Sam Stanley, 23, has become the first English pro rugby union player to come out as gay. His announcement follows Keegan Hirst’s coming out, which happened just a few weeks ago.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Stanley said,
“I was 10 or 11 when I realised I was different to my friends.
“I didn’t want to accept it, I felt that being different wasn’t right. I had a girlfriend and I was thinking that, like some people say, maybe it is a phase.”
Stanley went on to say: “Millions of people are in the situation, even people who have been in [his partner] Laurence’s situation and they are still married but are gay. They cannot accept it themselves.
“It is going to be an issue until more people and athletes come out, until it is not an issue at all. It might take years but hopefully lots of people will find the courage.”
Lily Rose’s has taken part in a new campaign that promotes inclusiveness and equality called Self Evident.
The campaign aims to photograph “10,000 people in the USA that identify as ANYTHING OTHER than 100% straight.”
The photographer behind the campaign, iO Tillett Wright, posted a photo of the 16-year-old model on social media saying,
“I’m so proud of my baby girl @lilyrose_depp,
“She decided she wanted to be in @selfevidentproject because she falls somewhere on the vast spectrum, and I couldn’t be happier to welcome her to the family.
“She’s a tiny gem of a good human. #prouduncle #weareyou.”
Today might go down in history as “gay sports day” as two sports stars came out as gay.
In the UK, Rugby player, Keegan Hirst, 27, came out exclusively to the Sunday Mirror, whilst over the US baseball rookie David Denson, 20, came out. Both are the first in their respective sports to have come out as gay during their careers.
“Talking with my teammates, they gave me the confidence I needed, coming out to them,” Denson told the newspaper. “They said, ‘You’re still our teammate. You’re still our brother. We kind of had an idea, but your sexuality has nothing to do with your ability. You’re still a ballplayer at the end of the day. We don’t treat you any different. We’ve got your back.’
“That was a giant relief for me. I never wanted to feel like I was forcing it on them. It just happened. The outcome was amazing. It was nice to know my teammates see me for who I am, not my sexuality.”
Hirst becomes the first British rugby player to come out as gay during his career. The 27-year-old, who told his wife just weeks ago he was gay, said,
“At first I couldn’t even say ‘I’m gay’ in my head, let alone out loud.
“Now I feel like I’m letting out a long breath that I’ve held in for a long time.”
Remarking on Hirst’s decision to come out as gay LGBT advocacy charity, Stonewall said his words were “powerful” and that his words “will inspire many”.
Former Rugby icon Gareth Thomas tweeted his support for Hirst saying,
First, let me start this off with my take on sexuality. This is only my personal view which everyone is entitled to. I believe sexuality is neither black nor white.
I don’t really think for me, personally, I believe in or take to being labelled. I am not bisexual, lesbian, or straight. I am a person who follows my heart. When I fall in love I let myself and will always let myself love who my heart tells me to. Isn’t it pointless to go against it anyway?
So before you go off with a headline saying Sonia Leigh the OUT country music lesbian stop there in your tracks. Let me make this clear, I am not a lesbian, straight nor bisexual musician. My sexuality has no bearing on my vocation. I am simply a musician/singer/songwriter.
I am also a woman who has happened to be deeply in love with women pretty much my whole life. But that is not the platform for my music at all. Yes, I’ve loved a man before and Yes, I’ve slept with men, not that it’s any of your business, but I’m making my point clear that I’ve let myself be myself.
Now, to the subject. I’ve been asked to write about how sexuality affects the Country music industry.
This is a touchy subject for Country music isn’t it? Relax, relax!
The world is changing and it seems to me a lot of older, traditional thinking persons are still in places of power all over the industry. This is changing because well, to be blunt people die. What everyone needs to keep their eye on is the fact that there is a new wave of people in the cigar seat calling shots coming in and that will continue to roll over every decade or so.
Your sons, daughters, and grand children have and are growing up with, going to school with, making best friends with, played sports with, and even gone to church with, people who are not what YOU consider normal.
