I think that Jodie Foster’s coming out speech at the Golden Globes was irritating, defensive, and long past due. However, it was also raw and interesting — meaning that a coming out speech dominated the news of a major Hollywood evening. Her belated coming out makes it a bit easier for others to follow in her footsteps.
All we need now are the gays from the Space-o-tologist cult to come out and we’ve won the war.
The good news is that the stigma of homosexuality is falling away and it is no longer seen as social death or career suicide — so even people like Foster can step out. More good news: I really like her movies. So — welcome out Jodie. Now, if you can stop hanging out with that supreme asshole Mel Gibson I would like you even more.
GLAAD President Herndon Graddick:
“When one of the most critically-praised actresses speaks about her identity and relationships on one of the largest stages in the world, it shows just how much the tide has turned. Given Jodie Foster’s lifetime of achievements, this is a significant moment for LGBT visibility. As more and more high-profile LGBT people like Jodie speak openly, those who do not accept LGBT people will continue to fall behind the times.”
Mike Signorile’s column:
The defensiveness was there last night as she seemed to be trying to jab at us, the public, even while finally giving us what she believed we wanted, and while seeming to announce that she’s retiring. The responses on Twitter were as all-over-the-place as Foster’s speech itself. Some lauded her for saying she was “proud” and said she came out with “grace,” while others shrugged off Foster’s coming out as “too little, too late” and still others expressed anger and indignation for her casting it all as so private and never saying the “L” word.
Michael Musto, Village Voice:
I’m still trying to figure it all out (especially since, where I saw it, there was a weird sound glitch that cut out what she was saying for about 10 seconds–though I looked it up later).
All I can say is I love Jodie’s work and understand the pressures she’s been through since child stardom. Also, I’m glad she never faked an opposite-sex partner or tried to convince the public she was straight.
But instead of this cockamamie speech, she could have just said “Yep, I’m gay.” Twenty years ago.
Andrew Sullivan, his blog:
What unadulterated bullshit. She never came out until, very obliquely, in 2007. And virtually every coming out these days is low-key, simple and no-drama. I do not remember Anderson Cooper’s press conference, fragrance or reality show.
Deb Baer at Huffington Post
What do our readers think of her odd coming out speech?
Glad she finally affirmed what we’ve all known for a long time and yes I don’t why this is still ‘big news’. I don’t watch those award shows, I think they’re boring, so I can’t comment on if her announcement was irritating or not.
Wow, Bitter, Bitchy Queens whining and wailing about Jodie Foster not coming out earlier……so nice to see the understanding from gays who have zero clue as to what her life has been. I am constantly annoyed with the fauxtrage of the self-appointed gay luminaries who feel they are somehow the arbiters of when, how and in what gown one must come out.
To all the queers out there who have come out, good for you.
To all those who have yet to come out know this, you owe no one a damn thing, come out on your own terms.
To Jodie Foster, yeah, it took you awhile and let me say something that others in our community won’t say: Welcome and Enjoy everything this new freedom will bring you.
Sometimes I really hate gays and their presumption.
Oh yeah, just for the record, yes, I am a proud gay man.
She didn’t come out, she gave a speech confirming her “private life” is private, which implies that the lives of LGBTQ persons are inherently scandalous. This only encourages perceptions of our inequality. Nobody expects straights to hide their partners and spouses, lest they be accused of inappropriately gabbing about their “sex life.”
Glass closets are still closets.
How do I feel about Jodie Foster coming out at the Academy Awards? Bored and disinterested. Our community spends way too much time and effort fawning over celebrities.
And, why is this even news? Back in the 1970s, she co-starred in a Disney film where she was SO BUTCH that my partner and I both thought she was going to kiss the other teenage girl at the end of the film. That would have been, what, 35+ years ago?
I have to agree with Box Turtle Bulletin’s take. With everything she went through not just being a movie star but the never ending Hinckley mania I don’t begrudge her whatever choices she makes about her privacy. She never worked against LGBT rights while semi-closeted so whatever.
I disagree that one fundamentalist law about coming-out should be applied to all celebrities.
Jodie Foster is different from many celebrities: 1) She was involuntarily thrown before the public as a toddler, not as a willing young adult; 2) she has been stalked more than most fans; and 3) she endured Hollywood’s tomboy stereotyping of her for many years. So she is justified in defending her privacy.
I also disagree that celebrities are automatically required to expose their personal lives. If they are benefiting significantly from civil-rights advances, then certainly it would be nice of them to give something back to their community — if there aren’t extenuating circumstances.
Did Foster actually benefit from advances in LGBT rights — or did she actually lead those advances, through her portrayal of strong and independent women throughout her career, and through her emphasis on people rather than labels?
Finally, I strongly disagree that one must say “I am LGBT” in order to come out. “I am a label” does nothing to educate people about the reality of being someone who loves, parents, and forms families with other people of the same gender. In this respect, Foster is similar to many African-Americans who reject the “lesbian” and “gay” label in favor of more accurate descriptions such as same-gender-loving.
