Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Truly Madly?

The openly gay, Australian singer Darren Hayes, former frontman for Savage Garden, is currently being investigated for using a racial epithet on a waiter in a Thai restaurant in London. Unlike in America which brands its First Amendment on both ass cheeks, hate speech is a serious crime in most of Europe. Conventional wisdom has it that gay people, as minorities who are still deprived the full legal rights accorded straight people, would be more open-minded and accepting of other minorities. Like people of color. People with HIV. But the longer I live in New York City, the less certain I become of the soundness of that wisdom. Hard as it was for me to come out to straight friends and family, I have grown to find it much harder to "come out" to other gays about my HIV status. Because of HIV, I have been turned down for sex, for dating and even for friendship. Is it foolish of me to think that gay people should naturally be more open-minded and accepting of others deemed "outsiders" by mainstream American society? Or is being gay not quite as fabulous as I originally thought?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The man wore the Aboriginal flag during the closing ceremony of the Australian Olympics. These allegations will be proven to be false. Googled the restaurant and they are synonymous with rude staff and poor service.

J.T. said...

Thank you for pointing out the flag on the tee-shirt. It's precisely that kind of action that I would come to expect from someone of Darren's stature--I would expect gay individuals to be more caring about the plights of other minorities. Let's hope the allegations are a crock and Darren's good voice quickly restored.