"Some people are gay. Get over it!". Thus declared the slogan of a T Shirt modelled by Dannii Minogue in a recent high profile campaign by Stonewall, the gay rights organisation. Ms Minogue takes her position as a role model for young people, gay or straight, very seriously. Undoubtedly she is aware that there is an enormous lack of positive role models for young gay people in the British public eye. When Danyl Johnson, a primary school teacher, followed his headline-grabbing X Factor first round audition by unapologetically admitting his bisexuality to a national newspaper, it seemed he could be a prime candidate to fill such a role. As he progressed to the live finals of the show, and was rewarded with the chance of spending every weekend until Christmas performing in front of Britain's biggest television audience, this possibility became ever more likely.
Only one thing stood in his way. It's name was The X Factor, one of the media's prime culprits in projecting an image of a world where homosexuality is at best trivialised and desexualised and more usually simply denied. Dannii Minogue is aware of this and probably deeply frustrated by it. So on Saturday, when Danyl performed a song usually sung by a woman, and changed (whether by request or instruction) the gender references from "man" to "girl", we can imagine how she felt. This was an active move to avoid the unthinkable scenario of a man singing a love song about another man in front of mainstream audience. Dannii clearly saw the measure as plainly ridiculous, and knowing how openly and publicly Danyl had expressed his sexual preferences, chose to playfully question the decision. It backfired.
The accusation that Dannii's remark was homophobic is simply absurd. But many people who understand this are still complaining that she had no right to raise the issue of Danyl's sexuality in public. They say it is irrelevant to his performance, and unfair to bring into the equation. But to everyone who is asking "Why bring his sexuality into it?", I would like to ask them what I believe is the more important question: "Why leave his sexuality out of it?".
Contestants who appear on the X Factor are not only judged on musical ability. We pore over their dress sense, background, age, occupation, home town, and everything in between, in order to decide what we think of them. So do the judges. How ridiculous would it be if the show decided to create the impression that every contestant was 17 years old, because this was deemed to be the optimum age to appeal to voters. Would we sit and watch 34 year old Jamie Archer perform I Will Always Love you in the "Songs from the year of your birth" round, and become outraged if Simon Cowell dared to question the propriety of doing so? After all, Jamie may have admitted his age on the X Factor website, but what about people who only watch the show - they may have no idea that he is - ugh - 34. How embarrassing for him to have this revealed live on national television.
Equally ridiculous scenarios can be imagined with regard to contestants' nationalities, professions. but not sexualities. When it comes to sexuality, all X Factor contestants are portrayed as emphatically heterosexual, asexual at best. Danyl Johnson has never shown any desire to be portrayed as emphatically heterosexual. Danyl Johnson has expressed no embarrassment or anger at Dannii's comment - indeed, his immediately reaction was to declare "I'm not ashamed", before a far more personal attack from Cheryl Cole reduced him to tears. This is what makes him such a prime candidate to be a role model for young gay people across the country. Indeed, this young gay person sees Dannii and Danyl emerging from the whole affair as the same positive role models they always were, or were becoming. It is the reaction from the media and the public, not to mention the show itself, which has let me down.
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