Though so many celebrities these days like to peddle stories out of their private lives – everyone from Made In Chelsea and TOWIE stars to our very own Royal Family sells their private lives for money – I totally agree that some do deserve privacy. As much as we might want to know the literal ins and outs of the rich, beautiful and adulated people around us, we sort of know we shouldn’t. That’s why I totally get it when people say it shouldn’t matter if this or that celebrity has come out. It’s been alleged by her assistant in the court case against Tulisa Contostavlos that Simon Cowell is gay. Gareth Varey told Southwark Crown Court about a conversation he had with the fake Sheikh-turned-fake-film director Mazher Mahmood where he said that the X Factor supremo was gay.
Now, I don’t know what goes on in whichever grey sludgy part of Simon Cowell’s brain matter that deals with sexual desire, and I’m not sure I want to (incidentally, he has never given any indication, in any interview, that he's anything but straight), and it’s not that every person in the public eye has to skin themselves and unfurl the results onto internet-sized tables for the public to dribble at and pore over. But what if someone’s closeting is hypocritical, or a result of misleading the public? It’s not that outing Cowell would be a way of shaming him; but he’s shown himself to be so robustly heterosexual, posing for Athena–like photos with his girlfriend Lauren Silverman and their baby, Eric, that it would be wrong for him to continue with a charade he’s used to make him more bankable.
Last week, Australian swimming champion Ian Thorpe came out, after years of denying he was gay. In a tearful interview with Michael Parkinson, he spoke of his difficulty with coming to terms with his own sexuality. Some commentators cried out that he shouldn’t have had to do that, and who gives a fuck anyway – but I think it was incredibly important that he did it.
Especially when his ex-teammate is now saying that one of the reasons that Ian retired earlier than expected was because he was so pent up about having to hide his sexuality. Grant Hackett, who won a silver when Ian got a gold in the Australia 2004 Olympics, wrote of his coming out in a blog post: 'I believe this was the major factor that led Ian to wrap up his career in his mid-twenties.'
If this is true, Ian's coming out has taught us that sexuality totally does matter, because when you have to hide it, it impacts negatively on the rest of your life. If only he’d grown up in a more supportive atmosphere and culture, maybe Australia’s champion would have won even more golds for the country's cabinets.
Fear of not being accepted for who you are is something that affects too many people, and not only LGBT people. As well as showing that Australia’s hero can be gay, Ian showed that it’s ok to be a bit confused at times – yeah, he did have girlfriends before, but so do plenty of men who go on to realise they’re gay. The same thing goes for women, loads will have slept with men, dated men and even married them before realising their sexuality. Confusion isn’t wrong, lying about it is.
Ian did the right thing by coming out and being honest where he’d previously misled not only himself but the general public, redefining his hero status way beyond a few laps around a pool. And the public’s ‘meh’ reaction to it proves that LGBT people are another step closer to acceptance in places we’re not used to seeing the; sports, parliament, anywhere outside of a sequin-glittered TV show. Maybe, one day, it won’t be that everyone’s presumed straight until they say otherwise – it gets tiring having to come out every time the question comes up – but to help us get there, we need people to stop being so bold with their lies.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.