Scandals?

This is not going to be P.C.

Russell Tovey (b. 1981). You may not know his name but you’ve probably seen him on screen or on stage. After lots of British TV, his breakout feature film role was in The History Boys. He’d also been one of the ensemble cast’s stars in the play. Later, he was also one of the stars of the Brit sci-fi series Being Human playing a werewolf. Which should have prepared him for the present controversy in which he’s being attacked right and left. Oh, did I say Russell Tovey is an out gay man? Apparently, though, not gay enough.

In a rather sweet article that ran in England's The Guardian, Tovey is described this way: “It took the Essex actor a decade to fully regain his confidence after falling victim to a knife attack at 18. And a decade, too, to be comfortable portraying his own sexuality on stage and screen. Now the former History Boy is going from strength to strength.” http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/mar/01/russell-tovey-looking-banished-interview

In that article, Tovey commits the unpardonable sin of making the following statements. Speaking of his secondary school years, he says:

“I was so envious of everyone who went to Sylvia Young Theatre School. I wanted to go but my dad flat-out refused. He thought I’d become some tapdancing freak without qualifications. And he was right in a way. I’m glad I didn’t go. That might have changed…” Tovey thinks carefully about what he’s going to say next. If I had to guess, watching him fidget, I’d say he’s weighing up whether to be honest at the risk of causing offence, or whether to divert and say something bland. He chooses to risk offence. “I feel like I could have been really effeminate, if I hadn’t gone to the school I went to. Where I felt like I had to toughen up. If I’d have been able to relax, prance around, sing in the street, I might be a different person now. I thank my dad for that, for not allowing me to go down that path. Because it’s probably given me the unique quality that people think I have.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLTCEMqDR84

And so the rage of those who think he insulted them (i.e., professional homosexuals, or, if you prefer, screaming queens, though not yet tapdancers) has come down on his head. The one on his shoulders. And you know what I think any dude who shaves his pits and pubes.

It generated one of the silliest and most unintentionally funny postings I’ve ever seen on Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/j-nelson-aviance/being-masculine-doesnt-ma_b_6804134.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices)...

...which in turn generated one of best spot on put-downs I’ve ever read (http://parkthatcar.net/2014/07/22/breaking-huffposts-cisgendered-tantrum/). But back to the Russell Tovey scandal. Wait, where did it go?

Displaced, I guess, by the “scandal” over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton using her own email account, then turning the files over to the State Department for classification and release to the public. This “scandal” was generated by an aggressive reporter at the New York Times who believes “the Clintons are secretive.” The same charge, BTW, in press releases from the Republican National Committee. The rest of the lame-brained media have jumped on the attack wagon, apparently forgetting it was a similar NYTimes reporter, Jeff Gerth, who single-handedly created the phony Whitewater “scandal” in 1992. Okay, not really single-handedly, Gerth had the top brass at the Times, who couldn’t stand Bill Clinton, solidly behind him.

Suppressing voting rights is a scandal. The 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United is a scandal. Lying the country into war is a scandal. Ben Carson saying prison turns you gay because it's a choice is a scandal.

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