[News] Stephen Gately dead

[EvilElvis]

Jan Moir of the Daily Heil has had her say...

The news of Stephen Gately's death was deeply shocking. It was not just that another young star had died pointlessly.

Through the recent travails and sad ends of Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and many others, fans know to expect the unexpected of their heroes - particularly if those idols live a life that is shadowed by dark appetites or fractured by private vice.

There are dozens of household names out there with secret and not-so-secret troubles, or damaging habits both past and present.

Robbie, Amy, Kate, Whitney, Britney; we all know who they are. And we are not being ghoulish to anticipate, or to be mentally braced for, their bad end: a long night, a mysterious stranger, an odd set of circumstances that herald a sudden death.

In the morning, a body has already turned cold before the first concerned hand reaches out to touch an icy celebrity shoulder. It is not exactly a new storyline, is it?
In fact, it is rather depressingly familiar. But somehow we never expected it of him. Never him. Not Stephen Gately.

In the cheerful environs of Boyzone, Gately was always charming, cute, polite and funny.
A founder member of Ireland's first boy band, he was the group's co-lead singer, even though he could barely carry a tune in a Louis Vuitton trunk.

He was the Posh Spice of Boyzone, a popular but largely decorous addition.

Gately came out as gay in 1999 after discovering that someone was planning to sell a story revealing his sexuality to a newspaper.

Although he was effectively smoked out of the closet, he has been hailed as a champion of gay rights, albeit a reluctant one.

At the time, Gately worried that the revelations might end his ultra-mainstream career as a pin-up, but he received an overwhelmingly positive response from fans. In fact, it only made them love him more.

In 2006, Gately entered into a civil union with internet businessman Andrew Cowles, who had been introduced to him by mutual friends Elton John and David Furnish.

Last week, the couple were enjoying a holiday together in their apartment in Mallorca before their world was capsized.

All the official reports point to a natural death, with no suspicious circumstances. The Gately family are - perhaps understandably - keen to register their boy's demise on the national consciousness as nothing more than a tragic accident.

Even before the post-mortem and toxicology reports were released by the Spanish authorities, the Gatelys' lawyer reiterated that they believed his sudden death was due to natural causes.

But, hang on a minute. Something is terribly wrong with the way this incident has been shaped and spun into nothing more than an unfortunate mishap on a holiday weekend, like a broken teacup in the rented cottage.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A post-mortem revealed Stephen died from acute pulmonary oedema, a build-up of fluid on his lungs.

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.

Nevertheless, his mother is still insisting that her son died from a previously undetected heart condition that has plagued the family.

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.

It is important that the truth comes out about the exact circumstances of his strange and lonely death.

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.

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.

[Jenpot]

So has Charlie Brooker - Link.

The funeral of Stephen Gately has not yet taken place. The man hasn't been buried yet. Nevertheless, Jan Moir of the Daily Mail has already managed to dance on his grave. For money.

It has been 20 minutes since I've read her now-notorious column, and I'm still struggling to absorb the sheer scope of its hateful idiocy. It's like gazing through a horrid little window into an awesome universe of pure blockheaded spite. Spiralling galaxies of ignorance roll majestically against a backdrop of what looks like dark prejudice, dotted hither and thither with winking stars of snide innuendo.

[convectuoso]

Go on Charlie.

Jan Moir is a hateful fucking cunt.

[ladysavage]

Derren Brown too

[Zooropa]

Read somewhere PCC site crashed, and there have been thousands (6000 according to one source) of complaints

[Jaemi]

Lotta band wagon jumping going on.
Very similar to the Brand/Ross Sachsgate from a few months ago.

Jaw droppingly stupid article, aye.
But there wouldn't have been such outrage if it wasn't for Brooker, Fry and twitter.

[the.definitive]

If you write an article like that you clearly want everyone to freak out about it.

[Zooropa]

Originally Posted by Jaemi

Lotta band wagon jumping going on.
Very similar to the Brand/Ross Sachsgate from a few months ago.

First part I partially agree with, second part not so.

[the.definitive]

"Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships."

I mean, seriously.

[Jaemi]

Originally Posted by Zooropa

First part I partially agree with, second part not so.

I mean the fact that there will be people seeking out things to be outraged about.
- "Did you read that article?"
"No I don't read the mail, I've never read her column before"
- "Well you should read it, it's terrible"
"I will do" > Reads.outraged.complains.

Same thing happened with the Sachs thing.

[Kenny Everett]

That's a kind of null and void argument, it's like people that like a band until they break and become famous. Suddenly it's not cool to like them etc.

Same here, it's an issue that's genuinely outraged a lot of people. Outrage isn't a bad thing, it shows people are understanding the actual problem with the article.

[Zooropa]

Originally Posted by Kenny Everett

That's a kind of null and void argument, it's like people that like a band until they break and become famous. Suddenly it's not cool to like them etc.

Same here, it's an issue that's genuinely outraged a lot of people. Outrage isn't a bad thing, it shows people are understanding the actual problem with the article.

That. Well, that and this IS actually something to like, give a shit about.

Also, don't totally agree the woman was setting out to write it to provoke this reaction.
That almost gives too much credit to the Daily Mail and Jan Moir.
Sure they write articles that will provoke certain groups - and they do revel in that - but having advertising pulled because of the content? Nah. I think she thought she might find sympathisers.
Daily Mail know it's a fuck up, they changed the initial headline.

Think Stephen Fry is right, she'll come out tomorrow playing on the internet co-ordinated plan to complain, and claim to be a victim of "cyber bullying".

[Zippy]

The Ross/Sachs thing was a fuck all event that bored housewives had nothing better to do than be outraged about.

This is just slightly different. I'm not outraged, the woman is a fucking idiot though.

Mind the Herald writer and the thing about Celtic fans and rosary beads? This is more like that than the Ross/Sachs thing.

[Rio Ohki]

Originally Posted by Jaemi

I mean the fact that there will be people seeking out things to be outraged about.
- "Did you read that article?"
"No I don't read the mail, I've never read her column before"
- "Well you should read it, it's terrible"
"I will do" > Reads.outraged.complains.

Same thing happened with the Sachs thing.

Some folk aye, some folk naw.

I wasn't happy with it, guy's Mammy hasn't even buried him yet, someone's in there for a spot of gay-bashing. It's no nice.

[EvilElvis]

Fucking hell, I just read another part of her column (Pumpkin Scone? Ugh!) The hypocrisy is amazing...

I've just returned from a girls' weekend in Scotland. In years gone by, we would have been up to the Plimsoll Line in chilled white wine by 3pm and have terrorised every eligible bachelor within a ten-mile radius of our rented cottage.

So, it's ok for Jan to go out, get pissed and chase men, but when Stephen does it, it's "Sleazy"