(no subject)

[unbibium]

Skeptic icon James Randi has "come out", as it were, at the age of 81.

When I found out about Ellen Degeneres, people started to act like that was the most interesting thing about her. I'd been following her acting and stand-up career, and figured maybe it was the third most interesting thing about her, especially when she was dating Anne Heche. Now she's a talk show host, and a pretty good one, and an American Idol host. Her sexuality is becoming less relevant over time.

When I found out about George Takei, I thought that might be the 20th most interesting thing about him, as I'd read most of his autobiography.

When I found out about Stephen Fry, I thought that might be the 50th most interesting thing about him. His life and works are so varied at this point that I'd thought of him as beyond sexuality altogether.

And when I found out about James Randi, I figure this won't even make the top 100, even if you factor in the rumor that he lived with the main character in his Carlos hoax for 20 years. This is the man who made it his mission to take down spoon-bender Uri Geller and humiliated him on the Tonight Show, who all but created Penn & Teller, who consulted for Alice Cooper's stage show, and on and on and on...

I don't know what I'm really measuring here, but it's something. It might even be used to measure straight people if used hypothetically. I'll explore this idea later; it's probably nothing.

Comments

[twillis.livejournal.com]

I kind of figure someday it'll be sort of like being left-handed is here today. Somewhat unusual, but not that big a deal.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The movement of the Overton window?

This is probably the most gratifying positive change in American culture in the past 20 years, that in significant chunks of the country people increasingly do not give a damn whether you're sexually attracted to people of the same or opposite sex.
Obviously there's a lot of reaction and many highly visible setbacks. But the thing that makes me think it's permanent is that, everywhere, there is a gigantic generational effect. The opposition is mostly old.

[jwgh]

An interesting detail to me was that he made the decision to come out after watching Milk. I haven't seen the movie but now I believe I will add it to my netflix queue.