Phillip Adams writes about his disgust at Derryn Hinch speculating (or claiming, I know not which) that the late Graham Kennedy died of AIDS. Fair enough.
However, Adams' take on Kennedy's "never pretending to be straight" seems a bit odd. I heard Adams' Late Night Live broadcast a few months ago about Kennedy, at which Noelene Brown was a guest. Adams repeated there what he claims in the column; namely, that Adams knew that Kennedy was obviously gay and even asked him to "speak out" in the interests of law reform for all gays. Kennedy declined.
This was the first time I ever heard it said that Kennedy was out and out gay. If I had given the matter any thought, I suppose I would have said that maybe he was bisexual, but purely "gay" seemed a little unlikely in light of the type of ribald, heterosexually inclined humour he showed on Blankety Blanks, for example. But of course, this was well before out and out gay or camp hosts like (god forbid) Julian Clary were anywhere to be seen.
Anyway, what was interesting was that Adams told his story and then asked Noelene to comment on Graham's sexuality. She sounded quite uncomfortable and said (to paraphrase) that she knew it was a very private and personal matter for Graham and she was not comfortable going into any discussion about that at all.
At the time Adams did this show I assume that Kennedy was well beyond caring, but nonetheless it seemed to me that if one of Kennedy's closest friends thought it wasn't appropriate for her to be discussing a sick man's sex life, then it wasn't appropriate for Adams to be doing so either. Especially when a large part of the preamble (Adams, long time friend of gays everywhere, seeking law reform for them) is a bit self aggrandizing.
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