I don’t hold this view against you; I think it’s about exposure. Of course, traditionalist are afraid of “gay” people or frown upon the different “alternative” lifestyles. The truth is you’ve been raised in an era where these sorts of things were not talked about or WERE talked about negatively. But really as time has passed these lifestyles are no longer alternative.
Bare with me, I am setting up my point. The subject matters and the genre of country music has changed a lot. It’s a big debate amongst the country music scene. We’ve really now formed sub genres in country haven’t we? Way to catch up with every other genre of music! It’s about time! Before we all freak out and go bashing it, why not embrace it? It’s wonderful! it’s music! How blessed we are to have so much music! It’s a gift!
Along with these changes in country music inevitably comes all sorts of artist who live “alternative” life styles (by alternative this means so much more than sexuality, mind you). Either way, whether you know about it or not, these different ways are real and they are there in the country music industry.
A lot of these people are actually are doing quite well for themselves and are out!
They’ve written and sing many of the number one country songs that YOU LOVE! They’ve made remarkable and very respectable names for themselves. So does sexuality affect the country music scene? Yes, but I don’t think it is relevant honestly. I think most people don’t care anymore. It’s no big deal. However, the music industry is a shark with an insatiable hunger.
Everyone always talks about the numbers. So let’s stick to that then if that’s the way you want to play the game. Let the numbers speak. Let the music speak. It shouldn’t matter what ones sexuality is. If the song is good and the artist is genuine and selling records shouldn’t they be played? Of course! Are they? A lot of times NO. The truth is the traditional big wigs in power are still the puppeteers. However, if a light bulb could go off and it clicked that people have to be exposed to things to become accustomed to them we would make some major, much needed progression in Country music.
One day a “gay” person will be your boss, or a major music program director (there are some out there by the way) will be the one calling the shots. Would you want he or she to judge your music because you happen to be married to, in love with or dating someone of the opposite sex? Not at all. That sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Tables turn and maybe I am optimistic in thinking change is coming. I think it’s already here and I am excited to be apart of it. I’m not an activist I’ve never really talked about my sexuality only because I’ve not really been asked.
For the record I don’t feel I’ve ever been directly discriminated against. Maybe I am the “Ellen” of country… Ha! It may be naive of me but if I’ve not been supported because of my sexuality or because I don’t dress sexy enough
(However I get told I’m quite sexy by men and women thank you very much) then that’s left on the conscience of the person who has robbed me of an opportunity I deserved. I don’t think that is something an article will change. BUT maybe it will and maybe that person is reading this and I’ve somehow made them see that the music is what matters. Period. Let’s keep it at that folks!
Having said all of that I am so excited I’ve been able to share my music here in the UK. I’ve called it the #mindthegaptour because I want to bridge all the gaps in music and that goes for UK artist to America and vice versa. Let’s open the doors and let some music in and celebrate life together. That’s what it’s really about in the end. Not numbers, hit records and money it’s about living life to the fullest and connecting with each other while we are given this gift of life!
Follow Sonia on Facebook | Twitter
Sonia Leigh plays at The Islington tonight Doors open at 7:30pm
Iranian-born Norwegian singer Tooji – real name Touraj Keshtkar – who represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 with the song Stay has just issued his latest music video.
He is as hot as hell which is where some say he may end up at after seeing him not just come out as gay but practically jumping a handsome priest in a church.
Have a glass of very cold water beside you before you watch this one.
It always makes me giggle when someone asks me how and at what age I came out. As I never really had to. I may as well have been born adorned in a rainbow flag, shooting side eyes at my dad’s hair style/fashion sense, and wearing placenta as a shawl. For me, coming out was a concept completely alien to me as there is no shadowing the fact that I am gloriously gay.
I can’t even begin to connect as to how difficult it has been, and still is, for people to come out to their family & friends. I had it very easy and I’m grateful and more for that. My dad was probably the only hurdle I encountered. I think it is generally the father that needs to… get over it, essentially.
