MovieChat Forums > Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Discussion > Why did Freddie become gay?

Why did Freddie become gay?


There's a scene where Freddie is touring the US, and he calls his girlfriend from a public payphone, he tells her how much he misses her, and then he sees a trucker entering a public toilet and his eyes immediately sparkle and just like that, bam! he becomes gay...
He didn't show any interest in guys until then, how did he become gay by just seeing a truck driver, it doesn't make any sense....

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Really.... I imagine he was born gay or bi, and the film portrayed this as the first time he acted on it... the film is "based in reality" so I would not take the scene with the trucker literally. Although maybe the first time away from UK he felt free to act on this impulse.

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Jezuz this must be a joke post.....

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Why? It did seem rather odd they way the portrayed the almost light switch flip from straight to flaming. Even old interviews with Brian May made it sound as though Freddie behaved and appeared perfectly straight in the early days. But clearly by the end of his life he gay. So while it is possible he was always lusting after men and was just pretending to be straight, it is equally possible that something triggered him becoming gay. I've knew a woman that was straight with no interest in women that was the victim of rape, after the rape it was like a switch was flipped and she was instantly a lesbian. In that situation I don't think she was born a lesbian but rather was so turned off by men after she was raped that she was almost forced by her own brain to become a lesbian. Traumatic events can change people, just look the number of men that molest boys and the fact that a very large percentage of them were molested when they were growing up. It isn't just genetics that make us who we are it is also outside factors as well.

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I hope this is post is meant to be a joke.

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There might have been a time when I thought gayness was a choice, and maybe in some cases it is, but that's beside the point. Who knows what people who have fame and fortune and every available option in front of them might do? I wouldn't, you might not, but Freddie might. I read he was very close to a particular woman and left her quite a lot of his estate. Sometimes people are simpatico w/o having to be physical. Too bad Freddie didn't know Magic Johnson (I'm not making a joke here) where he might have received the same treatment. He'd still be alive and going strong.

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A large part of the reason Freddie died while Magic Johnson is still alive is the timing of when he got it, Freddie got it earlier than Magic and the medications available weren't as good in the early days. But the bigger problem is that Magic lived in the US where doctors aren't controlled by the government so the doctors in the US are willing to do whatever the patient is willing to pay for. In the UK where Freddie lived they have nationalized health services and the doctors are more focused on making sure they keep costs down than they are on saving everyone. So they make choices, do they spend 10's of thousands on expensive AIDS meds to keep one person alive or use that money on cheaper medicine that will cure 50 or 60 other patient that don't have AIDS... Well the doctors and the government make the decision to save the many at the expense of the few and will partly base that decision on the fact that AIDS was a self inflicted disease. Live a promiscuous gay lifestyle and you're likely to get it back then so to the doctors and government it made perfect sense.

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I think the trucker scene shows that it started as random sex, and like all bad habits, they destroy you.

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I think your right. Past interviews with Brian May about the time that they shared a flat together indicated that Freddie was shagging lots of women and Brian never saw him with any man in the early days. So if they had never made it big he would have probably continued living a straight life... but give him all the fame and money to do whatever he wanted and it picked up a bad habit that killed him.

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Being gay is a bad habit?

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In some senses, yes. Let me give you an example. Once me and my brother pulled up to look at this river and there was a public toilet. I sat by my car, not really wanting to look at the river. This car pulls up and this old man gets out, smiling at me as he goes to the toilets. WTF? What is this place? Then out of nowhere I see a young man of probably 23 years follow him in. They stayed in there. I take out my phone and search 'gay beat' and the location and sure enough, it's on a gay forum.

How depraved are both of these? Firstly, an old man. Why is he still wanting sex with strangers at his age? Then secondly, why the hell would a young man want to have sex with someone as old as his grandfather?

I've seen another beat at a beach near me and men sit in their cars, loitering outside of the toilets waiting for their hookup. It's repulsive.

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Had the young person been a woman, would you have been equally disgusted?

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So a young man going in after a granny? EWW YES!

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It’s nice of you to police people’s relationships.

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I agree with you but dislike the sarcasm, which never helps an internet-based discussion.

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Having sexual intercourse in public spaces concerns all of us.

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Except perverts.

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Of course it concerns perverts as well. They're just not concerned ABOUT it.

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Actually the bad habit I was referring to specifically was the promiscuous lifestyle where Freddie was pretty much shagging like Gene Simmons of Kiss... Of course the fact that he was shagging men which is where you were far more likely to get HIV in the 80's pretty much gave him a death sentence. In fact he may have very well gotten AIDS if he had only banged women like Magic Johnson, but be honest a promiscuous gay lifestyle in the early days of HIV was stupid.

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They had no idea what HIV was, first of all, but expressing one’s sexuality was a way to take back some semblance of power in a repressive world that rejected them for who they were. But ultimately it’s normal to act on one’s desires.

