Ronaldo admits to being rich. And to being a faggot.

Did he really?

Well, who really knows how things appear in one news outlet and get passed on to others, sometimes like Chinese Whispers.

• Here's one run of the story on sport-english.com.
• 
  
• Here's Queerty's report.
• 
  
• And the Gaily Grind. 

But is there anything in the mainstream press? I haven't found anything, but Edge Media Network does at least report a source: a radio station, Cadena Cope - if you speak Spanish.

But this is a discussion of someone reporting the comment, isn't it? It's not straight from the horse's mouth or even any witnesses, as far as I can tell. It's from a presenter called Juanma Castaño.

Troye Sivan

Apparently this 21 year old, totally out, Australian star of screen and recording studios is not particularly fazed by the photo below being leaked.

His biog, yes even a 21 year old can have a biog, is replete in Wikipedia.
Yep, butter wouldn't melt in his ..., well, you decide.

And the "leaked" pic is from Tumblr. Thanks, I guess. He guesses. We guess. They guess. What do you guess?

And thanks again to Queerty for alerting me to this fascinating expose.

Ben Whishaw interview PLUS partner from Down Under

Marvellous NY interview from 2010.
Stylised presentation.
Movement ... what's the word?

Elsewhere he speaks of the great difficulty it takes to come out.
And the immense bravery

He's now married to an Australian composer, whom he met when they were making Jane Campion's film about Keats, Bright Star.

Ben W also plays in Lilting, of which they write:

Coming to terms with his boyfriend's death, a young man forms a relationship of half-truths and unspoken feeling with his partner's mother in this deeply moving portrait of grief.

Oh, and B's husband? 

Mark Bradshaw.

Coming right up!

... about whom more can be found at Wikipedia, believe it or not.

Coming out to play

What a great title for a gay sportsman's autobiography: Coming out to play, by Robbie Rogers.

In this video, certain resemblances to Tom of England can be discerned, most notably the quiet-spoken humility mixed with a certain "I can't fucking believe my life" gratitude to a world that embraces young gay celebrity sportsmen.

P.S. Thanks Queerty for putting me onto this trail.

Rumour mongering

This blog never set out to be, and has never been an instrument in rumour mongering. But the question of Leonardo di Caprio's sexuality came up recently and very little research takes you to names such as:

• Zac Efron
• Leo di Caprio
• Robert Pattinson
• Lukas Haas

In the Wikipedia entries on these big names, not one CTRL F turns up one hit for the words girlfriend, wife, partner, couple, marry, marriage in any of their entries. Dating seems a bit undergrad for grown ups, but these guys do date. Leonardo is roundly criticised for his string of short so-called relationships with models for the publicity's sake. 

I think that Leo is so greatly admired for his professional work and environmental support, that his days of disappointing teen mobsters is no longer a issue. If he is gay, which seems to be widely accepted, I hope his minders let him come out so that he can lead an honest life. It's many years since Rock Hudson died. It's many months since Anderson Cooper came out. 

Tom Daley did the right thing at the right time. He can't lose. And many people gain. Come on Leo, we saw those wonderful kisses in Total Eclipse, the romantic sacrifice of the great love. The erastes-eronemos relationship. One day, you'll tell us that that was the only honest film you did. 

Only 1.5 mill hits? Wot you got 'gainst country music, boy?

In glorious B & W here, for example, or in colour should you prefer.

The morning after (8 mins)

I think the film is missing something ... another 3 minutes beyond where one pretty young thing offers another pretty young thing a drink. It's nicely made but I think a lot of viewers have little sympathy for pretty young things who haven't sorted themselves out by his age, especially in an urban setting in the 21st century. This tale would be more credible set in a more conservative society, and with a main character much over 30.

Welsh Rugby star ...out

Gareth Thomas, now retired, superstar Welsh footballer came out in December 2009, not long after his divorce came through. He was awarded Stonewall’s Hero of the Year in October 2010.

I don't want to be mean, but I wonder if he knows anything about Gary Speed's suicide before Christmas. There was a widespread rumour (here for example) that a certain scurrilous British tabloid was about to out him.

It's always about pain and suffering. Read any of the sports links in this blog, or anywhere else, to see the pain that these sportsmen go through. And the relief they feel afterwards. Think how many are still suffering in their closets.

The exceptions seem to be the youngest of them: Matthew Mitcham and Anton Hysen.

Four Olympic medals for Australia and still in the closet, until ...

Just after he turned 21, Australian swimmer, Daniel Kowalski, won his first three Olympic medals in swimming at the 1996 Atlanta games. He won an Olympic gold at the Sydney 2000 games for a relay event when he was 25.

