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so you promote gay rights by being closeted and denying it until you think your career is secure enough and then come out and jump on any and every gay bandwagon! I’m not too convinced by Mr Martin!
No-one should be judged for not coming out Rose
“No-one should be judged for not coming out Rose” – Indeed, judged neither way, as a disappointment OR as a shining example. I can’t see why GLAAD has chosen to honour someone who came out so late in the day. There must surely be more deserving candidates for this award.
Who else exists in the latino community who is as high profile and visibly out? There is another big latino singer with four adopted children who hovers in the closet and skirts the issue- Martin may have taken his time but he is now out and it would be a shame if his career was damaged by gay people’s sniping.
The only reason this latino singer came out was because of the mounting ‘Outing’ stories that were threatening to expose him as a liar – Reward the courageous, not those who only come out cause they have to or else they will be outed! Besides isn’t this ‘Gay’ prefix just the breeders way of keeping us labelled? – Gay comedian, gay politician, gay pop star – we don’t prefix St8s with hetro actor or wife beating christian…
what i meant was as joe said. oneway or another he isn’t particularly deserving of an award. And the idea that there is no other latino gay to nominate is a poor excuse. Why do gay latinos need a latino role model? why this compartmentalising? I don’t even think we need gay role models at all per se. What’s wrong with admiring people who happen to be good human beings regardless of their sexual orientation?
I agree Joe and Rose. Sing about women and behave as a hetero to establish oneself as a music artist. What message does that give? That openly gay people can’t establish a music career being themselves?
There are much more worthy people – Ellen Degeneres, Elton John
No one should be judged for not coming out???? As a gay man who was openly gay at 15 (in school and everywhere since) in 1981, I find that horribly offensive.
I wouldn’t say that anyone who refrains from coming out should be marked as a bad person. But to spend one’s life repeatedly denying something and then get an award? No way. Compare what Tony Blair did with Ricky Martin. There are enough Tony Blairs who can’t be thanked enough so we needn’t give Ricky and Doogie awards for doing relatively little.
Yes, I’m sorry, I’m also at a loss as to why he’s getting an award. He was a closet case for years and then came out at 38, and for that he gets an award? He’s hardly a hero or a role model.
Sorry, better give this to the people who come out at 16, they deserve it better, I’d have more respect for them.
Rose says “So you promote gay rights by being closeted and denying it until you think your career is secure enough and then come out and jump on any and every gay bandwagon! I’m not too convinced by Mr Martin!”
Come on Rose this is a but negative and maybe just a bit short-sighted ! Every one needs to come out in their own time, not to your time scale. I think it would be fair to speculate for those who have achieved fame before they have sorted their sexuality it is ìthen more difficult because their career and livelihood is at stake.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that being gay in some industries can limit your career opportunities and it is only starting to change in a few countries. In hindsight if Ricky Martin had not risen as far as he has then the impact of the good work he is doing now may not be as great. So maybe his not coming out till when he did was in fact a strategic benefit to the gay community. It is harder to dislike and discount someone based on sexual orientation once you have once you have decided you like them.
I personally think teh fact he and other gay men are taking the couragous move to openly parent is an inspiration. That role is much harder than just comming out.
“I think it would be fair to speculate for those who have achieved fame before they have sorted their sexuality”
That is not the case here. He lied to protect his career, and actively portrayed himself as straight. In fact he went to great lengths to deny he was gay. Now, I’m delighted that he’s happy enough with his sexuality to come out, but this is hardly an “award” moment, which is what Rose is referring to.
Whilst I have nothing against Ricky Martin I can see Rose and Joe’s point.
I wouldn’t want to judge him in a negative way but to set him up as some type of gay role model for coming out when he’s long since stopped being a fixture in the charts at 38 is giving him a pat on the back for outing himself when the stakes were pretty low.
By the same token we could nominate Liberache or Kenneth Williams gay role models in spite of the fact everyone else in the world guessed they were gay before they went public with it, and they died without ever making it official.
And they were born in an era when gayness was still illegal.
By all means he should be congratulated on finally coming out, but actually awarding him for outing himself this late in the game is taking things a bit far IMO.
Other people seem to be expressing my point better than I managed to do myself.
The man stays in the closet for the entirety of his career, even when he is financially independent, yet somehow emerges as a role model?
No role model of mine, I prefer a man with the balls to be himself. It was an open secret anyway, it’s hardly a shock or something he managed (or even bothered trying) to keep a secret. Not only that, he was bisexual first, i.e. the cowardly gay testing the water and then, lo and behold, he’s a fully fledged gay. Because ten years ago, he obviously wasn’t.
We do ourselves no favours honouring people who’ve done none of the work in actively promoting gay rights on the basis that they’ve said ten words. Nothing to do with him being pretty then?
For “promoting gay rights”! – I must have blinked and missed it. He only came out last year, was he promoting gay rights before that?
Seriously, he must have been someone for many latino and other guys to look up to simply by being a bit of a dreamboat. But is that really enough to qualify for a gong? That, and talking to various groups since last summer. Seems to me that in order to get publicity, which is no bad thing sometimes, GLAAD is honouring someone who is (a) gay and (b) a celebrity. Happens to us all.
The fact that Gay Partnerships cannot produce Children show that god never would never have approved these unholy Partnerships
@ James ” The fact that Gay Partnerships cannot produce Children show that god never would never have approved these unholy Partnerships” So what does the great pixie in the sky think about breeders who can’t breed is that unholy too?
James – Any more unsubstantiated claptrap you’d like to share with the group?
Your god is just as hypothetical as his heresay opinions.
But please be sure to tell us what you think Humpty Dumpty would think of gay partnerships, as like yourself I like to base all my big life decisions on the opinions of fictional characters.
“The fact that Gay Partnerships cannot produce Children show that god never would never have approved these unholy Partnerships”
So, you’d have no problem getting god to appear in front of me to tell me that himself, since you are so sure of your intimate “knowledge” of how he/she/it thinks?
Anything will do, a burning bush, trumpeting angel, I’m easy really.
No? Oh, why not? Surely god would be able to do that if he was so passionate about it? No? But he’s appeared for less in the bible, any old sod with a chip on his shoulder got a burning bush telegram.
What do you think Occam’s razor would say in this circumstances? Have a wild guess….
Buffoon.
I agree with Rose, this is shocking. Even now he is out he still lies about being bisexual andsaying he was confused. Everytime this bloke speaks it makes my skin crawl. Just makes straights think its a choice. He is so dishonest. I applaud him coming out but he certainly is no role model or a champion of our cause . No award for playing it safe!
I become more and more proud of Ricky every day!
Michael
OutMaturity
@ Rose (et al). Ian McKellen didn’t come out until he was 49, so you might want to throttle back the righteous judgment act. I can get that kind of stuff from faux-Christians.
When (or IF) to come out is a personal matter – and the amount of success, fame, or money, is irrelevant.
Let’s see how he does – and WHAT he does.
We love you Ricky, we know how hard it is to come out as a Latin man.God loves you for helping all gay men come out and be free to be who they are. I want to thank you. We are all Gods children all around the world.