I apologise for once again bringing up this subject which must by now have become quite frankly a bloody great bore; but something inevitably happens to reinvigorate it and, in this instance it is Elton John who opened his big mouth and must surely have tasted toes by stating he believes Jesus was gay! What gives with these people that they can be so crass? The Bible “God hates fags” belt simply don’t and won’t take this sort of thing lying down. No pun intended.
The Beatles made themselves very unpopular many years ago when Lennon stated that they were more popular than Jesus and had to withdraw the remark and apologise. It isn’t inconceivable that Joshua Ben Joseph was what Elton says he was. It has been mooted more than once before but the fact is we will never know what his sexual inclination was and what is the point of guessing? There have been doubts about many historical figures, think of Kitchener and Cecil Rhodes. Julius Caesar was evidently known as every man’s wife and every woman’s husband and there is little doubt that Alexander The Great had his male lover though mention that to some Greeks and they’re immediately on the defensive if not up in arms, even though their Attic vases are decorated with every conceivable naughty male to male carryings on.
The Irish actor, Michael MacLiammoir said, ‘I will have nothing to do with Gay Liberation, it will only give us a bad name.’ And in many ways this has proved to be only too true. Come out of the closet by all means but there is no need to shout it from the rooftops. Out of closet good. Rooftops bad.
Yes, attitudes have changed a lot since poor old Oscar was crucified by hysterical hypocritical snobs and mobs, his name taken off his plays then running in London, and the plays themselves taken off as he was trundled off to serve his sentence. One can’t help feeling it wasn’t what he was up to with Bosie that brought him down but the fact that he went for the rough end of the market with working class boys – right out of his class, my dear. Tchaikovsky had the same problem and attacks of conscience as he cruised the streets of Moscow. Did he commit suicide in his despair or was it expected of him?
When Gielgud was caught cottaging and had up for ‘soliciting for an immoral purpose’ (doesn’t that sound quaint?) an actor tried to raise a petition to have him struck from Equity and was unceremoniously booted out of Sir Laurence Olivier’s (as he was them) dressing room. What a twat. The actor not Sir Laurence. I was told at the time, though I don’t know how true this is, that a publican in Stratford-on-Avon whose pub was much frequented by the theatre company took Gielgud’s photo of his wall and the actors immediately marched in and demanded he do the same with theirs.
Yes, attitudes have changed but there is still a great deal of homophobia, intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism and all the other evils that beset our world and probably always will so, dear Mr Elton John, don’t say out aloud what you might be thinking. It really isn’t tactful or wise. Remember the Irish actor and keep your trap shut.
As an afterthought and a matter of interest, if God hates faggots so much why didn’t He put a stop to it in the very beginning? I hope I will never bring up the subject again.