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Did Michael support gay rights?

Dunk96

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As the title suggests,this is one of the few things I never knew about Michael. Did he support gay rights? I know Michael wasn't fond of drag queens (as evident in the Rabbi tapes done in 2000-01),but did he ever speak of supporting gay people?

I'm just curious,because as being a gay person myself and loving Michael so much,I was just wondering. I know Janet does (as evident by many songs from her catalogue of music) and I'm also sure Latoya does as well.

Thanks.:girl_pride:
 
I think maybe his personal upbringing/religious beliefs might have made him have some preconceived notions at first, but as with all things in MJ's life - he definitely grew to think for himself. And i think as with all things, he adapted the policy of love and acceptance on this issue as well.
 
I always thought his back up dancers were gay. So i assumed yes, but Im not sure if they were. can anyone confirm ?
 
Drag queens are pretty annoying tbh, but i'm sure Michael wouldn't hold a grudge over people just because of there preferences of love.
 
Michael Jackson Quote, "I'm not Gay, I'm not bisexual, I'm not Curious but I Love and Respect the Gay life Stile Nonetheless. And Barber Walters interviewed MJ and asked him if he was Gay, and he said he would answer that question off camera, and he told her he didn't want to hurt his Gay fans feelings but that he was not Gay, and if they wanted to think he was Gay he was fine with that.
 
I have no idea and I don't think he ever said anything about this, but knowing him I think he respected gay people and maybe gay couples too, but I don't know honestly.
 
mdiegee210;4041978 said:
Michael Jackson Quote, "I'm not Gay, I'm not bisexual, I'm not Curious but I Love and Respect the Gay life Stile Nonetheless. And Barber Walters interviewed MJ and asked him if he was Gay, and he said he would answer that question off camera, and he told her he didn't want to hurt his Gay fans feelings but that he was not Gay, and if they wanted to think he was Gay he was fine with that.
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Maybe it happened with Barbara Walters as well, but it was Steve Ivory who said this:

When I grew up and started writing, I myself made onto the pages of Jet: in 1977, I interviewed Michael Jackson at the Jackson family home for Soul Newspaper when rumors were swirling that he was Gay. So I asked him point blank. A previously talkative Jackson sitting in front of me suddenly paused. Then his eyes went down to the cassette recorder in my lap. “Turn off the tape recorder,” he said quietly.
I did as he requested. Jackson said no, he wasn’t Gay, but that he didn’t have anything against Gays and said he knew lots of Jacksons fans were Gay. He said he didn’t want to be recorded in case someone might misconstrue his answer as being anti-Gay.
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http://www.eurweb.com/2014/05/steven-ivory-a-world-without-jet-magazine/

I think he accepted gay people as he loved people of all color, creed or sexual orientation. He also worked with a lot of gay people: Michael Peters, Vincent Paterson. Michael Bush and Dennis Tompkins were a gay couple. Arnold Klein. Etc. etc. On the other hand I also think he was influenced by his religious upbringing. While he made Steve Ivory switch off his tape to say he was not gay, a couple of years later he said something about the Bible saying homosexuality was wrong. I do not remember the exact quote but he was referring to the Bible. Well, unless the quote is made up. I do not remember the source. But I do not think judging people was in his nature, I think that came from his religious upbringing and I think later in his life he started to think for himself as J5master put it and re-evaluated a lot of teachings of the Jehova's Witnesses.

As for gay rights. I don't think that topic was much on his radar. I cannot think of any example of him mentioning gay rights. I think there are artists who are more into that topic than MJ was.
 
Zakk said:
Drag queens are pretty annoying tbh, but i'm sure Michael wouldn't hold a grudge over people just because of there preferences of love.
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Excuse me? You're talking to a drag queen/female celebrity impersonator right now. Wow okay.
 
I'm not for sure if Michael does or not, but I do know that he has gay fans which he didn't mind at all.
 
I think if Micheal had supported gay rights we would know about it.And I didn't know that he had had so many gay friends.Tom Masserau said that Michael had told him that he was straight and I hope it's true.
 
kate100 said:
I think if Micheal had supported gay rights we would know about it.And I didn't know that he had had so many gay friends.Tom Masserau said that Michael had told him that he was straight and I hope it's true.
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Why do you hope it's true, why would his sexuality matter?
 
