Boy George doesn't think queer identity politics have 'helped anyone'

Earlier in the interview, the "Karma Chameleon" singer discussed online transphobia and how the digital world differs from reality. "Trans people are the new people to hate, but I always say: How many trans people have you met today?" George said. "There's the world on the internet, which is hideous and full of anger. Then there's the real world, which is entirely different, so in reality people have nothing to be nervous about."

In his conversation with The Times, the musician said he believes his personal life is just a minuscule drop in the vast social-media bucket — and that sexual orientation shouldn't matter so much to people anyway.

"If I'm really lucky my own sexuality takes up about three hours a month. We've all got cats to feed, families to visit, jobs to do," George said. "I said in an interview when I was 17, 'Being gay is like eating a bag of crisps. It's so not important.' I still think that now. What do you care about someone's sexuality unless you're going to have sex with them?"

George also discussed how he channeled his views on queer identity into his 2002 musical, Taboo, which tells the story of his friend Leigh Bowery, legendary queer performance artist who founded London's Taboo club.

"What I want to explore in the show is the odd relationship between Leigh and his wife, Nicola Bowery," the musician said of the play, for which he wrote the lyrics and played Leigh on stage. "Long before nonbinary, here's a gay guy who married a straight woman, and there was real tenderness and love between them. Yes, part of the reason he married Nicola was to piss everyone off, but I do think he really loved her."

George, who is trying to revive Taboo, added that Bowery wouldn't want to box himself into pre-existing notions of queer identity or expression. "Someone said the other day, 'Leigh Bowery was the blueprint for gay identity,'" he recalled to The Times. "He would have hated that. Hated it!"

[Quote] What do you care about someone's sexuality unless you're going to have sex with them?"

If only.

To be honest people’s obsession with someone else’s sexual identity has more to do with either them not wanting to feel alone on their sexuality or a hatred for their own sexuality.

Those eyes a smoked out for the gods. He’s giving original call miner’s daughter.

i dont trust what op’s article is trying to do with the actual quotations

can't exactly find something boy george actually said that’s objectionable to so-called "the modern" queer or non-binary folk

It's the Haters we have to worry about. For some reason they're obsessed with erasing us.

Boy George, voice of reason.

[quote]queer identity politics

What are those? (I grasp the Queer part… but identity politics sounds like a split personality.)

I don't think many gay people care as much about it as many others to be honest.

I was on Facebook earlier and there was a post about how the first openly gay footballer had been signed for a UK football club. The vast majority of the comments were mocking in some way - eg "the other players need to watch themselves in the shower!", or "he'll take it from behind", etc. Not massively hateful as such, but it showed that when many straight men are confronted with the issue, their first reaction is to mock.

Then others will say "you don't need to come out mate, no one cares as long as you play well". And yet if that were the case, why were there hundreds of mocking posts about it?

The day when no one truly cares is the day that no one even comments on it.

Boy George has been through a lot of mostly self induced traumas.

I give him credit for extending his fame but his voice is long gone and he's always cos playing a giant gay clown.

[quote]R8 What are those? (I grasp the Queer part… but identity politics sounds like a split personality.)

I guess what I mean is, what would be the difference between “Queer Politics” and “Queer Identity Politics “?

[quote] —The hustler chained to the radiator

Haha R10, that made me giggle.

On the surface, it sounds so fucked up. But I'm sure it was just a "misunderstanding."

It seems like George has something interesting to say but he (or the reported) didn't fully clarify what his point is. Is it about Queer being to encompassing, whereas the reality is, every little group encompassed is unique? His point about trans bashing online it clear and true but we all know the Internet accentuates and fosters outrage and divisions. I saw him in the OG run in London of Taboo and it was a fine but not really great theatre. It was a shame Rosie and whomever didn't make a success of it in NY but its not that strong a piece and George in his own life at that time started to blur Leigh's visual identity into his own, and it was a bit off-putting to me. His comment about Leigh's sexual complexity is interesting and I didn't even know that information. I'm kind of sad George never had a 3rd act - just doing whatever to make his money - the talent shows, the tours. I thought after the success of Taboo he might do another musical. A better one. Or made some interesting albums. Or written better books. But he very much on a rinse repeat cycle for years.