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HIV was known to be something you had a much higher chance of getting by engaging in promiscuous gay lifestyle in the early 1980's. Freddie didn't get diagnosed with AIDS until April of 1987 regardless of what the movie showed, the movie was taking dramatic license. So the odds are extremely high that he contracted it several years prior to the diagnosis which would have been well after living that lifestyle was known to be a significant risk factor in getting the disease. So yes he knew or should have known as it was pretty common knowledge back then as I remember discussing it and the gay angle in college in the early 80's.

As for it being normal to act on one's desires, under that logic I hope you don't ever say anything about fat people because they are just acting on their desire to eat... and serial killers, well they are just acting on their desire to kill.. Get the point? A big part of being human and not just some animal is the having and using self control.

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You are a homphobe and a bigot. Comparing LGBTQ folks to serial killers = textbook homophobia.

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You are complete idiot. Nowhere did I compare a homosexual to a serial killer. I simply pointed out that your ridiculous suggestion that engaging in one's desire to live a promiscuous life was normal. Failing to use any self control of ones desires is not normal... People over eat because they desire food, serial killers kill because they have a desire to kill... those are not normal healthy desires now are they? Well engaging in shagging anything willing isn't healthy and certainly not normal behavior. Maybe you're just upset because your one of those pathetic folks that can't control yourself.

Oh and for the record, I'm not a homophobe never been afraid of a fag or lesbian in my life...It does make me wonder what text book your using because the text book definition of homophobia is someone with an irrational fear and aversion to homosexuals. Truth is very few people are actually homophobic even though idiots like yourself love to claim anyone that doesn't believe homosexual behavior is normal are somehow homophobic. Natural selection would tend to define homosexuality as abnormal simply because it goes counter to the basic need to reproduce... but you're probably too stupid to understand that as well.

As for the bigot well think about the definition of bigot, "someone intolerant toward those holding different opinions"... I think if you'll look in the mirror you'll see a bigot clear as day. I've tolerated your ignorance, but you've not tolerated anything that differed from your whack job belief.

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Classic. I’m intolerant and ignorant because I reject your rejection of LGBTQ persons living their lives. I’m the asshole. The guy who doesn’t police other people. The person disgusted by people living polyamorous lifestyles is the tolerant, open-minded one and I’m the dick for being supportive of people who live differently than I do and frustrated with those who don’t.

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gays spread a buncha diseases

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Well recognizing you have a problem is the first step. The next one if for you to do something about it.

The problem you have is you seem to think that tolerance is acceptance. The two are completely different things and that's what the loony PC liberal don't seem to understand. A rational person can tolerate a homosexual but tolerance doesn't require that you approve of the lifestyle. Tolerance is merely allowing the homosexual to go about their life and not go out beating the hell out of them. Tolerance does not require everyone to go tell them, "good job hope you stay gay." Think about it for a bit before you just make your standard knee jerk reaction... You're entire life seems to be based on the faulty assumption that tolerance requires you to accept something, you don't have to accept the beliefs of someone you think is a racist, but you do need to accept that their point of view deserves to be respected just as much as your own point of view... and respected doesn't mean you have to believe they are right merely that they have a right to their view without you trying to bash them for having it. That is what tolerance is all about and you lack it in spades.

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I tolerate bugs. I accept people. You don’t.

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Sadly you don't understand what tolerance is... you are the typical stupid liberal loon that preaches tolerance but hasn't a clue what it means.

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tolerate - allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference.

Exactly what I thought.

accept - believe or come to recognize (an opinion, explanation, etc.) as valid or correct

Also exactly what I thought.

What I said is right. I tolerate bugs. I accept people. Yes, you tolerate LGBTQ folks. You don't accept them. You're a dinosaur with an archaic, backwards way of thinking. That you don't want to police their actions is positive, but that you're so bothered by their existence is a problem.

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My god you're an idiot. You parrot the definitions and then go back to you're intolerant ways. Maybe being a little poof like you are is a form of brain damage and you just can't help being stupid.

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*you're

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...and then later in the sentence, you're instead of your, all the while calling someone else stupid.

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When your only comeback relies on misspelled words it only shows the world that you lost the argument.

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Not really dude, just highlighting your innate hypocrisy.

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The only hypocrisy in America today are the liberal loons that demand tolerance while being completely intolerant of people that don't like what they want to push. Look in the mirror... now you just saw a hypocrite.

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Good job I'm not in America then.

It's amusing how you started out with a fairly valid point - albeit badly worded - but, when challenged, quickly fell back on a stack of childish insults, likely to reflect your true colors. You're basic.

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Wow you’re a real jerk. I bet you call yourself a Christian, the most hateful people usually do.

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Really? How many gays have you seen Christians throwing off the tops of buildings? How many people have you seen Christians burning alive? How many people have you seen get their heads lopped off by Christian?

I know you hate Christians but the reality is the most hate filled religious group on the planet is Islam. If you can't see that then you're such a complete idiot you might as well go to the corner and droll on yourself.

