Sunday, October 18, 2009
Weekend Lull
Friday, October 16, 2009
Where have I been?
Consider the way it has been largely reported, as if Gately had gently keeled over at the age of 90 in the grounds of the Bide-a-Wee rest home while hoeing the sweet pea patch.
The sugar coating on this fatality is so saccharine-thick that it obscures whatever bitter truth lies beneath. Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1220756/A-strange-lonely-troubling-death--.html
I understand her intentions. I honestly do. I can't stress that enough. After all, a fit 33-year old man does not just die without there being some sort of foul play unless he had an underlying medical condition. Take a look at Michael Jackson. We all know how fit he was, we've seen the way he dances. So of course there's no way he can just up and die the way he did. Everybody immediately suspected something wasn't right. And we were all correct. Michael had a plethora amount of drugs in his system. So, when it comes to Stephen Gately, are we to assume he just went out for a night, had a few drinks, came home, went to bed never to wake again? Definitely not and that's all Jan Moir was really saying.
However, at the other end of the spectrum, the choice of words and structure she used definitely paints an image that all homosexual's indulge in extreme decadent activities that can result to death. Just because he and his civil partner invited a man to their flat doesn't suggest any out-of-the-ordinary happenings. Maybe they fancied the man for his personality and thought he could become a great friend. Maybe they knew he was too drunk to go to his own place and invited the man to theirs because it was closer. No one really knows what happened that night except for Stephen, his partner, and the man, but to assume his death was related to the private events of the night is uncalled for.
The fact of the matter is, Stephen was a brilliant talent, whom I only discovered a few years ago as his success was limited to the UK, who left a mark on those who knew his music and knew him personally and he will be missed.
R.I.P. Stephen Gately