Still insufferable, I gather.

Boy George did ALL THE DRUGS back in the day. Perhaps, R13, his brain is fried and he's just happy, and lucky, to be here.

Please make him go away.

[quote] 'Being gay is like eating a bag of crisps. It's so not important.'

R3, I found this quote"objectionable."

The realization that you are gay is the realization that you are different and alienated from the dominant society.

And there are plenty of people across the world who find my being gay objectionable. It's offensive to their religious beliefs. They do not want to serve me as a customer when I want to buy a cake for my marriage. They find the idea that I like to take it or give it up the butt objectionable. They find it objectionable that I am "forcing" my "lifestyle" upon them. My rights to housing and employment are not guaranteed by law across the country where I am a citizen. They object to books or having their children taught about my "lifestyle." An even greater number of people throw "cocksucker," "faggot," "sissy" and "queer" around as slurs still.

And this is just in the United States. There laws against me in Russia and other countries with ultra conservative and authoritarian regimes. In countries of the Middle East and Africa I can be killed because I am gay. I can go on to list other countries, but you get the picture.

I find it objectionable that George O'Dowd doesn't get that.

I would much rather have Lea Thomas' opinion if she did irreparable damage to LGBTQ+++++++ or if she thinks of herself as a shero.

I should add that being gay is still "objectionable," when you have gay men such as Ric Grenell proclaiming that he is a "normal" gay to set himself apart from gay men like George O'Dowd.

Hey, Ric and George! Guess what? J.D. Vance no doubt lumps you together as he laughs at you beyond closed doors.

Being gay is more than eating a bag of crisps.

When I was a teenager, my stepmother really terrorized me about being gay. She was an ignorant cunt, although she did have a good job and had a Masters degree. You would have hoped she would know better but nope. This was in the 90s. She used to say really humiliating and degrading things and she loved to say them in front of other people, like my relatives and our neighbours. She outed me constantly, saying degrading things. Absolutely no one stood up for me.

To this day, I am really susceptible to feeling shamed and humiliated when straight people want to talk about gay subjects with me. I just kind of freeze. I really have a really serious problem as an adult directly because of her behaviour. Being gay was something to be deeply ashamed of.

In the meantime, my father was bi and died of AIDS when I was 1999, but but my stepmother chose to believe that he died from a blood transfusion and not anal sex. She chose to believe that he was straight long after he was dead. He never once talked to me about being gay, even when I tried to raise the subject. He was an Irish Catholic and I think that he believed that he was dying of homosexuality, that he was being punished by God.

I cannot tell you how profoundly my stepmother affected my life. It was impossible to feel safe or speak freely about my father. She came into my life when I was 12 and eventually, as an adult, I got her out of my life. She used to call me over during a party and I would walk over and say “yes?” And she would say “fuck you” in front of other people, apropos of nothing. Constant humiliations.

well, there's "being gay"

and then there's "being a practicing homosexual"

R17,

I agree with all of your points. Thank you for putting it together. Straight people are so quick to trivialize the difficulties of being gay, and they will say that everyone who doesn’t come out today is a coward. What if your family is Pakistani or Italian or American Irish Catholic? How easy is it to come out in those environments? What if your family will absolutely never learn to deal with it in a million years? What if you are young and this is your family? Do you have the strength to cut off all contact with your entire family age 25? Some people might have that courage but many people do not.

R20 I am so sorry you grew up with an abuser as a step-parent!! What a horrible, horrible person. Just a nightmare. Wow. what a complete piece of shit. If it's any comfort, I am sure she was an unhappy and miserable person who was abused herself in childhood. Those behaviors do not speak to someone who was loved, supported and accepted in their own childhood. I bet she subconsciously knew your father was bisexual and cheating on her with men, and took out her anger about it on you.

And fuck your father for allowing this harpy witch into his son's home and life, and to enable and allow this hideous woman to relentlessly verbally abuse his son. He sounds like a lost soul. What sane mane would marry such a woman?? Maybe he felt guilt for being a homosexual and married her to torture himself??