He tried to tell me it was a phase. But I’m not sure how he ignored the following signs…
1) The five years I was absolutely obsessed with Barbie, Cindy, My Little Pony, Polly Pocket, and Sylvanian Families.
2) Aged four I insisted to dad that Wolf from Gladiators was my boyfriend (Don’t ask- I literally don’t know what I was thinking), to which he corrected me saying “No, I think you mean he’s your hero”. To which my response, quite adamantly was, “No. He’s my boyfriend”.
3) Kids at school had to write a letter to their favourite famous person. Whilst most kids chose The Queen, I naturally wrote to my wolfman declaring my love. Daddy was delighted when I brought that home. I assumed when he burnt it this was the method that all fan mail took, as the same ceremony would happen at Christmas with my letter to Santa, up in flames, up the chimney to be swept away to its destination. It’s only poetic to a point.
4) Aged four, I wanted to be a pop star. Guess who? Uh-Oh. Madonna! I asked if I could make my own pop video, so dad filmed me frolicking in a frock with mums pearls and granny’s long black wig to “Like A Virgin” and “Cherish”.
5) I always wanted the girls toy Happy Meals from McDonald’s. On one occasion, dad clutching my Barbie meal bumps into a business associate in there who says to him, “I thought you had a son?”.
6) My first record was Cher- The Shoop Shoop Song
At school I adopted a “deal with it or don’t” attitude. If anyone did have a problem, it went over my head. I think because I was so open and impervious by negativity it kind of left any “haters” nowhere to go.
If someone said “GAY” as I walked past, I would assume they were merely being observational. Any gossip I heard about me I just banked as “column inches”.
Most of the time people were too busy picking their jaws up off the floor as I confidently mince past with my shirt unbuttoned from the bottom revealing my belly button piercing, bronzed cheek bones and clutching my books American high-school girl style, headphones on blasting something Sugababes.
I think being a born and bred Brightonian made things easier too. As a young boy growing up with an abundance of gay people around you (in my family too), I never knew or thought of there being different preferences, or “boxes”, if you like. I never knew sexuality was such a big deal. What a wonderful world that was.
How it all changed as I emerged into adulthood to then be seeing and hearing of parents disowning their children, hate crimes, people living lies and keeping secrets for years. Humans don’t seem to have harnessed the ability to just “be”. There is constant questioning and requirement for tedious justification.
It should be nobody’s business, worry, or concern as to who we share our heart and body with. It should not be a question. It should not be a thought. I wish for a world where one day there are no coming out stories, because no one will care. A world where sexuality will be accepted as easily as to recognise the moon from a star. Unfortunately I believe my wish is akin to wishing for world peace…
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During last night’s episode of Big Brother UK, Manchester based law student Adjoa Mensah came out as gay to some of her fellow housemates. Which caused them all to question her.
We thought those days of coming out and causing shock were over, but apparently not in Big Brother, as demonstrated by the reactions from Big Brother housemates who couldn’t quite believe that Adjoa, 22, is gay. Despite never hiding the fact, housemates reacted with a variety of clichéd lines which included:
“You go gurlll… Are you really?” said Harriet Jackson, 22, in surprise.
“Do you know what I wouldn’t have guessed it though!” said Twin Amy Broadbent
“Have you ever been with guys?” chipped in her sister, Sally.
Adjoa shakes her head.
Kieran question: “Never ever? You can never rule it out then?”
Adjoa, whose first language is Dutch, took the questioning with good grace and replied: “That’ the one thing I don’t want to experience.”
To which Kieran replied: “Why?” and talked about how shocked he was about her revelation.
Adjoa who is also a committed Christian later went into the big brother to admit that she has a crush on Sarah saying: “Sarah is so lovely, and she’s hot and is just so sexy!”
