Do You Remember: The Outing of George Michael

Every LGBTQ+ person has the right to come out on their own time and terms. Outing is a bleak and potentially dangerous act that serves no purpose beyond cruelty (although I will make an exception if hypocrisy is on the table, like homophobic politicians enacting bigoted legislation while having motel room fun on the side.) A hell of a lot of celebrities were pushed out of the closet, usually by the tabloids but sometimes by queer outlets. Look at the ways that Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell were hectored by their own community for not being out earlier than they chose to be. It can be humiliating to have your private life forced into a harsh spotlight by a world that has frequently sinister agendas towards queer people, especially in the ‘90s, and even more so if your outing happened thanks to a toilet encounter with a cop. Only George Michael could spin it into a glorious moment in his career.

For many years, George Michael was one of the most swoon-worthy sex symbols in music. He also, for a long time, identified as bisexual. He told one of his sisters and his Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley that he was bi in the '80s, and he chose to keep things quiet for obvious reasons. AIDS and Section 28 were f*cking horrendous. During the late 1980s, Michael had a relationship with make-up artist Kathy Jeung, who was regarded for a time as his artistic "muse" and who appeared in the "I Want Your Sex" video. Kathy would be the only woman he ever thought of as a proper girlfriend, and the two remained close after the relationship ended.

By the '90s, he had realized he was gay and began exclusively dating and sleeping with men. In 1993, his boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa died of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage (the song "Jesus to a Child" is a tribute to him.) In 1996, he began a relationship with Kenny Goss, which lasted for around 13 years. Rumours had been swirling throughout the decade that he was gay. On the side, Michael also enjoyed a bit of no-strings-attached fun with other men, often in public. Spoiler…

On April 7th, 1998, Michael headed to a public toilet in the Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills. He walked into a restroom, "alone" according to The Los Angeles Times, and was then arrested by a plainclothes officer who “observed Mr. Michael engaged in a lewd act.” Lt. Edward T. Kreins of the Beverly Hills Police Department would not elaborate at the time on what the lewd act was, but said that it had happened in an area visible to anyone who walked in. Michael posted $500 bail and was released about three hours after the arrest.

The LAPD had been trying to clamp down on public cruising, increasing arrests for soliciting or engaging in lewd conduct across the region. The Will Rogers park was apparently viewed as a favourite of people, mostly gay men, looking for sex. Local LGBTQ+ groups called out the cops for what they saw as selective targeting of the community. Jon Davidson, a supervising attorney at Lambda, told The LA Times, "We believe police are applying a double standard and are targeting gay men for arrest for conduct for which heterosexual men are not arrested." The arrest of such a high-profile person in these spaces that had been deemed gay sex spots made people, of course, put two and two together.

"George's Shame" was the headline of The Mirror, which offered a handy bullet-proof summary of the story. The Sun went with the more puntastic "Zip Me Up Before You Go Go." Random celebrities were asked about it and whether or not they'd keep supporting Michael after the arrest. The implications were clear: this guy’s gay and now you have to judge him as such, with a hefty side order of “concern” over his proclivities. Think of the children who might wander into those public toilets in areas that apparently everyone knew were used for sex.

The BBC reported that, on top of probation and a fine, Michael could face being forced to attend an AIDS awareness class, which feels kind of insulting. He eventually pleaded no contest and was fined $810 and ordered to serve 80 hours of community service. He served his time volunteering for the Project Angel Food kitchen, a charity that delivered meals to people living with critical illnesses, including AIDS. He would later make big financial donations to the group every year after his probation.

George, to his credit, responded to it all with his usual wry humour and candour. He sat down for an interview with MTV where he detailed his perspective of the sting and how, yes, he was gay, thank you very much. In explaining what happened, he said, "I got followed into the restroom and then this cop—I didn't know it was a cop, obviously—he started playing this game, which I think is called, 'I'll show you mine, you show me yours, and then when you show me yours, I'm going to nick you!'" He says that once he showed the cop the goods, the man left, leaving George thinking that he wasn't impressed by what he saw. He then headed to his car, where he was swiftly arrested. When asked why he did it, especially since he was only a couple of miles from his gorgeous house in the area, Michael joked, "I've never been able to turn down a free meal."

Truly, it's one of the great post-scandal interviews. He's honest, funny, unapologetic but not smug, and he leaves you feeling totally charmed. I think a lot of his fans were inclined to be both pro-gay and anti-cop anyway. Wham! earned a reputation as being emblematic of '80s Thatcherism, which he always rejected, aligning himself with left-wing politics and even joining the Young Communist League as a teen. Michael's image was of a guy who never swung in the direction the industry wanted him to. Why become suddenly shy and penitent for something like this?

He went even further later that year with the single "Outside", The song is transparently about the arrest and the joys of outdoor banging. Let's go outside in the sunshine. "I'd service the community, but I already have, you see." It's one of my favourite songs of his, a pure celebration of queerness and pissing people off with it. The video is even better, with Michael dressed as an LAPD officer and getting down in a public toilet that turns into a nightclub. Marcelo Rodriguez, the undercover officer who had arrested Michael, sued Michael for $10 million, claiming the video defamed him. It was dismissed and then reinstated, but eventually, a judge ruled that Rodriguez was a public official and therefore could not legally recover damages for emotional distress. Ha, suffer.

George, by the way, never stopped cruising. In 2006, he was caught once more looking for a good time, photographed at Hampstead Heath in London. He had other legal problems throughout the years, typically related to poor driving and Class C drug use. He admitted to excessive cannabis use, which he struggled to cut back on.

He also remained a proud button pusher throughout his career. His 2002 song "Shoot the Dog" featured an animated video that mocked various politicians and depicted then-Prime Minister Tony Blair as George W. Bush's lapdog. This was a hugely controversial move at a time when protesting the Iraq war was not popular.

He frequently made big donations to charitable causes, usually with zero publicity. After his mother died, he performed a free concert for NHS nurses in London to thank the nurses who had cared for her. When George Michael died in 2016 in the early hours of Christmas Day at the age of 53, his art collection was auctioned off and raised over £11 million for charity. He was, truly, one of the good guys.

Society has marginally improved when it comes to allowing queer celebrities the space to come out, but not much. I always think about how Kit Connor from Heartstopper felt pressured into coming out when some of his so-called fans harassed him for “queerbaiting” because he wasn’t openly queer while playing a gay character. An Australian tabloid hectored Rebel Wilson into coming out and wrote a weird article claiming she was enough of a public figure that she owed people an explanation for her private life. People are not being normal about Connor Storrie, whose sexuality is none of our business unless he offers to make it so. And this doesn’t even get into the ways that trans people have been dragged out of the closet by bigoted legislation and doxing creeps. There’s never been a 100% safe time to be out, but 2026 is certainly a particularly loaded era for the tyrannical revival of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment.

I feel like a lot of the younger generations are unaware of George Michael’s legacy beyond “Last Christmas” and Taylor Swift using a sample on her latest album. When we talk about the pioneers of LGBTQ+ stars in the music industry, he’s a pivotal part of the “Gay ‘90s” that gave us kd lang and Melissa Etheridge. Without him, we wouldn’t have a lot of the hot men of pop who play around with sensuality, from Harry Styles to Troye Sivan to a ton of K-Pop. His career could have ended after that arrest, but he was utterly unapologetic in reclaiming his queerness and refusing to separate his sex life from that. He just became even cooler. Take that, LAPD.