It’s hard to believe that in 2017, there are still people in the UK who abuse gay men and women.
But sadly that’s something we as a society still have to live with. For now.
And it would appear that singer Will Young has been on the receiving end of homophobic abuse over the years and says that he has even been held at knifepoint because he was gay.
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Speaking to the i newspaper he opened up about his many incidents of homophobia.
“I’ve had to run away from knife threats, hide in shops. I’ve also taken people on,” he said, adding that there had been a time he was in Oxford when he had witnessed a bunch of thugs spewing homophobic abuse but was moved that passersby stepped in to take them to task.
“The whole of the street turned against them and I think that was a palpable sign of how it’s simply not tolerated now,” he explained.
Understanding there is still a problem, he thinks homophobia can only be stamped out by teaching people to accept others.
“People [who bully] just need to be educated, they don’t need to be punished,” he said.
Earlier this week, Will revealed that at the start of his career, music bosses had advised him to kiss George Michael for publicity.
But he said that he refused point blank because he didn’t want people to be using his sexuality as a marketing tool.
He said: “Someone at the record company, to try to get me on the Brits, suggested, ‘Why don’t you do a duet with George Michael and then, like Britney and Madonna and Christina Aguilera and Madonna, you kiss at the end and we get our moment?’
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“God that makes me angry.”
Will also revealed that his record company had encouraged him to snog a guy in the video to his chart topper, All Time Love, but he refused to do it.
However, he now says he regrets that!
“They said, ‘What do you feel about kissing a man on the lips in the video?'”, he explained.
“I actually rang up my mum and dad, and they were both like, “Yeah, [bleep] it, do it.”
“But I didn’t do it, everyone agreed no, but actually that was only because I was thinking of my career.
He added: “Do the maths – how many people want to see a man kiss a man, in comparison to how many people don’t? More people don’t. But now I slightly regret it.”