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Tuesday 18 October 2011

Sir Cliff and gay marriage (and other things about being gay)

We’ve often wondered about the . . . you know, the sexuality of Cliff Richard. But it’s something he doesn’t like to talk about.

However, he’s come out this week. I mean, come out in favour of gay marriage, not come out.

He’s also come out in favour of assisted suicide, it seems, because he’s been talking about a pact he has with his sister about not wanting to be allowed to linger in this life if he should ever suffer from dementia.

As for gay marriage, he reckons other people should have the same rights as his gay friends.

As for his own sexuality, Digital Journal has this to say:

Richard (71) – who became Sir Cliff in 1995 when he was knighted – has always avoided talking about his own sexuality. He currently lives with a former Catholic priest, John McElynn, whom he describes as his property manager.

When asked about his sexuality, he has said it’s the commitment that counts. “[L]et’s face it, homosexuality has been legal for more than thirty years,” he says in his autobiography, My Life, My Way (written with Penny Junor). “I’ll leave the judging to God.”


Keanu Reeves


OK, we don’t exactly go along with the God stuff here on PT, and, if he is . . . you know, gay, it might be an idea to be honest about it, and that might just go a long way to helping others to come to terms with their own sexuality.

But, really, I suppose it shouldn’t matter – just shouldn’t matter what a person’s sexuality is. I recall some years ago that the Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves refused to talk about his own sexuality because he thought that to do so might suggest that homosexuality was somehow wrong.

You may be interested in this 1996 article, reproduced here from USA Today, in which says (among other things about Reeves):

Still, rumors of his ambiguous sexuality flourish. To the suggestion that his refusal to set the record, er, straight only feeds the rumors: “I don’t know why anyone cares, and I don’t know if it matters or not. I just, uh, I don’t—”

Silence, shrugs.

“It’s, you know, the whole aspect of coming out. I mean there is a whole, people, you know, who are gay [who] have decided that it can be – that whole thing about calling people out – and you have to share that, because there needs to be an equality and a lack of prejudice, and you need to have a voice, so I mean, it’s important, but I’m not involved in those dynamics and I have no point of view on it.”

Well, I’m not sure he ever has set the record straight, but, really, should it matter? You may argue that it does, because people who are – for whatever reason – looked up to could set an example and show they have no problem with their own homosexuality.

Perhaps coming out is more important at this cusp moment in our history when there are plenty of people in public and celeb life who are OK with being openly gay and turning up to functions with their boy/girlfriends on their arms, but there are still so many frightened people trying to come to terms with their sexuality and not daring to tell anyone.

The former might do the latter a big favour.

1 comment:

George Broadhead said...

Richard seems to have become more gay-friendly in his old age. In 1977 he declared: “Homosexuality in my mind will never be normality because I can see what normality means is a man and a woman procreating”. This was quoted in a leaflet produced by the Gay Humanist Group as the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association(GALHA) was first called.

Also, he is an Evangelical Christian who has been guest-of-honour at rallies like Billy Graham’s, so one wonders how this new-found attitude will go down with his fellow evangelicals who are ultra homophobic.