Your father also utterly neglected to guide and raise YOU, his kid. Parenting should include discussions of sexuality, and there should be safety around that. You were deprived on all fronts and it hurts to even read about what you had to endure.

All I can say is, don't let "them" win. Get mad, and get motivated. Do you have or have you ever had a really wonderful therapist? Do you have a friend group that gives you a feeling of belonging and connection? I'm sure your wounds go very deep.

I too was neglected and verbally abused as a child, not for being gay but I just had a dysfunctional family in general. My entire family on both sides sucked except for one aunt that I have in my life who is wonderful, but even she was sort of checked out when I needed someone the most, in my teen years. I have suffered so much, but I vowed I would not let them "win" and so I have actively rejected their attempts to saddle me with low self-worth, shame and other hang-ups that would seek to deprive me of my right to live a life of purpose and joy.

There are some things you cannot control, of course; having trauma affects your executive functioning. Therefore you may have issues with focus and follow-through. You may have an attachment disorder, such as feeling nervous and clingy in relationships, or conversely, being emotionally avoidant and finding it difficult to be vulnerable. Just being good to yourself. Do not allow that woman's voice to live rent free in your head. If you have an internal critic you have to tell it to fuck off, repeatedly. while inserting a new voice that says "I love and value myself completely."

I know, "Mary!" but seriously, I really want to make sure that you are okay. I hate that you had to endure that bitch. It is really upsetting. Sending you love through the ethers. xo

Holy fuck, R20. I'm glad you got that cunt out of your life. I'm sorry you had to go through such hell. You didn't deserve that.

R19- I laugh at a JD Vance’s dumpiness.

I'm unclear what exactly he's trying to say?

That we're LGBT+++ but we're not all the same? Did anyone ever think that?

However, there are profound experiences common among us in being a sexual minority and also public's perception or hatred of it.

I honestly think he's been so protected by his celebrity for over 40 years now that gay is so secondary and accepted about him. That's not the reality for everyone else.

Being gay shouldn't matter - well, tell everyone ELSE that! We wish it wouldn't but it does - almost every single day.

[quote]"Nobody gets to choose what color eyes they have, how big their penis is, how fat their arse is"

Apparently Boy's never heard of contacts, surgery, or working out

The results of cosmetic penis enhancement procedures are as pathetic as the motivation behind pursuing them. Maybe that’s what he meant.

[Quote] Please make him go away.

Do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry?

R20. I’m very sorry. She sounds terrible. Do you think she may have been taking a lot of what she had suppressed about your dad out on you?

Did she take advantage of your dad not being able to stand up for you because he had his own life to cover for or not face up to?

She never really fulfilled her promise after “Back to the Future.”

[quote]r18 I would much rather have Lea Thomas' opinion if she did irreparable damage to LGBTQ+++++++ or if she thinks of herself as a shero.

She never did really fulfilled her promise from “Back to the Future.”

^^^ Norm Crosby NLI

I was going to ask R22 if it is really straight people who complain about the closeted. But I have heard some nasty stuff about Aaron Rodgers. Apparently everyone is pissed at him.

Spill it, R34.

“Why doesn’t he come out of the closet? What a little baby!” etc etc.

It was more macho and ugly sounding.

R36 r37

She is an irrelevant bitter old kween. Of course we 💝 her.

Now if she'll only come out aganist Trans 🙏

R23, you’d make a great therapist

I've sort of been giving him a pass lately, and here's why...

I started watching episodes of The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour on YouTube.

(Shut up. Old game shows relax me)

On Match Game, whenever they want the answer to be "A Faggot," the celebrities all just use "Boy George" as a euphemism. "Dumb Dora is so dumb, she decided to ask ____ out on a date."

And so on and so forth.

Despite being very talented, he was still just a joke to a lot of people.

It had to be difficult such a punchline for so long. Warps your mind.

Honey! If there was ever a situation that was " the pot calling the kettle black " this would be it..

Boy George killed Michael Rudetski