Rock still offends the gay community

One of the hottest topics in the news these days is gay rights and the civil liberties surrounding them. From the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” to gay marriage and adoption, it’s a controversial matter that musicians are either avoiding completely for fear of drawing ire, or taking a stance that runs the risk of alienating a part of their fanbase.

Last week, Cyndi Lauper launched her Give a Damn Campaign to promote anti-gay bullying in response to recent incidents like the suicide of a Rutgers college student after his campus roommate filmed and streamed online a homosexual encounter he had and the strange case of the University of Michigan’s gay student body president being harassed by Michigan’s assistant attorney general.

The public service announcement features the recently out of the closet Ricky Martin offering support by repeating the phrase “I give a damn” along with other known gay celebs or gay rights backers.

“We as parents, as people, as a nation need to stand up and say enough is enough. We will not tolerate hate any longer,” Lauper said in statement. “Hate is learned and we need to teach our children that being different is okay.”

Public figures such as New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino are feeling the effects of negative remarks he made about homosexuality, while rapper Eminem last weekend was called to task during a 60 Minutes profile by Anderson Cooper about past lyrics deemed as homophobic, including one in particular where during a rhyme he says, “Whether you’re a fag or a lez.”

“Yeah, the scene that I came up in, that word (‘fag’) was thrown around so much, you know?” Eminem said.

“But, I mean, do you not like gay people?” Cooper asked.

“No I don’t have any problem with nobody, you know what I mean. Like, I’m just whatever,” he said.

Back in 2001, when the rapper was arguably at the height of being dubbed anti-gay and misogynistic by organizations like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLADD), he hooked up with the get-out-of-jail-free card in Elton John. The openly gay piano man and Eminem embraced and held their hands together high at the Grammys after doing a duet together.

And while hip-hop is teeming with homophobia, the rock world doesn’t exactly get off scot-free, despite such gay icons like Rob Halford from Judas Priest and Freddie Mercury of Queen.

In 1992, just a few months after the he died, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness took place in London at Wembley Stadium. Dozens of rockers joined the surviving members of Queen to celebrate some of the band’s biggest hits while bringing attention to the AIDS epidemic.

The most notable band at the concert was Guns N’ Roses, who at the time had been dealing with a firestorm of controversy over the song “One in a Million,” where Axl Rose blasted “faggots” that “make no sense” to him and were out to “spread some (expletive) disease.”

But like he would do for Eminem a decade later, Elton came to the rescue as he and Rose met awkwardly at center stage for the hard rock and outro portion of the Queen hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” during the tribute concert. To further drive the point home, the two linked up again for a ridiculously bloated performance of Guns’ “November Rain” at that year’s MTV Video Music Awards.

Someone unlikely to experience the Elton John bail-out is Sully Erna. Last Saturday, during a Godsmack performance in Uncasville, Conn., the singer was frustrated by the lack of physical activity from the audience. In other words, he was imploring them to form a pit like it was 1998, back when moshing was still in vogue, and if not, then “maybe you should be going to see a Creed show or some [expletive] like that.”

One fan apparently didn’t take to kindly to that diss, and saluted Erna with the middle finger. “You’re flipping me off?” Erna asked. “What, you like Creed? You like (Creed singer) Scott Stapp? He’s a faggot. Faggot.”

Now, “Rock Music Menu” is historically no fan of Stapp and his past offenses both of the egomaniacal and hypocritical kind, but this is worse than school-yard taunting, mainly because it’s so dim-witted.

Godsmack, which stole its name and sound directly from Alice in Chains, yet refuses to admit either obvious transgression, rode in on the cusp of late ’90s nu-metal and is now nothing more than cheesy and empty hard rock. They are the heavy metal version of skim milk.

“Cryin’ Like a Bitch” was the first single from the Massachusetts’ bred outfit’s latest release, and embraced by meatheads everywhere, it shot up the mainstream rock charts.

So for the vertically challenged lead singer who may or may not be taller than Prince and drops whimsy like, “I’m tougher than nails, I can promise you that / Step out of line and you’ll get bitch slapped back,” when he sinks to the level of calling someone similarly irrelevant “a faggot,” it’s pretty much par for the course.

Keep it classy Sully.
Original article appeared in the October 15 Rock Music Menu in The Daily Times