When we wrote about Todd Haynes’s new movie ‘Carol’ that premieres this week at Cannes about two ‘straight’ women who fall in love, we knew that the project had been ‘in the closet’ for 15 years before it made it to the screen.
It turns out that now that it was not only thing in there too. In a very frank and wide-ranging interview with Variety Magazine the movie’s Cate Blanchett now admits that she has had her fair share of girl on girl action too off the screen.
When asked if this is her first turn as a lesbian, Blanchett curls her lips into a smile. “On film — or in real life?” she asks coyly. Pressed for details about whether she’s had past relationships with women, she responds: “Yes. Many times,” but doesn’t elaborate.
Like Carol, who never “comes out” as a lesbian, Blanchett doesn’t necessarily rely on labels for sexual orientation. “I never thought about it,” she says of how she envisioned the character. “I don’t think Carol thought about it.” The actress studied the era by picking up banned erotic novels. “I read a lot of girl-on-girl books from the period,” she says.
Ms Blanchett married to playwright and director Andrew Upton and mother of 4 children, has already been nominated for an Oscar six times (she’s already won for2004’s “The Aviator” and 2013’s “Blue Jasmine”) and the pre-Cannes buzz is that the new performance could net her another one.
UK based Vlogger Georgie, 16, has officially come out on YouTube on his one year anniversary of Vlogging in a video called simply, Coming Out.
During his 12-minute video, Georgie talks about his experience of coming out at school and the bullying he was subjected to. His torments were so bad after the news spread around his school, he said he had to get changed for PE/gym class, at a separate time from the rest of his male classmates and had to be escorted to the changing rooms by a teacher.
He posted the video along with this message:
“This video is in honor(sic) of my Channelversary, some of you may’ve known and some not. This was a very hard video for me to post, I’m not sad in this because I can now say that i’m happy and confident with who I am, I hope this helps some of you who are going through the same thing or something similar, just remember that you’re never alone. I hope you still support me, love you always x”
The irrepressible Clinton Leupp has been performing as the fabulously hilarious Miss Coco Peru for over 24 years now.
With his razor-sharp wit and those deer-in-the-headlights attention-grabbing eyes, his latest hit show ‘Have You Heard’ reaffirms his position as one of the best drag performers trotting around the globe these days. A storyteller, monologist, actor, singer, comic, entertainer, mentor and passionate gay activist, Miss Coco is sharp, sassy and sophisticated and has this remarkable natural ability to make sure that we all see the funny side of life. Outspoken and outrageous her one-woman-show in 2012 summed her up beautifully: it was called ‘She’s Got Balls’. When I caught up with Clinton after a recent performance the first thing that struck me was his wonderful warmth and his loud infectious laugh. He is unique in the fact that unlike most cutting and somewhat sarcastic drag performers he exudes happiness on and off stage and was a sheer joy to spend time with. Over a martini (or two) he shared his views of life, love and laughter with me for THEGAYUK.
Let’s start at the very beginning and talk about your ‘Coming Out.’
It may seem ridiculous to people who come to my show and see me wearing a dress and being as flamboyant as I am now, to think that I ever had to ‘come out’ in the traditional sense, but I did have to go through the same process just like every other gay man. There was a time when I was in a theatre programme in college and closeted and was constantly told to ‘butch up’. And for years I did try to be someone who I wasn’t, especially as I wanted to be accepted as an actor and you had to pass for straight back then as there was not that many gay roles.
When I was 23-years-old I had a boyfriend and we went to the Gay Pride Parade in Manhattan and I was in seventh heaven as I had never ever seen such a large and diverse crowd of gay people in one place. However, on the train on my way back home to the Bronx afterwards my elation quickly subsided and all my old fears and worries came rushing back. It was at that very moment that I decided that from now on I wanted to only be myself and that I wasn’t prepared to go back even part way into the closet.
