If you are aware of one I missed, or believe your own work or property was used in any way without proper attribution, credit or permission, please contact me, Jack Marshall, at matter. It was wrong for Carrie Fisher to presume to make the decision for him.Įthics Alarms attempts to give proper attribution and credit to all sources of facts, analysis and other assistance that go into its blog posts, and seek written permission when appropriate. That day is obviously not here, however, and to the extent that John Travolta’s life and career are involved, the decision to be out or not remains his alone.
Is john travolta gay or bisexual professional#
It will be a happy day when no actor feels that revealing his or her sexual orientation will harm professional relationships, public images and box office receipts. Though Fisher is sufficiently sophisticated, tolerant, open-minded, caring and intelligent to conclude that it “doesn’t matter” to her, this still cannot make it fair, respectful or responsible to make a life-altering decision for John Travolta, who also has a wife and children who have a stake in the decision as well. “Everyone” knew Jodie Foster was gay for decades, but the Hollywood community respected her right to present her public image as she chose, just as it did past gay performers like Rudolph Valentino, Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Marjorie Main, Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, Robert Reed, Sal Mineo, Raymond Burr and too many others to list. Until Travolta goes public with his sexual orientation, it is not the proper role of Carrie Fisher or anyone else among his friends and associates to out him. Why behave as if it is one? These are good questions, but need to be raised in the abstract, not in defiance of a fellow performer’s autonomy. Being gay is no big deal, she was suggesting, and being called gay isn’t an insult or a slur.
Presumably, she was trying to defuse the issue for him. Look, I’m sorry that he’s uncomfortable with it, and that’s all I can say.” “Wow! I mean, my feeling about John has always been that we know and we don’t care. Therefore, what did actress Carrie Fisher, Hollywood kid, writer, “Star Wars” icon, and former bride of a gay man, think she was doing when she told the Advocate, in response to a question about Travolta’s legal maneuvers against a website that published a story about his alleged gay lifestyle… Revealing this aspect of a private life that the actor has chosen to keep private is entirely his decision to make, and nobody should force him to make it, or make it for him.
That alone ends the story, in ethics terms. Most important of all, John Travolta doesn’t want the public to know/believe/think that he’s gay. In his industry, for all its liberal and progressive grandstanding, the perceived sexuality of leading men does matter, because it is believed that it affects the bottom line. To say it shouldn’t, however, is not to prove that it doesn’t. Should it matter if John Travolta is gay? It shouldn’t, no.