Ten years later, in April 2010 Daniel Kowalski announced that he is gay. Kowalski says he was inspired to come out by Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas, who announced the previous December that he was gay. He said "I felt really compelled to do it because it's very tough to live a closeted existence". From Wikipedia (29.01.12) As we saw in another posting in this blog, it doesn't matter how spectacular your closet is, it's still not a great place to be.

He wrote this great little essay for the Sydney Morning Herald (April 18, 2010) where they even provide his email address. The picture at the top comes from our beloved Band of Thebes site.  In 2010, Kowalski was selected by readers of samesame.com.au as one of the 25 most influential gay Australians. I wonder if the conductor, Paul Dyer, was another of them.

I don't read anywhere that he has a partner.

Lovely weekend

Finally got to see the film WEEKEND, beloved by all that I'd read, and heard from others who've seen it. I like it too, but maybe I'm just a bit too old or cynical or both because I found that the arguments presented about being gay and coming out were all rather old. I processed all that years ago. Sorry, but I did.

And the final scene on the railway platform, saying goodbye, well, I've been there done that. Cried for days.

Paid over £11 at Panton St Odeon on Saturday afternoon. Bit rich, methinks. Anyway, for a more positive and balanced commentary, see OUT's articlette. Its starting point is quite different from mine.

We impersonate

From an article about the 2010 film Beginners: see trailer below. See also Wikipedia

I think if you’re a gay man who was born in 1925 and whose very first sexual feelings are towards other men, you have to learn an impersonation of a straight man, and he did that for a long time.’’ Heterosexuality wasn’t normal to him “and so he had to figure out the way it looked and play the part.

Why I 'came out' - Cricketer Steven Davies

Another sportsman bites the bullet.

He must be the most quietly spoken sportsmen I've ever heard interviewed. I dare say, from this BBC interview, that he is very focussed young man.

I wonder for how long the Telegraph has been this supportive of gays in sport. Try this snippet.

There may be a few Neanderthal types who are appalled at the thought of a homosexual keeping wicket for England, but how many of them will dare show their heads above the parapet? They lack the courage of their convictions because their convictions belong in the sewer, and they know it.

Another interview here: "The more people do it, the more acceptable it becomes."

Gandhi was gay?

Another publication,
another ban,
another sales boost.
another law: please can we have a law that says Gandhi was not gay? or so they cry in India upon the publication of Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India. (Joseph Lelyveld)

See India state bans book hinting Gandhi had gay loverwhere you will read:

It has become a fashion to tarnish the image of great Indian leaders for self publicity and sale of books,” said Sanjay Dutt, spokesman for the ruling Congress Party in Maharashtra. “The government should invoke a law to severely punish anyone who tarnishes the image of the father of the nation.

I, the author of this blog, would like to call for a law that banned people from equating outing someone with tarnishing their image.

As you will also read, the relationship with Kallenbach was platonic.
Oh, I get it. No sex = no gay. Feelings count for nothing.

I'm sure there are millions of teenage virgins around the world today and throughout the history and pre-history of mankind whose hitherto unfulfilled sexual desires doesn't mean that they are not gay. And don't get me started on the Papacy and all that flounders in her.

Is it time to add Gandhi to that great T-shirt, What a difference a gay makes?

No mattter how much you spruce up the closet, it's still an uncomfortable place to live

From Nutmegradio.com, in an article about the 20 y.o. English born Swedish footballer, Anton Hysen, coming out.

An Innocent Shake

Some lovely comments at Towerload:

• The gayness resides not in the speedos, nor in the assiduously striven-after lack of tan lines, but in the shaking out of one towel by two men.
  
• Jacko's comment about the gay signifier being a towel shook by two men was brilliant. it's so true - the thoughtless acts we commit are the ones that truly reveal our nature. Reminds me of the old saw about how a guy looks at his fingernails - the old Boy Scout test.

Pick of Ricky Martin and someone whose name I've not yet gleaned. Any hints?

Give a damn

Ricky Martin is out!

Ricky Martin gay: Twitter users welcome news he's 'livin' la vida open' | Metro.co.uk

More at Improper. And at the examiner.com, and well, just about everywhere!

An early outing

Offended by Heinrich Heine’s mockery of “die Orientsucht” – the obsession with the Orient in poetry – in his work Reisebilder, zweiter Teil (1827), von Platen expressed anti-Semitic sentiment directed at Heine in his work Der romantische Oedipus (1828). Heine reacted in turn by publicizing von Platen’s homosexuality in Reisebilder dritter Teil (1830). This back and forth of mockery and ad hominem attacks are also referred to as “die von Platen Affaire”.