Carrie fisher outs john travolta biography

Should it matter if John Travolta is gay? It shouldn’t, no. To say it shouldn’t, however, is not to prove that it doesn’t. In his industry, for all its liberal and progressive grandstanding, the perceived sexuality of leading men does matter, because it is believed that it affects the bottom line. Most important of all, John Travolta doesn’t want the public to know/believe/think that he’s gay.

That alone ends the story, in ethics terms. Revealing this aspect of a private life that the actor has chosen to keep private is entirely his decision to make, and nobody should force him to make it, or make it for him. Therefore, what did actress Carrie Fisher, Hollywood kid, writer, “Star Wars” icon, and former bride of a gay man, think she was doing when she told the Advocate, in response to a question about Travolta’s legal maneuvers against a website that published a story about his alleged gay lifestyle…

“Wow! I mean, my feeling about John has always been that we know and we don’t care. Look, I’m sorry that he’s uncomfortable with it, and that’s all I can say.”

Presumably, she was trying to defuse the issue for him. Being gay is no big deal, she was suggesting, and being called gay isn’t an insult or a slur. Why behave as if it is one? These are good questions, but need to be raised in the abstract, not in defiance of a fellow performer’s autonomy. Until Travolta goes public with his sexual orientation, it is not the proper role of Carrie Fisher or anyone else among his friends and associates to out him. “Everyone” knew Jodie Foster was gay for decades, but the Hollywood community respected her right to present her public image as she chose, just as it did past gay performers like Rudolph Valentino, Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Marjorie Main, Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, Robert Reed, Sal Mineo, Raymond Burr and too many others to list. Though Fisher is sufficiently sophisticated, tolerant, open-minded, caring and intelligent to conclude that it “doesn’t matter” to her, this still cannot make it fair, respectful or responsible to make a life-altering decision for John Travolta, who also has a wife and children who have a stake in the decision as well.

It will be a happy day when no actor feels that revealing his or her sexual orientation will harm professional relationships, public images and box office receipts. That day is obviously not here, however, and to the extent that John Travolta’s life and career are involved, the decision to be out or not remains his alone. It was wrong for Carrie Fisher to presume to make the decision for him.

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Pointer: Salon

Source: The Advocate

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