording of that homophobia and the language that is being used,” he said. “So I have some plans to try and do things to help gay kids and I think we’re a notoriously bad community at helping our own when it comes to children because we don’t have any children.”
One thing he plans on doing is to assemble a “gay collective” to record on his next album — although he said none have officially been confirmed so he doesn’t want to say specific names, only hinting at “amazing guests.”
“I want to make up for some of the damage that I have done in making myself so newsworthy and putting myself on the back foot enough that there was no room, or space, for me to defend gay children,” he says.
Oh Michael, that’s sweet but we assure you no one has ever looked up to you as a gay role model. You came out as a result of an arrest for toilet trampery for crap’s sake—hardly the cover of People magazine. No kid gay or straight wants to emulate you (unless they really like drugs and jail). And while you may worry that your shenanigans give bullies fodder to use against gay kids, your behavior is really no worse than the average episode of Queer As Folk.
But let’s take a sordid jaunt down memory lane to see just what Michael’s talking about:
How about we take this to the next level?
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– April 7th 1998: Michael gets arrested for “engaging in a lewd act” in a public toilet in a park in Beverly Hills,
– July 23rd 2006: Michael was again accused of engaging in anonymous public sex, this time at London’s Hampstead Heath.
– February 26th 2006: Michael gets arrested for possession of Class C drugs
– September 19th 2008: Michael gets arrested in a public toilet in the Hampstead Heath area of London for possession of Class A and C drugs.
– July 4th 2010: Michael celebrates gay pride by driving into the front of a camera shop after a parade. London police charge him with “possession of cannabis and with driving while unfit through drink or drugs.”
Lay off the wacky tobbacky Georgie Porgie pudding and pie! And though Michael recently said, “In terms of recovering from a very long period of grief and self-abuse, and in terms of staying on the straight and narrow, there’s nothing like touring. It gives me the impetus to take care of myself and approve of myself,” that’s too bad because at this point we find his horrid behavior much more entertaining than his music.
Cam
I looked down on Michael not for his arrests, but because as soon as he was outed he IMMEDIATLY came out and gave this ridiculous sputtering statement that told fans NOT to think that his songs were about men, and that his romantic songs like Carless Whispers were written about women.
THAT was what really disgusted me. Then when he was part of the Equality Rocks concert some years ago in DC. which was about fighting for our rights, and had an incredibly moving speech by Matthew Sheppars mother, out comes George Michael who just rants into the Mic about HIS problems.
So when he first is outted he immediately reassures his fans that his songs weren’t about Icky men, but Lovely women, and then when he has finally been out, makes an event about Matthew Sheppard and rights all about himself.
Ugh, never watned to hear anything about the guy after those two things.
Jock
God please just send him away somewhere…
divkid
bleurrrrgh!… i just vom’d up at the thought of that photo (right) probably being his orgasm face too!
…OH, THE HORROR!!!
*hacks away at frontal lobe with kitchen utensil*
please go to rehab!
Try to make him go to rehab!! Go Go Go….
Alex
Well, I have Faith on vinyl and I love it! Georgie could sure make good music when he had focus.
The drugs don’t bother me much, he’s a human being with real pressures to deal with and methods of coping just like anyone else. The “public” sex doesn’t bother me either, I don’t care if people get off on that behind closed bathroom stall doors. What does bother me is the spectacle. The stick-up-their-butts public latches on to mistakes celebrities make and connect imaginary dots, in this case projecting George’s behaviors onto all gay people. Crashing a car into a shop while high, well that made me feel bad for marijuana smokers because the UK media is on a witch hunt right now when the reform movement is trying to pick up steam.
Moderation, George. And discretion! I hope he focuses enough to make a good album again.
CHEEKIEY
Why would he think people look up to him?
The only thing I hear is laughter “At his burden on Society”
Aussie Col
George is cool, because he is the trainwreck that he is. His last tour was phenomenal. His last album was great. A role model maybe not, but more of a man than the cheap biaches here. Grow up …Brad Manning is in Jail, Gitmo is still around, Gay’s are being hunted in Uganda for sport, and OMG Justin Biebers new haircut means more than the vapid and sad ramblings of meth’e out queens. LOL.
Tomas Mournian
@Cam, were you actually AT Equality Rocks? I was hired by George to make a video (“Hiding Out” which you can view on YouTube (link below) about LGBTQ youth who escaped from gay-to-straight bootcamps into an underground network of safe houses, and what I know happened is very different from your “recollection.”
Contrary to your version of the evening that, “out comes George Michael who just rants into the Mic about HIS problems,” he paused between his four song concert set and showed “Hiding Out” to over 50,000 people at JFK Stadium.
George Michael produced the video which included covering all production related expenses (travel, taping and editing), plus a generous fee to both myself and another producer. George was the one, btw, who reached out, INITIATED “Hiding Out” – he’d read a reprint of the safe house article in Attitude Magazine, and acted on it.
I have to say, I’m put off by the overall bitchy tone of these comments. I don’t know about the rest of his life or how he’s dealt with other people, but the George Michael I dealt with was both warm and generous. He put his money and fame to support queer youth, and bring light to a little known subject – HRC, for example, which everyone who speaks so authoritatively here would also know, blocked including the video in the concert’s rebroadcast.
“Hiding Out” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v8C2eexJ40
Cam
@Tomas Mournian: said…
“@Cam, were you actually AT Equality Rocks? I was hired by George to make a video (“Hiding Out” which you can view on YouTube (link below) about LGBTQ youth who escaped from gay-to-straight bootcamps into an underground network of safe houses, and what I know happened is very different from your “recollection.””
