It is hard in a media driven society to keep your business to yourself so it was not a big news flash when Jodie Foster, who I am a big fan of her work, decided to kind of come out during her speech for recipient of the THE CECIL B. DeMILLE LIFETIME Achievement award at the Golden Globe Awards.
Foster being a lesbian has been a long standing rumor among the children for years.
Foster's seven minute speech kind of rambled on but in there somewhere the Oscar Diva declared her love for her former life partner and their life together while simultaneously throwing shade at others who have been more open about their sexuality.
Foster shared, "Seriously, I hope that you're not disappointed that there won't be a big coming-out speech tonight, because, uh, I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the Stone Age, in those, uh, those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually, proudly, to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met. But now, apparently, I'm told that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a primetime reality show."
I came out during the late eighties which was during the height of the AIDS epeidemic. I saw how some of my older friends were taken too soon because they were casualties in a war no one even wanted to acknowledge. I have also served on the board for OutCharlotte for a few years and have worked with LGBT organizations as well as mentored LGBT youth so I am very much aware of the power of standing up and walking in your own truth.
As an African-American gay man I have far more to lose by being out and Gay than some Hollywood startlet.
I realize that the coming out process is a personal one but folks with higher profiles should rep that so that younger people looking up to them will see that it is OK. How you doing Clay Aiken?
While some folks were moved by Foster's speech other folks in the LGBT community were kind of over it. Foster who has worked very hard as a respected actress and director she has also enjoyed a life of privlege. It is amazing to me that it has taken her this long to "come out" in an industry that praises folk like Charlize Theron for playing a lesbian in her Oscar winning performance in "Monster." Yet you have a real lesbian who does not openly rep who she is.
I know folks like Ellen DeGeneres were like "actress please!"
Foster's speech to me seemed at times a bit disingenuous where she attempts to justify her years of closeted behavior as her right to privacy. I'm not talking about showing your honeymoon sex tapes girl, all folks are expecting is simple acknowlegement of your sexuality.
She definitely threw shade on the other gay folks in the room who have been more open about their sexuality. Foster goes on to share," But seriously, if you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you'd had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe then you, too, might value privacy above all else."
I guess Foster's seven minute speech would have been more meaningful to me and maybe other folks in the LGBT community if she had added two more simple words. I'm gay.
I can see both sides, I look forward to the day when being openly gay is so accepted that it becomes a footnote to a biography and not the headline, and considering someone tried to shoot Ronald Reagan to get her attention I think her being private is understandable.
Posted by: lyn thompson | 01/16/2013 at 01:52 AM