This is one of those straight-outta-the-1950’s sort of stories that boggles my mind – seriously. For years now (and I do mean YEARS… like 30 of them) there have been ongoing, persistent, frequently refreshed and updated stories of John Travolta either being gay, or having been part of some sort of illicit affair with men – the most recent emerging just this past week. Every time one of these rumors pop up, a pack of angry, seething lawyers emerge and issue some sort of searing invective crying foul play, denying Travolta’s involvement in the affair-of-the-moment, and either suing for financial compensation for damages incurred because of such horrible and specious rumors, or demanding “publication of an unequivocal and prominent retraction of the false and defamatory statements.”
Now, this is where I start to get more agitated by this whole, ancient story. John Travolta’s sexual orientation, as far as I am concerned, is irrelevant. I truly don’t care. Nor do I care whether or not the stories of him stepping out on his wife to engage in these little bathhouse trysts are true. He certainly isn’t the first guy to be married and have kids, but also get a little man-on-man action on the side – God knows that men have been meeting for those purposes for thousands of years. What annoys me, however, is when his Scientologist Lawyers strike back at one of these rumors, they decry how awful, how libelous and defamatory they are. But are they SO terrible because the rumors are about him stepping out on his wife, or because they’re about him stepping out on his wife with a MAN?
My BS detector senses that if rumors were about him stepping out with another woman, they’d be far less vicious, far less serious and far less litigious. Most of the time, when celebrity stories of infidelities arrive in the tabloids, they get a brief cycle and then they die off within a day or two and the celebrity’s “people” don’t bother saying anything… unless they have some truth to them, a la Tiger Woods.
Next time a celebrity infidelity rumor pops up, keep an eye out on the reaction from the celebrity’s “people.” Most of the time, there won’t be any sort of response. But if that rumor is about them being gay, see who responds most virulently.
Where there’s smoke, I’m inclined to think there’s fire.
Les Sterling is an artist living in Seattle and a freelance contributor to Seattle Gay Scene.