I was very lucky as when I came out to my parents they were actually relieved that I was both healthy and happy especially as we had just lost my sister to cancer. I had all the usual fears and dread of coming out just like anyone else but it was only when I addressed them that life got better for me. Being effeminate in a working class area of the Bronx had been torture and I had been picked on and bullied during my entire childhood and adolescence. Now that I was an openly gay man I started to embrace everything I had learned to hate about myself. I was determined not only to accept this side of me but as Miss Coco I was going to dress it up and glorify it, and become the gay man who I chose to be.
There is something wonderful about owning who you are. I learnt then if people did not respect me, that it was of no consequence as they didn’t control me anymore.
How did Clinton Luepp morph into Miss Coco Peru?
I didn’t know anything at all about Drag and then I went to see the great drag icon Charles Busch in his play ‘A Lady In Question’ and I was completely mesmerised. I could see that he and the entire cast were having THE best time EVER. And that included Julie Halston playing Countess Kitty in the same broad Bronx accent that the college had insisted I lose. I just thought, I want to do what Charles is doing and in my own voice and style.
I’m a great reader and all through my life books have a habit of arriving in my library at the exact moment I have needed them. It was at this time that I came across one about a Native American called ‘Two Spirits’ which was all about being a third gender. When I read that I thought ‘Oh My God’ this is it. In my life until then I had been searching for something that I could truly identify with, and now I had found it. I decided that I’m going to do Drag and I’m going to be this third gender. As soon as I said it, everything started falling into place. It felt like my calling and that I had found my vocation.
You once said ‘I’m not impersonating a woman: it’s just an extension of me.’
Well, I never intended Miss Coco to be a real woman per se because the stories I tell are all-autobiographical and so I’m often talking about when I was a little boy. So for me the goal when I started Coco was to confuse people a little telling his stories whilst wearing a dress. Then after a while I just wanted audiences to know the stories just by connecting to someone who was simply another human being.
You have a remarkable gift for observation, which comes through in the stories that you tell on stage, are they all true?
Yes, every one of them are based on my life. I have always been very resourceful at finding humour in everyday incidents right from the very beginning. My parents had me late in life so my childhood was spent amongst a group of old people who had grown up through WW2 and who had not had an easy life. They were all heavy drinkers and heavy smokers and as a little kid I became their bartender.
Really? (laughing)
Yes, I even went around with a tray emptying all the ashtrays, but I just adored them and I loved being there listening to this wealth of funny stories and jokes being surrounded by these wonderful larger than life characters.
Do you tell the stories straight as they happened?
Well, I do add a little spice to them naturally to bring out the funny element, and that seems to work. Sometimes so much that they appear so over the top that people will come up to me and say ‘You didn’t really physically chase that group of little old Indian ladies around Sydney Harbour because they were giving you the evil eye did you?’ And I have to say yes, it was all-true, which totally shocks them. (laughs)
Tell me the story behind your famous copper-toned hair, and the fact that you must be one of the few Drag Performers who never changes her wig.
When I first started performing I had a great big fussy Ann-Margaret wig but that was such hard work maintaining it and to be perfectly honest, it was a real drag. Then the moment I found my wig and had it styled with flip ups I instantly knew that this was perfect for Miss Coco.
I was always drawn to the silhouette that I adopted for Coco. I wanted it to be very long and sleek and not over the top as Coco never wears a lot of jewellery or glitzy dresses. It was to be sophisticated but understated and I wanted her to be different than what most people expect of drag. Coco and I are both very happy with how she looks and the one night I actually dared to wear a shorter version of the same wig people HATED it! (laughs)
Tell me about your breakthrough role in ‘Trick’ where in one small scene you ‘stole’ the movie and our hearts.
I was not originally meant to be in the movie at all but Jim Fall the Director is a good friend of mine, and asked me to help him out in the audition process. I ended up reading the Tori Spelling part whilst he tested potential male leads, and suddenly everyone told Jim ‘you’ve got to keep the Drag Queen in the movie’. So they wrote a part of me and were kind enough to allow me to rewrite my infamous bathroom monologue in my own voice. Some years previously somebody had actually tried to lure me into bed by saying ‘It’s Big It’s Beautiful …you’re gonna love it’ and I always knew that I would have to use that line in a performance one day.
