It was 28th November 1999, and the occasion was a star-studded Gala at London’s Royal Albert Hall to mark the 10th Anniversary of UK gay-rights organization Stonewall. The MC for the night was Sir Ian McKellen and the headliners were Sir Elton John and George Michael.
This rather fabulous celebratory evening was mainly memorable for three things. As Sir Elton sang the Pet Boy’s Song ‘It’s A Sin’ he was joined by a line of chorus boy/strippers dressed as Boy Scouts which had the almost exclusively gay audience roaring, but which horrified both the right-wing Tabloid newspapers (ie the Daily Mail) and the Boy Scouts Association as they evidently claimed that scouts do not go around clutching their own groins in real life (!).
However what really brought the excited crowd to its feet that night (including queerguru) was the appearance of George Michael on stage who had finally ‘come out’ publicly as gay just the year before after his infamous visit to the mens bathroom in a Beverly Hills Park. Michael was grinning from ear to ear as he told us …….’you knew I would get here eventually, it just took longer than I thought‘.
He and Sir Elton finished the night singing a duet of ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’ and we all went wild. This was ‘gay royalty’ very publicly helping and supporting our community, and being shamelessly adored for doing so.
