So Joe McElderry is ‘officially’ gay now. Well, I used my “GOOD. If it’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s obvious gays pretending to be straight lolol.” line last time, so I suppose I should try something more serious for this occasion.
I’m not going to be all “congratulations” or “life begins NOW”, like a certain toe-curling journalist, because I find those sort of comments really patronising. “Thanks for the congratulations on something I didn’t exactly choose” / “Thanks for suggesting being openly gay is the most significant thing to happen in my life so far” etc. But I am glad he’s now in a place where he’s comfortable with himself and isn’t afraid to let it be known.
I don’t really care what he is, but I have a lot of respect for him and what he’s done. I hadn’t given it much thought, but he possibly is the youngest example of someone coming out in the public eye? It does take guts to admit it at that age, and at such an early stage in his career. I don’t necessarily makes him more brave, or open, than those before him. It’s just a case of the country as a whole being much more accepting of it, making it less of a big deal. The story could certainly be of help to guys of Joe’s age out there who are just as uncertain as he was. This can only be a good thing. Hopefully we’ll get to a stage where it’s not something people feel the need to fuss over, but I don’t feel that’s a realistic situation and I’m contributing to the fuss.
Speaking of fuss, the only thing that doesn’t quite sit with me tonight is his Twitter ‘hacking’ where the hacker conveniently came out (in, iirc, quite a pleasant Tweet) for him. I was suspicious of it at the time because it was all a bit strange. If only because I can’t quite imagine a ‘hacker’ trying to get into Joe’s account, only to leave a nice message that sort of reads similar to what he’s saying now? Then there was the rapid deletion, followed by a “WHOOPS I’VE BEEN HACKED LOL” cover up.
The general message behind his current statement is “I’ve always been honest” and “the hacking made me realise”. NO. You weren’t hacked. I’m betting you thought that Tweet was a good way to come out (because you are an honest guy really) but then some PR person was like “UM, JOE. This is NOT how you’re going to do it. Delete it. We’ll cover it up and you can do it in a more controlled way in a few weeks time.” and you went with that.
This isn’t all meant as an attack on Joe, I just don’t buy his version of events. He’s preaching about honesty, when there’s probably been a dishonest cover up. Either, I don’t blame him. If anything, it makes him look better if he can say in the future that the hacking was fake, but was made to hold it back a few weeks. I think he actually did write that Tweet, it’s not like he’s displayed poor media training in the past.
I think that’s all he was dishonest about though, I’m not joining the cynical crowd who are like “well why did you keep it from us for so long?”. I think a lot of them need to stand back and remember Joe is only 19 (the 91 in his Twitter name should be a clue) which can be quite a confusing age for some. It’s not the same for everyone, everyone realises it in different ways. Some know about it from the age of 13 (or earlier), but others take a lot longer to realise and it can simply be a moment of realisation. I genuinely believe Joe said he was straight in the past because he believed he was, he just hadn’t had that moment of realisation yet.
Perhaps this story will cause others to have this moent of realisation, or perhaps it’ll keep his name in the papers after certain journalists *coughhidanwoottoncough* were wondering where he was, and saying he wasn’t good enough to have his album released a year after winning. (but I’m sure he’s your best friend now, eh Dan? ;) )
P.S. how on earth did I go on that much? it’s gone 3am now. fml.