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Wow you win, Islam is worse, you Christians come in second place for tha asshole award, congratulations douche.

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Thanks for fighting the good fight for people who need and deserve love and kindness.

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Yeah the knowledge about it was vague.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/12/the-disease-of-the-century-reporting-on-the-origin-of-aids/383440/

On July 3, 1981, The New York Times published a story by physician and medical correspondent Dr. Lawrence Altman titled Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals. The cancer was Kaposi’s sarcoma, a tumor caused by a viral infection and characterised by dark spots on the skin. While the disease usually struck older patients and progressed slowly, these 41 cases had appeared in and were quickly killing men as young as 26. Doctors were puzzled: The cause of the outbreak is unknown, and there is as yet no evidence of contagion, Altman wrote, noting that the patients had severe defects in their immune systems. There were few facts to be reported; journalists, like doctors and their patients, knew little about the disease. As one man recalled of his diagnosis for New York magazine in 1983: He said: You are immune-deficient. I said: What does that mean? He said: Nobody really knows.

From Time Magazine.

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1050441-2,00.html

Aug. 12, 1985.

It is the virtual certainty of death from AIDS, once the syndrome has fully developed, that makes the disease so frightening, along with the uncertainty of nearly everything else about it. Despite the progress in medical research so far, huge questions remain about its origin and fundamental nature. In trying to understand AIDS, says Dr. William Haseltine, a leading investigator at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, we have moved from being explorers in a canoe to explorers with a small sail on the vast sea of what we do not know.

Then: http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1050441-4,00.html

Not everyone infected with the AIDS virus develops the deadly syndrome. Most develop a seemingly peaceful coexistence with the virus, says Dr. James Curran. They have no symptoms at all or very minimal symptoms, but they have persistent infection and are probably persistently infectious to others. Another group suffers a mild version of immune-system depression, with symptoms and signs that include malaise, weight loss, fevers and swollen lymph nodes.

What will happen to this group is the object of much speculation and study. That's the million-dollar question, says Dr. Michael Lange of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. The guess is that 5% to 10% of people who do not have symptoms but do have antibodies to the virus will develop AIDS within five years. There is no way to tell which ones will get it. It's like Russian roulette with one bullet and ten chambers, says Ronald Sanders of the Los Angeles health department.

As for where you were far more likely to get HIV in the 80's again in 1985 they still had no real idea:

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1050441-5,00.html

The CDC has learned of at least 118 cases of transmission between heterosexual partners. Most heterosexual transmission seen to date has been from men to women, rather than from women to men, suggesting the possibility that women may be less efficient transmitters of the infection. However, at least 14 men have been infected by women, according to Mathilde Krim, a research biologist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, and health authorities are concerned about the possible role of prostitutes in spreading the epidemic. Curran thinks it may prove significant that about 15% of the men whose cases remain unexplained have a history of sexual contact with prostitutes.

AIDS appears to be almost entirely a heterosexual disease in the central African countries of Zaïre, Rwanda and Burundi, where it affects women and men in equal numbers. According to a Canadian researcher working in East Africa, Prostitution seems to have played a key role in African AIDS. Virologist Myron Essex of the Harvard school of public health thinks that as many as one out of every 20 people is infected, though not necessarily ill in Africa's AIDS belt, which also includes parts of Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania. Some researchers see this as a foretaste of what will occur in the U.S., but many disagree. They point to Third World conditions that may promote the disease. Among them the presence of feces in drinking water, the use and reuse of unsterilized needles in many small clinics.

Squalid conditions, poverty and a semitropical environment may also play a role in the high rate of AIDS in Haiti and, oddly enough, in parts of southeastern Florida. Belle Glade, Fla., with 46 cases, has the highest incidence in the U.S. "There is raw sewage on the ground and rats running all around, says Dr. Mark Whiteside of Miami's Tropical Medicine Clinic. Filth, insects and a high rate of tuberculosis, he suggests, might contribute to the epidemic.


Lots more at the links of course, however that's the gist of it.

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I don't believe anyone makes a choice to become gay.
Seriously? Do you?
No one makes a choice to be straight either, do they?
Sometimes it takes a while for people to come to terms with accepting it in themselves and they try to live a straight existence. Not so unusual.
Freddie always loved his wife/girlfriend even after they split up and he still called her the love of his life. But physically he seemed to prefer men. He couldn't change that.

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Actually, I disagree. A bisexual person might decide to become strictly gay over time because they prefer simply one sex or the other, or out of convenience, etc.

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We weren't talking about bisexual people. I was referring to the initial question which was about homosexuality..

I think bisexual people are either experimenting because they like the idea of being bi or have a preference that they will eventually chose.
You seldom see anyone remain bi over the course of their entire lives without making a choice.

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Catching the gay virus ...I hear it cums on quick and is hard to shake.

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He liked the mens.

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LOL wow, I'm sorry. Can you ask someone you know, in person, to explain it to you?

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