SHAMESHAME TOP 25 Part II
November 1st 2009 09:05
Ellen & Portia
It’s that time of year again, time to nominate the 25 allegedly most influential fags and dykes in Australia.
I like the idea of celebrating success in environments where it’s tough and challenging to be out and gay. But looking back over previous lists, some inclusions seem, well, strange.
Like Portia De Rossi, holding down a really challenging gig as a same-sex celebrity wife.
Of course some clearly deserve celebrating, like Love Makes a Family’s Felicity Marlowe, or GLLO Melinda Edwards.
And Matthew Mitcham clearly had some influence, even though Olympic pool sports are already as gay as ice-dancing, or ballroom dancing (with only marginally skimpier costumes).
And please don’t try to make me call the latter ‘dance sports’, or I shall have to start calling three-act ballets ‘triathlons’ – it’s a gay sport, get over it. We let you join in, if you can camp it up enough, don’t we?
But to get back to the subject: there are ‘influential’ out gays and lesbians – even on the SameSame lists - who refuse to use their influence. Won’t front up at rallies to say a few words, sing a song, or just be there, except maybe for a fat fee. Who resent the suggestion that ‘just because they’re gay,’ they have an obligation to ‘give back’ to their own people. Who trot out the line that they ‘don’t want to become a gay poster boy/girl’.
I have my own list of these selfish freeloaders, but I thought it would be more fun to ask people, who’s on yours? So last week on my radio program Freshly Doug (Thursday 9 till Noon, Joy 94.9 Melbourne, streaming live over the web) I launched “The ShameShame Top 25 Influential Gays & Lesbians Who Do Jack Schitt for GLBTI.”
It was an interesting exercise. There were nominees who divided opinion, like Molly Meldrum, who was liked for no discernible reason, but also criticised for saying nothing. At least, nothing anyone could understand.
On the one hand John Michael Howson was panned as ‘simply awful’, a ‘tame poofter’ on shock-jock station 3AW, while others were proud to have him on our side.
Alan Jones was a somewhat less divisive nominee – no-one had a good word for him, with or without his prostate.
Nor for Penny Wong, for putting her career before her community, and for being an out lesbian cabinet member, yet refusing to speak out publicly in support of our rights, and even endorsing the governments ‘separate but equal’ policies.
And Bob Brown may be Green but we think he should be Pinker, leading a pro-gay party but not using that party’s Senate strength effectively on our behalf.
Jonathan Welch and Julie McCrossin each got a serve for ‘pretending to care about the poor’, as one unhappy listener put it, refusing to speak out against the governments failure to grandfather the changes to aged pensions that hit elderly gay couples hard.
High Court Justice Virginia Bell copped it for being ‘a poor replacement for Michael Kirby’ who seems ‘uncomfortable publicly acknowledging her sexuality, let alone advocating for it’.
Some people nominated the Lobbies, for dropping everything else and homing in blindly on gay marriage to the exclusion of almost all else. Others disliked wasting time on 'Orwellian' ideas like 'hate crime' and 'hate speech'. Better call it 'thoughtcrime' and be honest about it.
Do these lists really matter? Isn’t the SameSame awards ceremony just another of those feel-good intra-community events like Divas, Rainbows, Prides, which like all circle-jerks are fun at the time but ultimately a wasted opportunity? Is it anything more than a self-serving publicity stunt to drive web traffic to a not especially interesting website that sources most of its content second hand, unacknowledged and unpaid?
Why else include out, gay and influential nominees who refuse to use their influence for our benefit, like Wong and Brown, or who are simply celebrities who happen to be gay, like Tony Sheldon. He’s a wonderful performer and a lovely man, but really, does being a gay man in musical theatre who leaps into drag at the drop of a handbag really make him ‘influential’?
These cynical inclusions diminish the honour being done to those who really do work hard on our behalf and achieve their influence by doing so. They are the ones really worth celebrating.
(You can see the original ShameShame nominations and comments to date – and add your own - on the Freshly Doug blog at Really Long Link or add a comment below)
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Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
im a bit disappointed in Ian Thorpe and Daniel Johns (silverchair) for not coming out of the closet already
Comment by Anonymous
I don't agree that people "need" to do anything. I think that simply being "out" is enough.
Surely these people have made their own personal statement by not hiding their sexuality, and going about their normal lives. Perhaps the best way for us to all move forward is to stop picking on/pointing fingers and just get on with living our lives openly and honestly.
I find it absurd that you would "name and shame" in this manner.
For what it's worth - I have been to protests and rallys in the past and probably will do so in the fututre, and I am openly gay. I don't walk around waving a rainbow flag everyday, yet everyone I work with knows my sexuality. In my opinion, by "just getting on with it" I am demonstrating that I'm no different than anyone else. I don't want or need to be treated any differently. Yes, I recognize that there are still some rights to be fought for, and they will come soon I hope.
Doug you have made a career out of being gay. The people you identifed have made their reputations by just being themselves. Yes they are gay/lesbian, and good on them for that.
Get off your soapbox Doug, and applaud them for being openly gay/lesbian within the public spotlight. That in itself is a statement to be proud of.
Comment by Doug Pollard
Current Affairs
Rainbow Reporter
And for most of us, that's all that's necessary. But I think that for as long as we are still treated legally and socially as second-class citizens, people who have a public position have an obligation to use that to help change that situation.
And, for the record, I haven't 'made a career out of being gay'.
I spent a few short years after uni in gay media, but most of my career was in mainstream advertising, PR and technical and commercial authoring (with a sideline in gay retail), which lasted until 15 years ago when I moved to Australia and effectively retired.
Not because I wanted to, but because it proved impossible to get a worthwhile mainstream job, given my age.
Plus I didn't need to. But I found out I'm not cut out to be just a househusband, so I decided to capitalise on my skills and experience and do something useful, and got involved in gay media again, volunteering at Joy, and briefly editing Melbourne Star.
All my current work at Joy and the RJM Trust is voluntary. Only the column is paid work. That's hardly what I would call 'a career'!
Comment by Simone L. Petersen
shapeupwithsimone.com
Marriage Equality
Comment by Simone L. Petersen
shapeupwithsimone.com
Marriage Equality
Comment by Anonymous
SameSame does provides its viewers with the same generic topical gay tripe that every other gay media outlet does, on this I will agree with you. But it also has forums, and the opportunity to become a contributor so that the voice of the community is just that and not the ramblings of a pompous hack.
The community has enough division already and does not need it to be furthered by a bitter old queen like you. It is no wonder Southern Star lost $155000 last financial year, when it has the cloud of negativity that is you.
My nominations for SHAME SHAME is you Doug Pollard, for perpetuating the stereotype of an embittered old queen.
Comment by Doug Pollard
Current Affairs
Rainbow Reporter
An Australian psychology expert who has been studying emotions has found being grumpy makes us think more clearly. . . . . miserable people are better at decision-making and less gullible . . . . gloominess breeds attentiveness and careful thinking, Professor Joe Forgas told Australian Science Magazine.
He says a grumpy person can cope with more demanding situations than a happy one,
outperform those who are jolly, make fewer mistakes and are better communicators.
Professor Forgas said: " negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world."
His study also found they were better at stating their case through written arguments. Forgas said a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style".