fajrdrako | Barrowman as bachelor and singer

pfyre posted an article about John Barrowman from 2002. Interesting but odd in a number of ways, the most striking being that it played the '35-year-old bachelor' angle - when Barrowman must have been with his boyfriend Scott almost ten years already at that point. Not a word about his being gay, just a parallel between him and the unmarried, presumably straight, character he would be playing.

I'm accustomed to Barrowman being outspokenly gay, the poster-boy for gay success in the entertainment industry, the Stonewall 'Man of the Year', the man who deliberately takes gay and bi roles, the man about to civil-partner his boyfriend. - Can I use 'civil partner' as a verb? I keep wanting to say 'marry', but it's 'civil partnership' in the UK. Barrowman has said clearly that he sees a difference between this and marriage, and that he is not, in fact, in favour of gay marriage. I can't quite get my head around that: I see it as a matter of equal rights in law, and a valuable thing to at least have the option of marriage the same way straight people do. But. To each his own choice.

It remains surprising for me to see any kind of article about Barrowman that talks about his life but doesn't talk about his being gay. This article was written less than five years ago. Were things so different then?

...Maybe.

I wonder if it makes a difference that this is an American article, while most of what I've been seeing and reading about him is British.

I'm noticed that John Barrowman changes his emphasis from one interview to another - or maybe it's different emphases at different times. Lately, a lot of his talk has been about his upcoming civil partnership ceremony, understandably. (Less than a week away now.) A couple of years ago, in the Doctor Who era, he was saying that he was gay, gay, totally gay, not bi, despite playing the bisexual-omnisexual Captain Jack so convincingly. Now he's said he's maybe-sort-of-kinda bi even though he describes himself as gay, but he 'loves women' and he tells cute sexual anecdotes about himself with them, and gets photographed kissing Eve Myles. I don't think it's insincere, but I do think it is strategic PR.

And I can understand that anyone might enjoy kissing Eve Myles.

... On another topic (but still John Barrowman), I was thinking this morning about how I have said since about the age of twelve that my favourite singer is Andy Williams. (Not that I always or often have the nerve to say it out loud. Not a popular choice with my generation.) Then thinking of John Barrowman singing Moon River, which I was listening to yesterday thanks to the magic of YouTube, and comparing it to Andy Williams singing Moon River, which was one of his theme songs - you know, I like Barrowman's voice better. Andy Williams might just have been supplanted in my affections, after forty-mumble years of loyalty. That's quite a feat.