MUSIC Mr. Bad Guy: a tribute to Freddie Mercury

Harry Craig, Music Editor, marks LGBTQ+ History Month by celebrating one of music's greatest icons

THERE has never been a band frontman as iconic as Freddie Mercury. His contribution to rock music is perhaps greater than any single artist in history, spanning ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘Barcelona’, ‘Somebody to Love’, and dozens more. His live performances cemented this reputation — Queen’s 1985 Live Aid performance is still regarded as one of the best concerts of all time. A key part of this success was Freddie’s flamboyancy and campness, which came to life on stage, as someone who was never afraid to hide his sexuality. There seems no better figure to celebrate in LGBTQ+ History Month.

FREDDIE'S FLAMBOYANCY AND CAMPNESS... CAME TO LIFE ON STAGE

Although Mercury never officially came out, he never shied away from embracing his queerness. He had a close long-term relationship with the 'love of his life' Mary Austin, and from 1985 was in a relationship with Jim Hutton, whom he called his “husband”. Throughout Mercury’s life, he had both romantic and sexual relationships with many men and women. There were attempts by Queen’s management to conceal this, fearing public backlash — homosexuality had only been decriminalised in the UK in 1967, just seven years before the band’s first big hit ‘Killer Queen’.

Even today, over 30 years after Freddie’s death, many deny or ignore his homosexuality. Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 biopic of his life, was criticised for attempting to erase Mercury’s sexuality; taking the ‘bi’ out of ‘biopic’, as it were. Like so many queer figures through- out history, his same-sex relationships are dismissed as 'friendships' and his bisexuality disregarded — the sort of erasure I, and many others, can relate to on a daily basis.

Indeed, an oft-neglected part of Mercury’s life story is the rampant homophobia he faced as a queer man in the public eye. The 1980s were not an easy time to be LGBTQ+, and even trickier for celebrities — this was the era of Section 28, which in 1988 prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by British local authorities, including schools, and the moral panic surrounding HIV/AIDS as the 'gay disease'. Indeed, part of the reason for Queen’s fall in popularity in the US in the 1980s was attributed to homophobia.

In 1991, Mercury became the first major rockstar to die as a result of AIDS-related complications, tragically cutting short the life of one of the greatest performers to ever grace the stage. He had been diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, although this was not made public until the day before his death. Mercury grew gradually more ill towards the end of the decade, albeit remaining committed to making music, including ‘The Show Must Go On’, released just six weeks before he died.