How deliberately was it that you looked more like Tori Spelling than she did? (laughs)
When Tori flew to NY to audition, she had blonde hair. However when it came to filming she showed up on the set with red hair, and when Jim Fall tried to question it, her hairdresser said ‘honey, don’t touch her hair it will just fall out as she has dyed it way too often!’ We didn’t do a scene together so the penny never dropped until we saw the completed movie on the screen at Sundance, and I thought ‘Oh My God, we could have been sisters or something more tragic’. (laughs)
Did you ever imagine that this one small movie part would make such a major effect on your career and life?
Well, I remember the first time that I ever saw a gay movie and it impacted me so much I just hoped that one day I would get to be in one and help others feel the same way. And now 15 years later when young people come up and tell me that ‘Trick’ was the first movie that made them feel good about themselves and helped them come out, it makes me so very happy.
I never ever get tired of people shouting out “It Burns” * to me in the middle of the street. Anytime anyone wants to celebrate my work, I embrace and enjoy it, and I never ever take it for granted.
How much fun was it making the ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ movie with Jack Plotnick & Varla Jean Merman?
Actually, the first couple of days were not that much fun at all as in my own shows I am used to playing it for laughs but now I had to play a sad sack. The crew were laughing their pants off when Varla and Jack were acting, but looked so down and miserable when it was my turn as my role was a bit of a downer.
Confused, I phoned Jim Fall who just said ‘play it for real’ and that’s what I did, and I found the craziness in my character, and I was so happy with the result.
As were audiences as you all picked up Best Acting Awards for that. When is the sequel coming out?
Soon I hope. We have filmed it all and our director Richard Day is now doing the final edit.
Tell me about your experiences taking Miss Coco to London?
The thing I loved most about London were the audiences, and one of the best compliments I have ever had in my career was from one of the Soho Theatre staff who said ‘we love working your shows because people come in a good mood and leave feeling even happier.’
I got another different buzz when I was eating in Balans restaurant one night and the doorman recognised me and thought that he and I could do a version of the bathroom scene in Trick with me performing on him. I was very flattered but I am very married too. (laughs)
You love mentioning your husband Raphael often in your Show, and you always have such a wicked grin on your face when you do.
I was worried that being so happy would take away my edge, but it hasn’t and I can still be as cutting as the next person. Sometimes people want me to be miserable and bitter as they perceive that’s where real comedy is, but that just isn’t so. I am really fortunate that I have such a good husband who supports me and finds joy in my performance, and also I find some great comedy within our own lives. Like the time we first met his sister and he just happened to fail to mention that she was a naturist and we were all going to be naked (Laughs).
I’ve noticed that unlike most great comedians you don’t use Raphael as a comic foil as is the normal tradition.
I have never ever thought of that. I do play up the whole thing of him being from Spain where everyone is meant to be romantic, in the same way that I think British people are all so posh. But all you need to do is to take one trip to Southern Spain and see the Brits on holiday, and honey you soon realise they ain’t so posh at all. (Laughs) They can be just as trashy as the rest of us.
What’s next for you and Miss Coco?
I’m travelling all over with this new show, which I am dying to bring to London. I am collaborating with a composer on a new musical. Busy, busy, busy… but you know Roger, the reality is that I have a pretty great life regardless of whatever happens next.
One question I almost forgot to ask, did you really perform in a Nudist Colony?
Yes, but I was fully clothed (laughing). I have to tell you for a bunch of people who are meant to be free-spirited and relaxed, they really were not a fun audience. They were kind of limp!
But where did you look as you performed? (laughing).
Well, straight into their eyes naturally!
* ‘It Burns!’ is a warning about getting sperm in your eyes.
