I went to see him doing a showcase gig in Whelans a few years ago for his first (his only?) post-Westlife solo album and I think that's what swung it for me. The audience was full of two kinds of people - on one side was his family and the other was a crowd of people (including me) who got in on the promise of free booze and who spent most of the gig laughing at him. One song was some sort of apology to his kids for leaving their mother (possibly the only smart thing he ever did) and I still crack up at the memory of him emoting to an audience of laughing cynics. In the middle of all my derision though I started to think that maybe he really believed all the stuff he was singing and that, while we were laughing at him, he was up there giving it a go and trying to stick it to the begrudgers.. And being the kind of chap who loves an underdog, I started to warm to him a bit..
Now it turns out he's a homophobe. Except I don't think he is really. On a radio show he was co-hosting in New Zealand, he was having a conversation about whether it was acceptable for men to wear pink. In a moment of real madness, in a response to a caller who claimed that pink is really just a variation on red, he said the following:
"Saying pink is a form of red is the same as saying that homosexual is a form of male"
What?! Seriously, I heard that today in the office and laughed. What on earth does it even mean? I really don't think he knew what he was saying and I certainly don't think it marks him down as a homophobe. I've listened to the clip online (and you can here) and his point (in as much as he had a point - it sounds like he's just jibber-jabbering really) is that it's unacceptable for real men to wear pink. That if you wear pink you are possibly telling the world that you might be homosexual. He isn't saying he hates gays or that homosexuals are going to hell. In fairness, he does say that in ye olden days it was frowned upon to be gay and that the church would burn you at the stake. But he doesn't say that he's ok with it or any such thing, not that stopped the papers from jumping up and down and calling him names..
Anyway, here's a thing. I know people who react to seeing men wearing pink by making a joke about him being gay. There - I've said it. I don't know where it came from but it's a concept that's been around for years. Is it an Irish thing? I know people who think they can tell by the way a man walks whether he's gay or not. I have friends (girls actually) who swear they know by how a man slices bread. I even know one very intelligent woman who claims you can tell a man is gay by the shape of his head. I almost believe her! My point is that people make comments like that all the time. Does it offend gay people? It can't, can it? I work with a gay man who makes far more offensive comments every day about being gay than McFadden could imagine but nobody is offended. He says some choice things about straight people too but that's by the by. And if a gay man (let's say Graham Norton or Elton John for example) made the comments that Brian McFadden did, nobody would say a word. Why? Because it would be knowing and self-aware and, sure aren't the gayers great lads for making jokes about themselves, and all that etc..
Of course he did say that thing about homosexuality not being 'a form of male' but really, it was barely a fully constructed sentence, never mind the madness of a gay-hater. It suggest to me that rather than having hatred in his heart he just has a bit of foot in his mouth. And believe me, when you're co-hosting on the radio that's a very easy thing to do..
I could get behind (fannarrr) the gay community over that Heinz gay ad nonsense in June but if they're going to get offended by this they're on their own. Them and their pink shirt wearing, funny walking, round-faced, bread-slicing friends!
And oh, look at this!
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