Badpuppy Gay Today |
Wednesday, 17 September 1997 |
British gays are inconsolable over the death of Princess Diana. She was a gay icon because of her devotion to people with AIDS and her fabulous lifestyle. "Diana's impact upon the lesbian and gay world is almost without parallel," said Paul Clements, editor of The Pink Paper, a London gay weekly. "She singlehandedly destigmatized HIV when she opened Britain's first HIV ward in 1987, and was supportive to the core." "The only time I felt so moved by somebody's death was with [Queen lead singer] Freddie Mercury," Paul, 42, told Agence France-Press as he sat in a cafe in central London's Soho district. "I felt tears coming to my eyes," Andrew, 27, told AFP at the Soho gay pub Compton's. "I had to wake everyone up in the house and go in to their bedrooms and hold them." Compton's was closed Saturday for Diana's funeral. The huge disco GAY observed a minute of silence early Sunday in honor of "the fairy tale princess." Local gay groups staged candlelight vigils in several cities. "What she did for AIDS victims in those days by shaking hands with them when everyone daren't touch them in case they were affected by AIDS, it was fantastic," another gay pubcrawler, John, told AFP. "She showed people there was nothing to worry about. ... The straight population in Britain would like to play down the fact that 50 percent of her charity work was involved with gays." Di was known to visit AIDS patients at London Lighthouse in the middle of the night in order to elude photographers. "HIV does not make people dangerous to know so you can shake their hands and give them a hug: Heaven knows they need it," she said in one 1991 speech. "Princess Diana set a wonderful example for all of us by her concern for the poor, the oppressed, the hurting and the sick," the Rev. Billy Graham said in the U.S. "[She] was one of our first public figures to ... hold a man with AIDS." "With one royal handshake given to a young man with AIDS in the late 1980s, Diana forever changed the face of AIDS for the world," added David Harvey, executive director of the U.S. National AIDS Policy Center for Children, Youth and Families. Britain's National AIDS Trust is collecting messages of tribute and affection to Diana. They can be posted to NAT, New City Cloisters, 188-196 Old Street, London, EC1V 9FR, UK, or e-mailed to diana@nat.org.uk. The messages will be placed in a "book of hope" -- a collection of tributes to the princess -- and on the NAT web site, http://www.nat.org.uk/nat/. "Our Patron, Diana, Princess of Wales, gave so much of herself to support people affected by AIDS and it seems vital to us that we give something back at this time of tragic loss," said NAT Director Derek Bodell. In San Francisco, more than 10,000 mourners staged a candlelight march from the gay Castro district to the British consulate on the eve of the funeral. In Budapest, Hungary, 500 gays gathered at Vorsomart Square to honor the princess. News agencies said it was the city's first- ever gay public event. "We ... cherish her memory because we also were embraced in her love," gay activist Balazs Palfy told the crowd. "Let us bow our heads to pay tribute to a great woman ... who died senselessly after a meaningful life radiating love to those in need of it." Palfy also said Hungarian gays should "declare we exist and want to start normal communications with the rest of society." Hundreds of other tributes to Diana took place around the globe. "She was in so many ways a mirror of our own humanity writ large, complete with all its paradoxes and contradictions, all its struggle to find meaning in life and to find love, which is perhaps why so many of us thought of her as one of us," Chicago Episcopal Bishop Griswold said at a memorial service at the diocesan cathedral. Meanwhile, gay icon Madonna said we are all to blame for Di's death. "As much as I want to blame the press, we all have blood on our hands," the pop goddess said. "All of us, even myself, bought those magazines and I read them. Until we no longer feel that it is our right to read about people's private lives, and until we lose our fascination with scandal and sensational journalism, we are never going to act. It is all our fault. "I have been chased through that same tunnel so many times I have lost count," Madonna said. "I felt outraged and helpless. I really freaked out. ... Anyone who has ever been chased like that, and who has had to live that sort of life, hit the wall with her. ... If you ignore [the paparazzi] or run away, they think you are being uncooperative. If you cooperate, they say you are being manipulative. They were constantly doing that with Diana. I find what they are doing now just as unforgivable. They were so awful to her, and now they are putting her on a pedestal and saying she is so great and fabulous, and yet two weeks ago they were ripping her to shreds. "Freedom of the press, yes, I'm all for it. Write whatever you want to write. But you cannot stalk people and take pictures of them inside their bedroom windows, or chase them through towns at 100 miles per hour. ... [Diana] was caged. The only hope I can see coming from all this ... is that now she is free." |
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