I think we can all agree that MJ was straight (as he said so and we should respect that identification), that MJ loved his gay fans. MJ supported the rights of all people, and did not condone discrimination of any kind. I find it extremely hard to believe that even though he never said "i support gay rights" - that he would oppose people loving each other in any way. I do believe that he was 1) raised old fashioned in a lot of ways and perhaps that made him hesitant to speak out at all about it/didn't want to offend and 2) didn't want to get involved in politics and gay rights was a political issue.

Plus, IMO, I have to admit that he did play a bit with androgynous-ness in his art (not that this automatically makes you gay, but I think its relevant in this discussion). I think he found aesthetic beauty in it (as I do, being completely straight). And this is based on his style choices and people's work he had admired. And yes, as mentioned, many people he worked with had been gay. Some of his close friends as well.
 
Tony R said:
Why do you hope it's true, why would his sexuality matter?
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I think she hopes that because, if it turned out that Michael WAS gay (or bi), then it would feed into the egos of all the people who bashed and trolled the fans for years saying he was gay. They would be crowing "We told you so, we told you so, neener neener neener!" until the end of time. Not to mention it could cause people to think "If THAT was true about him, then maybe the other stuff in his life was true too (molesting children, etc)."

Mind you, this isn't saying that him being gay would be bad, because it wouldn't. It would just be bad in terms of feeding the haters.
 
I would imagine he was. If anything, he was very sheltered by a lot of things, so he early on he may have had preconceived notions about things (not to mention he was raised with all that religious nonsense).

But he was never really open about anything political or social issues (outside of safe ones like world peace, environment, etc.).

Zakk said:
Drag queens are pretty annoying tbh, but i'm sure Michael wouldn't hold a grudge over people just because of there preferences of love.
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Nahh. A lot of them are hilarious.

Also, "their preferences", not "there preferences". One day you'll get it.
 
AtlasAir said:
If anything, he was very sheltered by a lot of things, so he early on he may have had preconceived notions about things (not to mention he was raised with all that religious nonsense).
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See, and that is quite a misconception about Michael Jackson. Why do people perpetuate that he was brought up so "sheltered"? He performed at strip clubs as a child and saw drag queens then!! How many people can say that about their childhood??? There is an interview of the Jackson 5 where you can see Michael sitting in the back reading Playboy magazine and no one is stepping in and asking him not to, but that is just a harmless anecdote compared to what he has described witnessing in his autobiography. So yeah, sheltered and naive are not the words I would use to describe Michael Jackson.
 
I think he did. He seemed to have this thing about not wanting to step on people's toes. Piggybacking on what another member previously said, there was an older report, it may have been from the 70's, and the reporter also asked Michael if he was gay. He more or less said, off-record, that even though he himself wasn't gay, he knew that he had gay fans and didn't want to make them feel put out by publicly proclaiming his heterosexuality. He may have never been in any Pride parades lol, but I think his heart went out to all his fans/people at large, no matter how they personally lived their lives.
 
I thought he supported everyone regardless of their sexual preference. people sexuality never came into it :heart: Lov3 you Michael
 
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PurdyYungThang84 said:
I think he did. He seemed to have this thing about not wanting to step on people's toes. Piggybacking on what another member previously said, there was an older report, it may have been from the 70's, and the reporter also asked Michael if he was gay. He more or less said, off-record, that even though he himself wasn't gay, he knew that he had gay fans and didn't want to make them feel put out by publicly proclaiming his heterosexuality. He may have never been in any Pride parades lol, but I think his heart went out to all his fans/people at large, no matter how they personally lived their lives.
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wendijane said:
I thought he supported everyone regardless of their sexual preference. people sexuality never came into it :heart: Lov3 you Michael
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^^^ Both of these :D

I know this doesn't help give any answer as a solid fact, but it is just my own personal opinion. I can't imagine this was anything he was against. Michael's message was love. Period. He never said "love between a man and a woman", just love each other. And accept each other for who we are. As someone who spent his entire life being judged, I can't imagine he would have judged others- he just does not strike me as that kind of person.

But again, this is just my personal opinion.
 
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