beautiful monsters

The time I had lunch with Sir Ian and we ran out of veggie burgers...

In July of 2000 a group of queer youth were invited to the house Sir Ian McKellen, AKA Gandalf. This is an extract from the journal I was keeping at the time (for a Women’s Studies paper).

Sir Ian has a wicked sense of humour which shone through as he described the morning he had just spent perched on a narrow ledge with a couple of hobbits, an elf, a dwarf, and a pony, while getting blasted with polystyrene balls which found their way into every possible orifice.

He also spoke to us very eloquently about queer issues in the UK, and about his experiences in movies such as Gods and Monsters. He soon introduced a sobering note – the gathering would have been illegal in Britain, where Section 28 forbids the use of materials or events that could be calculated to influence young people in favour of a homosexual lifestyle.

Sir Ian showed strong views about coming out; he believes that we should out celebrities and other public figures to raise queer visibility. In many ways I agree with this principal. I think that one of the most effective ways of fighting homophobia is to come out. It is hard for people to make homophobic comments when they know that their daughter is queer, their coworker is gay, or their neighbour is a lesbian. A lot of homophobic attitudes are based on myths and stereotypes. Often when someone meets an openly queer person, this challenges their ideas and assumptions. Also, openly queer people in the media, in schools, in communities, provide role models for young people who are just beginning to discover their own sexualities. This helps to break through the isolation that many young queer people face in our society.

But at the same time, I’m not keen on outing other people… the problems they may face as a result of being outed. Closer to home, I have friends who have been kicked out of home, or been abused physically and emotionally at school after coming out or being outed. How do I know that a politician or a movie star doesn’t have a homophobic mother, or other issues to deal with? I believe that we should make the choice to be out ourselves. We can encourage others to come out, and we can be as out as we can be in our own lives, but I don’t think we should make the choice to out other people.

It does make me angry however that some people let others fight for their freedom, and while they are happy to enjoy the benefits, they don’t even have the guts to be open about their own sexuality. It makes me angry when people are in a position of power and influence, but they don’t do anything to make it easier for others because of their own fear.

“Why shouldn’t we out them, those lying bastards… living their secret lies, attending their galas and pretentious shallow parties… We have confronted the closet, and have seen it’s evil, we are the strong who not only broke free but are smashing down the walls created of lies and repression. We are the ones who have opened our eyes and seen the ignorance and fear in our own ‘community,’ and we refuse to close our eyes to this hypocrisy.” (From Queer Nasty)

There was a discussion about the queer community in Aotearoa and in New Zealand. Sir Ian talked about how there didn’t seem to be many queer groups or events here. People say that there aren’t many specifically queer places in Wellington because most people are fairly open-minded and we don’t need specifically queer spaces. But this doesn’t make it easy for young people who are coming out and want to meet other queer people.

We talked about how there is no blatant discrimination to face (such as Section 28 in Britain), and because of this it is easy to get complacent. There is nothing to unite us, nothing that we are all against, that we can stand together and fight. There is not a lot of communication between queer groups in Aotearoa, and there is not a lot of action to change society. In a place like Wellington, it is just comfortable enough for many queer people. But there is still so much that needs to change. Queer youth are still at high risk for suicide and drug problems. People are still being abused for being queer. We are still underrepresented in the media, and discriminated against by the law. It is not safe enough to rest, not yet.

Meanwhile his make up artists had been busy in the kitchen. Unfortunately they got the maths wrong. Sir Ian himself is vegetarian, but, making no assumptions, the make up artists prepared both vegetarian and meat-based burgers.

Fact: In any gathering of queer youth (or environmentalists, anarchists or hippies) there will be a disproportionate number of vegetarians. The veggie burgers disappeared within seconds, and we stood around awkwardly, staring at the untouched platter piled high with meat burgers.

If you can make out any detail at all, the arrow points to me
Sir Ian is just to the left of me, in the back

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If you’re in Wellington on Monday for The Return of the King premiere, look out for Tanemahuta and (I think) Merenia Gray; they’ll be the ones descending from the top of the Embassy (I’ll be the one having panic attacks because I hate crowds…)

Posted by Fionnaigh at November 26, 2003 11:06 PM