Two stories came to my attention this week that really got under my skin. Both for similar and different reasons.

Firstly, is Australia's sweetheart with the 'Fro, Guy Sebastian.It seems since his win on Idol, he has been subjected to homophobic abuse. "Someone spray-painted the word 'faggot' on my car,'' Sebastian said and his Palm Beach house has been egged. Sebastian said he was offended by that word because 30 per cent of his friends were gay. "My house was getting egged, I was getting abused in the street.''

The 'Fro said he considered quitting singing altogether as he struggled to deal with the abuse.

What got under my skin about this, is that he says he is offended because he has gay friends (30% in fact), but his reaction is to run away from it all together. "I was thinking about just being a producer behind the scenes, running a studio, and not having to go on TV or deal with the public,'' he said.

There are 100's of thousands of Australians who deal with this sort of abuse on almost a daily basis and he is experiencing it first hand. I would have thought a more proactive stance would have been to go on the attack and do something about homophobia. If he cared about his gay friends (all 30% of them) and really was concerned, then why not show that by doing something positive and public about it. "I grew up playing footy, I worked as a forklift driver at a warehouse in Adelaide." he said, newsflash: lot's of young gay guys are doing just that AND dealing with the daily abuse.

Stringing Us Along. #2

Earlier this year Richie (real name Christopher) Stringini was outed in the most public (and most George Michael) of ways. A photo was taken of him, in a toilet, in a gay nightclub in Berlin, with a dark haired man nestled in his crotch. Richie's face was orgasmic to say the least. The photo was taken by a jealous queen who thought Stringini had gone into the cubicle with HIS boyfriend. The same jealous queen wanted to catch them "red handed" and have a picture to prove he was cheating.

Instead of just saying "OK, I'm gay, deal with it." and just getting on with the band, Stringini's management came up with the most implausible excuse since "I did not have sex with Monica Lewinski." The "official" story, as told by Richie himself on German national TV goes something like this. He was in a nightclub, which he didn't know was gay at the time and after 5 or 6 cokes he started feeling sick. So he went to the bathroom and vomitted. While he was vomitting he managed to take off his shirt. After being away for so long from his friends, another member of the band went looking for him and found him in a cubicle where he picked him up to take him out. The offending photo was taken while he was being picked up and was just really bad timing on Stringini's behalf.

What doesn't make sense and what no one has adequately explained is:
1. how was it Stringini didn't know it was a gay club, when he was there long enough to have 5 or 6 cokes. Surely all that semi-naked male on male grinding hip action, handbag music playlist and occasional drag queen would have given some clue?
2. how he was able to get his shirt off when he couldn't even get out of the cubicle without assistance?
3. why his left hand is on the guys head, preventing him from being picked up?
4. why are his pants off too?

So what burns me up about this? It's another case of closetted gay guy being manipulated into staying there because management are too afraid they will lose advertising dollars. As I have said in previous articles, much damage is done to young gay minds when other gay guys are publicly denying thier sexuality. Too many gay teens are killing themselves because they don't have any role models thier own age. When they see very clumsily handled PR like this, it just reinforces this internal hatred they have for themselves and how it must be better to lie. It makes you want to ask, who's interest to these people have in thier minds when they do things like this? Look for yourself, is this a "George Michael" moment?