He could have tackled stigma by coming out earlier, says Tatchell
GEORGE MICHAEL could have helped to counter a “tide of prejudice” in the 1980s when being gay was considered a “scandal and a shame”, if he had come out earlier, the campaigner Peter Tatchell said yesterday.
Mr Tatchell said he wished the singer had spoken publicly about his sexuality earlier, although he understood why he did not.
The pair first met at a gay disco above a pub in London in 1980, when Michael was a teenager and not yet famous.
It was not until 18 years later that he spoke publicly about his homosexuality, after being arrested in Beverly Hills, California, for engaging in a “lewd act” in a public toilet.
He later said he never had a “moral problem” with his sexuality, but that he did not want to worry his mother. “Understand how much I love my family and that Aids was the predominant feature of being gay in the 1980s and early Nineties as far as any parent was concerned,” he said in a 2007 interview. “My mother was still alive and every single day would have been a nightmare for her thinking what I might have been subjected to.” “Gay men were blamed for the deadly virus [Aids],” Mr Tatchell said yesterday. “Public attitudes became more homophobic. Gay-bashings and murders rocketed. “I wish George had come out then. He could have helped counter that tide of prejudice. But I understand why he didn’t.” Yesterday, it was reported that Michael had been close again to Texan art dealer Kenny Goss, his ex-boyfriend, before his death. The pair, pictured left, dated for 13 years before splitting in 2009.