I saw a woman who has lived her life as honestly as possible under impossible circumstances. I love she came out of the single closet. Closets must be emptied every so often or the skeletons take over. :)
This was her retirement speech, her “I’m exhausted and I’m not going to do it anymore so lets get the air cleared” speech. I get it, oh yes I do.
So many things to think about and people fixate on Jody and her non-coming out speech. Sighs….
I wish Jody well in her new life. I hope she finds happiness.
It’s important to note this wasn’t a regular award won for a specific job well done, just “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”. So she went all over the place in her speech, because her entire life has been in the world of entertainment, and I’m sure it was all connected for her, though rambling for others.
She did mention celebrity life, that she doesn’t have access to our lives, but we have a telescopic lens on hers. Our perspectives are completely different. She won the award; the speech was hers. And she is more attractive than ever, may I say.
Well, I’m a lesbian and I’ve known for a long time that she is also. I found her speech confusing but have no problem with her not coming out in a more open way – her private life really is her business.
What I did not know is that she’s single. I think I’ll name my body pillow after her :)
I’ve been disappointed by all the nasty, bitchy comments I’ve seen all over the place about Jodie’s coming out speech. Each of us has the right to come out in a way of our own choosing and timing. Each of us is different. To criticize her for her particular coming out speech is cruel and dare I say it? Intolerant.
I think it is pretty sad that other LGBT people are judging her so harshly for the manner in which she “came out.” We all have had different struggles in our life and coming to terms with ones sexuality can be very difficult for anybody, let alone a major celebrity who’s life is constantly under a microscope.
For people to say she should have spoke differently to meet their political needs is highly incensitive at best. I know when I first came out at 37 I probably could have done many hings better. I could have come out earlier or I could have said things better to my friends and family, but you know what even though I may not have done it perfectly, nobody pointed that out to me, my friends and family just supported me, they didn’t attack me for what I said, how I said it, or for how long it took me to say it.
It makes perfect sense for Jody Foster to value her privacy. We can’t really understand what she’s gone through. She was always private, never did interviews about her personal life, never pretended to be straight, but was an important role model for free thinking women of a certain time period. I think she should be cut some slack. Maybe she could have done more–we all could have, but she did do a lot. I remember her speaking at political actions back in the 80s.
When Michelangelo Signorile first started the “outings” back in the 80s it made sense and it did achieve some good. I think things are different now. All the bitchiness just reflects badly. We don’t need to hail her as a hero but we also don’t need to be nasty.
Jon in Canada said “To all those who have yet to come out know this, you owe no one a damn thing, come out on your own terms.”.
Hear! Hear! I totally agree.
Emily said “She didn’t come out, she gave a speech confirming her “private life” is private, which implies that the lives of LGBTQ persons are inherently scandalous.”.
That may be true however if she feels being a lesbian is somewhat scandalous that’s not her fault she feels that way and it is neither her obligation to fight that perception or not indirectly reinforce it.
I am not gay, but maybe i can shine a light from the other side.
Recently my best friend came out. Staunch catholic, fraternity brother (though that does not mean as much here as it does in the US). We had talked, as we often did, about this and that, and then he got quiet and told me that he owed me a secret too. That it was something big and that i had maybe already guessed it.
He had made allusions to something big and terrible before and had formed a preconception or more of a fear that he had been molested as a child (he is a bit broken).
Then he told me he was gay.
I was stunned.
And, from my viewpoint, i blew it.
I took quite sometime to process it. I was quite glad. It was nothing bad, i did not really care (though on second thought i began to well not fear, but worry about the balance in our friendship, the same way one does when one suddenly realizes the other ‘guy’ has become quite the attractive female), but i could not quite put that in words.
I think i said something like ‘good for you’.
But i could neither put the elation i felt into nor the fact that well, that i did not mind? That i did not really care?
I took a second step and said that as far as i was concerned that did not change anything and that i did not really care.
I think what i am getting at with this post is, that a lot of people who are close to closeted gays or consider them even something akin to family, notice that there is something wrong with them, that they are not wholly authentic, not wholly themself, but cannot really express or respond adequatly to a coming out, because they either have no real clue what it means to be gay or what the coming-out changes (it did not go too well for our friendship because he confessed his love for me after a while, we started over, but i was not really able to find that old trust and comfort around him ever again) or because they are happy that the black cloud they felt seems to be gone and the thing that caused it, was not even that big of a deal.
But what unites those two is that can feel overwhelmed by the exceptions that are liked to that coming out. For the one who comes out, it is a liberation. For the people he comes out to, it will often be either not that important (because they expected that or things much worth) or because it really is not that much of game changer.
I liked Jodie Fosters coming-out, because to me it project a normalcy, a feeling that some people are gay, no big deal and the rest are not and that it is a fact of life that does not need a lot of talk like politics or religion. I did feel that it required any other emotion from me than ‘good for her’.
Thanks for listening, and i hope i offended noone.