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Then you are lying or mis-remembering on purpose. The entire crowd in my area was shocked and there were scattered boos. A bunch of people left halfway through to get food or drinks because they were sick of hearing him.
But at least we know where YOU’RE coming from….lets look at this fairly. YOU were paid by George Michael, I on the other hand am not being paid to either like or dislike him. Gee, who might have a more non-biased view.
Again, you were PAID to be there…I on the other hand PAID FOR my tickets. I have a feeling that is something was wrecking the concert I as the person who paid for a ticket might be a bit more sensitive to noticing it, than somebody who was getting cash to be there.
As for the bitchy tone of the comments here, well, perhaps of all of us were paid to like Mr. Michael as you are, we may not sound so dissappointed at all of his self centered shortcomings.
Tomas Mournian
@Cam, you’re entitled to your recollection, as am I. It’s interesting how different our memories of the event were, isn’t it? Looking at everything “fairly” as you write, “in my area” – JFK is relatively big, and I don’t remember it that way.
You are 100% wrong on one point: I was not in fact, “paid” to go – it was on my own dime. I was paid only to make the video.
My opinion of George stands. Though I’m really curious who, in their life, comes out perfectly? Or, lives their life perfectly? Not George, not me, not a lot of people except … you “Cam”? If you’ve lived a life without any mistakes, or missteps – truly – and if what you write about another human being is truly without bias, then I am very humbled to have been taken to task by you.
(Not that you’d be interested – since you’re perfect – but David Foster Wallace spoke in his Kenyon commencement speak about how essentially human it is to be self-centered, and riddled with short comings.)
However, if you haven’t lived an perfect life, it’s telling that your strong opinion of someone who you don’t know. is so grounded in hate and a lack of compassion, or nuance in another (presumably you’re gay) queer person’s struggle. Though I don’t claim to “know” George Michael, my experience of him is one I stand by, publically, under my own name, ten + years after the fact.
I’m saddened to read what write because both your words and reasoning fit into the exactly same attitudes of self-centeredness and hate commonly leveled by those who condemn gay people to hell, while voting against laws guaranteeing equal treatment. But then, being unaccountable by hiding behind C-A-M makes expressing that hate a lot easier to put forth, and equally easy to dismiss.
Aussie Col
@Tomas Mournian: Tomas you are so cool. Wish I hadn’t been so angry in my response earlier, so i could have been more articulate. You don’t have to justify your stand. You are correct, the others are wrong. All the proof is on this page. Cheers.
Jeffree
It’s always sad when a Wham jewel loses its luster, the snake turns out to be venemous and Michelle O’Bama won’t return my Fàceboôk invites to swank parties up in my dayglo crib.
Let’s remember that when GM had it in him, he could sing in close proximity with the best.
[ 0k, DivKid, u r the musicality expert here & I am perhaps off my tuck and that chloroform you uploaded has had its run wiff me).
But Curious GM has cold flat run out of excuses on the morâl front and now skims close to the red tide in artistry.
His best chance for redemption? Music: fewer words, more songs. Talent. We could use summa that these days, what with the world ending on 5/21 if you believe the Campings.
Sing me something that makes me want to forgive you. That makes me think you finally UNDERSTAND,
[O, shall I confess, that for one brief milisecond looking at the pho-toe, I thought Andrew Sullivan had mated with Mel Gibson. Silly moi.]
Peas be among you all.
Lefty
@Aussie Col: I agree with you both. Very well said. x
Cam
@Tomas Mournian: said…
“I’m saddened to read what write because both your words and reasoning fit into the exactly same attitudes of self-centeredness and hate commonly leveled by those who condemn gay people to hell, while voting against laws guaranteeing equal treatment. But then, being unaccountable by hiding behind C-A-M makes expressing that hate a lot easier to put forth, and equally easy to dismiss.”
________________________________
Yes, you are exactly correct. ANYBODY who dissagrees with ANY of George Michael’s actions must be exactly the same as people who think gays should burn in hell.
Honestly, do you even read what you write? As for being self centered, you may have that opinion of me, however, I would say that coming out, after a touching moving moment with Matthew Sheppards parents and making it all about him, would qualify George Michael far more for that lable.
Your and my recollections may be different, but considering pretty much anybody I spoke to after the concert was dissappointed by Michael’s speech, I would say that you…the guy who took money from him, may have the more biased memory.
But perhaps you are right, perhaps I have been totally wrong about George Michael, and he is a wonderful, stable, generous, pro-gay, great example for young gays everywhere…I’m sure that by looking at his behavior over the last 11 years since the concert we could see that…….oh wait….
Cam
@Jeffree: said…
“His best chance for redemption? Music: fewer words, more songs. Talent. We could use summa that these days, what with the world ending on 5/21 if you believe the Campings.
Sing me something that makes me want to forgive you. That makes me think you finally UNDERSTAND,”
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Absolutly~! A good CD from an openly gay artist would be wonderful.
Ruhlmann
He dances like a girl.
Michael
you couldn’t be more wrong. i have always looked up to george as an alternative gay role model and you should too. not all of us have the confidence to nor do we want to shout our sexuality from streetcorners. and despite his failings he keeps working hard and providing an example to us.
you’re probably just jealous because you write for a crappy website and he’s a megastar who, almost 30 years on, is as popular and loved by people form all corners of the earth and from every walk of life.
society places unreasonable demands on people. how anyone can expect to live up to them i don’t know. I don’t even try. the wold can take a run and jump. like george, i’ll dance to the beat of my own drum and fuck the rest of them.