A friend of mine was upset by a recent convo she had on another message board. There was a discussion of Tom Cruise going on, and she said she thought he was gay (so do I, for that matter).
Inevitably, someone asked for a cite. Of course, there’s precious little concrete evidence that Mr. Cruise is gay. It’s all circumstantial-- he sued someone for libel for claiming they had sex, and won, but didn’t ask for anything but a retraction. That doesn’t prove much but it does put the idea out there. There’s the fact that Scientology believes homosexuality is an aberration that can be cured through auditing, so even if Tom has had gay relationships in the past, he would strenuously deny it now and probably has repressed the possibility that he is gay. Again, strictly conjecture and yes, ultimately unprovable psychoanalyzing of a stranger, but it does have a bit of a ring of truth to it, based on his recent behavior.
Mimi Rogers, the first Mrs. Cruise, said that Tom should have been a monk (his first calling was to be a Catholic priest, btw). He was into celibacy to “maintain the purity of his instrument.” She told Playboy that she left him because “her instrument needed tuning.” The couple never had children, but she went on to have some with her next husband. Tom adopted kids with Nicole Kidman, but they broke up when she was 3 months pregnant, and then she miscarried. There was something weird going on there, but it’s been kept pretty quiet. According to my friend, it’s been alleged that Kidman was pregnant with someone else’s child, but that’s just gossip. Now there’s the whole bizarre insanity of Katie Holmes, which sure seems like a faux-relationship. I think Nicole Kidman made some oblique comments about Tom needing to stop making such a big deal, lest people think the relationship was fake.
OK, so that’s the evidence my friend offered. Then, a guy responds that saying that Tom Cruise is gay when Cruise himself violently disputes this claim is homophobic, and that his denials are condemned as fake and his engagement to Katie Holmes called a ruse are also homophobic. According to this guy, this evidence of Cruise’s gayness, such as it is, proves nothing more than that Tom is a control freak and a weirdo who adheres to a crackpot religion.
I agree that the evidence is most certainly not proof positive, but homophobic? My friend was horribly offended at being labeled such. Personally, I was flabbergasted that the claim that Tom Cruise is gay could be characterized as homophobic, especially considering that my best friend and his boyfriend also think so and aren’t afraid to say it.
Before anyone says the “why do you care?” standard line about interest in celebrities’ lives, I will say that the situation is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, if he is gay it’s sad that he has to be closeted; I wish that gay celebrities could be out without repercussions and I regret that it’s not so. Also anyone whose religion tells them that who they are is an aberration that can be cured, and that it must be in order for the believer to reach enlightenment, is not in a good way either. I personally strongly dislike Scientology, and this adds one more reason. Add this to Mr. Cruise’s rather public condemnation of psychiatry (a branch of medicine of whose help he seems in great need) and his recent odd behavior makes me think he’s a person in a state of emotional distress, either because he’s gay or for some other reason. It’s pretty say to watch someone who is falling apart in such a public way; kinda like watching a train wreck. That is the extent of my caring.
What do you guys think? Could anyone explain to me how the theory that Tom Cruise is gay could be construed as homophobic in this context? I hate the idea that we’re behaving or thinking in a homophobic way without knowing it… I think it would have been pointed out before by someone besides a stranger on the Internet, but hey, maybe I’m wrong.