SubscribeI’ve had to quote a large chunk of the article because it’s all one big inseperable nugget of speculative homophobia. Here we go then, after the mini biography of Stephen Gately in A strange, lonely and troubling death . . .
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.
…33 year old men never die of natural causes?
Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one. Let us be absolutely clear about this. All that has been established so far is that Stephen Gately was not murdered.
Undisclosed and priveleged information must have informed this statement, otherwise it’s just pure speculation by a hateful and surprisingly (even for the Daily Mail) poor quality reporting.
And I think if we are going to be honest, we would have to admit that the circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy.
This is where the gayness killed him.
After a night of clubbing, Cowles and Gately took a young Bulgarian man back to their apartment. It is not disrespectful to assume that a game of canasta with 25-year-old Georgi Dochev was not what was on the cards.
Cowles and Dochev went to the bedroom together while Stephen remained alone in the living room.
What happened before they parted is known only to the two men still alive. What happened afterwards is anyone’s guess.
2 or 3 gay men in an apartment together? How can we not assume one of them WASN’T FUCKED TO DEATH.
A post-mortem revealed Stephen died from acute pulmonary oedema, a build-up of fluid on his lungs.
Caused by gayness?
Gately’s family have always maintained that drugs were not involved in the singer’s death, but it has just been revealed that he at least smoked cannabis on the night he died.
Can cannabis cause pulmonary oedema? I don’t know, you don’t seem to either. But as he at least smoked cannabis and is gay with 2 other men nearby so it must be shenanigans.
Nevertheless, his mother is still insisting that her son died from a previously undetected heart condition that has plagued the family.
Preposterous! Stephen’s mother is clearly ignoring the gay connection!
Another real sadness about Gately’s death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.
Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages. Not everyone, they say, is like George Michael.
Of course, in many cases this may be true. Yet the recent death of Kevin McGee, the former husband of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and now the dubious events of Gately’s last night raise troubling questions about what happened.
This is disgustingly homophobic. I can’t even bring myself to be flippant about it. To insinuate that the two incidents points to a trend amongst homosexuals, that gay marriage is riskier to life than heterosexual marriage, is not only very poor journalism, but shows the author to be hateful or stupid (or both).
It is important that the truth comes out about the exact circumstances of his strange and lonely death.
This is true. It’s also important to not make rampant inflammatory speculations based on FUCK ALL EXCEPT THE NUGGETS OF BULLSHIT RATTLING AROUND IN YOUR BRAIN.
As a gay rights champion, I am sure he would want to set an example to any impressionable young men who may want to emulate what they might see as his glamorous routine.
What the fuck are you talking about?
For once again, under the carapace of glittering, hedonistic celebrity, the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see.
ALL DEATHS ARE SUSPICIOUS ESPECIALLY IF THEY INVOLVE GAY CELEBRITIES. What would be really sad if there were any scandalous details to come out about Stephen Gately’s death, is that this ‘journalist’ would probably feel vindicated, and no doubt tell everyone about it.
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NINJA UPDATE: Why There Is Nothing ‘Natural’ About Jan Moir’s Weird Face – flawless victory
I know The Daily Mail is an easy target…but the assertions that this, um, journalist makes would be hilarious if they weren’t also so offensive. Maybe she’s a qualified forensic detective, or coroner. If she is then it has still taken some impressive leaps of insight based on a few piece of information. If she isn’t then it’s incredibly bad journalism.
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UPDATE1: Jan Moir responds to criticism of her Daily Mail article on Stephen Gately
”Some people, particularly in the gay community, have been upset by my article about the sad death of Boyzone member Stephen Gately. This was never my intention. Stephen, as I pointed out in the article was a charming and sweet man who entertained millions.
If you don’t understand why you’ve upset people then perhaps you should choose your subjects more carefully.
”However, the point of my column-which, I wonder how many of the people complaining have fully read – was to suggest that, in my honest opinion, his death raises many unanswered questions. That was all. Yes, anyone can die at anytime of anything.
Oh don’t worry, we all read it. This isn’t one of those people being offended on behalf of something they haven’t witnessed scenarios.
However, it seems unlikely to me that what took place in the hours immediately preceding Gately’s death – out all evening at a nightclub, taking illegal substances, bringing a stranger back to the flat, getting intimate with that stranger – did not have a bearing on his death. At the very least, it could have exacerbated an underlying medical condition.
YOU JUST SUMMARISED AND REPEATED WHAT IS OFFENDING EVERYONE. ARE YOU A FORENSIC MEDICAL EXPERT? NO? THEN STOP PULLING ASSUMPTIONS OUT OF YOUR ARSE.
“The entire matter of his sudden death seemed to have been handled with undue haste when lessons could have been learned. On this subject, one very important point. When I wrote that ‘he would want to set an example to any impressionable young men who may want to emulate what they might see as his glamorous routine’, I was referring to the drugs and the casual invitation extended to a stranger. Not to the fact of his homosexuality.
How noble of you to use the death of Stephen Gatley to warn the youngsters against the dangers of cannabis and inviting people back to your flat, particularly when there is no evidence that either of those things had anything to do with his death.
In writing that ‘it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships’ I was suggesting that civil partnerships – the introduction of which I am on the record in supporting – have proved just to be as problematic as marriages.
So you were dutifully exposing the myth that civil partnerships are happier than marriages, making sure that we were all aware that they’re just as liable to go bad as same sex marriages? Er…thanks? Again though what has this to do with Stephen Gately’s death?
“In what is clearly a heavily orchestrated internet campaign I think it is mischievous in the extreme to suggest that my article has homophobic and bigoted undertones.”
Yeah loads of people all agreeing that you’re out of line must be a conspiracy.
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UPDATE2: Why there was nothing ‘human’ about Jan Moir’s column on the death of Stephen Gately – Seems I haven’t overreacted.
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UPDATE3: “We are no longer accepting comments on this article.”
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UPDATE4: Stephen Gately debate dominates the internet
Thousands have been moved to comment on Moir’s column after she wrote in last Friday’s paper about the circumstances surrounding the star’s death in Majorca, when he and his civil partner invited a Bulgarian man to their flat.
Not so much a debate as wave of revulsion at the snidy article.
The Press Complaints Commission has received more than 1,000 complaints and one complaint has been made to the Metropolitan Police.
Over a 1,000 you say?
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UPDATE5: Jan Moir: more than 21,000 complain to PCC over Stephen Gately piece
21,000 complaints. Well, I guess it is over 1,000. Reminds me of Sachegate when the DM reported over 5 billion people complained to the BBC.
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UPDATE6: Irish Daily Mail disowns Jan Moir