Honour Heath in his death

2008-01-25 08:53

Colleen Figg

I must say, this business of Heath Ledger dying on Tuesday has really knocked the stuffing out of me. I know I am not alone in this, as can be seen from the tributes pouring in from all over the world; the man was a remarkable actor, well on his way to becoming one of the icons of cinema.

And while no one can be said to be free of faults, he genuinely seemed to be a decent fellow, too.

I don't think any news has so surprised and shocked me since Freddie Mercury died in 1991; I felt the same huge sense of loss and the feeling that the world had lost a true legend, and that we would never see his like again.

In trying to explain this to people who were not Freddie fans back then, I was amazed to see that many close minded bigots attributed his death to the fact that he was "a queer, a poofter, a raging queen" who deserved the disease he got.

That's all they were concerned about. He was gay, a moffie, therefore a doos who should not be mourned but sneered at instead because he was a homosexual.

I saw traces of this same kind of thinking, to use the term very loosely, in connection with Heath Ledger's death. Many intellectual midgets asked whether he was that "queer who acted in Brokeback Mountain" and if he was, well then so what that he was dead.

It obviously serves the bastard right for, if not being gay, portraying a gay cowboy; insulting the brain dead macho Plastic Tarzans who treasure the Westerns they grew up watching which taught them that only men were cowboys, not limp-wristed faggots.

No place for this sickening hatred

In both cases, the talent and skill of Mercury and Ledger were both completely overlooked in the face of the contempt many heterosexual people have for homosexual people.

It is quite lost on low-witted Neanderthals like these that the two gentlemen might have served humanity in any way; also lost on them is the idea that, as an actor, Ledger could easily have portrayed a gay man without being gay himself.

This kind of simple-mindedness is a death knell of hope in me; hope that one day the masses may in fact indulge in some true introspection and address their base fears and see beyond their loathing to the facts that stand before them.

I find it very difficult trying to contain the massive anger such bigotry engenders in me. I do not know how homosexuals, women or men, have not gone on a rampage of fury before now; for if I were subjected to this bitter, sickening hatred day in and day out I think I may well have completely lost control of myself by now.

Rant over but never forgotten.

May Heath know he is missed, was admired, and highly regarded by me. RIP Mr Ledger.

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