Political gay pop stars

Shalom, dear reader.

I've been trawling YouTube for the best part of the morning looking for my pop heroes of the 1980s, those political gays whose carreers relied on their outspoken politicisation of homosexuality.

So where did they all go?

We can't really count George Michael, as in the 1980s, he was neither gay, nor outspoken, nor political, unless you're counting Wham Rap (which I'm not). As for the others, it seems only Boy George, Jimmy Somerville and Andy Bell are still floating around in the gay ether. Sadly, they don't seem to be having chart his any more.

Pet Shop Boys are still going strong and they're still political. Sadly, gender politics and sexuality seem to be topics under their radar these days - and in the 1980s, although they were political, they were quite guarded and, let's face it, ambiguous when it game to their own sexual orientation.

It's a sad state of affairs that in the 200s, there are no gay pop stars singing about gay subjects/objects/topics and riding high in the charts because of it. Or is it a sad state of affairs? Is it a good thing? Do gay people have nothing to complain about any more? Or do record companies shy away from such controversy these days? Or can we claim that gender issues and sexuality are no longer contraversial?

I seem to be giving myself more questions than answers, but the fact remains: There are no gay people in the pop charts singing camp, same sex love songs or crooning over the inequalities gay people face in every day life or the prejudice associated with it.

It's time for a queer pop revolution! Robbie Williams simply MUST come out! Will Young MUST record a duet with a drag queen and Elton John MUST jack it all in!