The Daily Mantra would like to applaud pop star George Michael for his appearance on Eli Stone, (which stars Johnny Lee Miller as a lawyer with a higher calling in the title role). In the past, the publicity shy singer/songwriter has even refused to promote his own records, so when he stepped into the limelight for a cameo appearance on last week's installment of the hit ABC spiritually-charged legal drama, we knew it was for reasons beyond mere music and ticket sales, for Michael is a man who knows how to use his fame wisely.
In the episode in question, Stone represents a girl who was expelled from school for protesting about its abstinence-only sex education program by playing Michael's 1987 hit "I Want Your Sex" over the speaker system during assembly. In the show, Michael comes to her rescue, and funds her legal challenge to the expulsion; In reality, the singer used the high-profile TV appearance to challenge America's hypocritical, and highly misleading, policy of abstinence only 'sex education.'
"An abstinence only 'sex education' program is an oxymoron," said Michael from the witness box. "Abstinence can only be a choice if you have all the facts." One fact that's glaringly absent from such programs is that condom use is an effective option to protect against both pregnancy and disease. The silence is deafening, not just in our schools, but in the third world, where the poorest people on our planet have paid dearly, many with their lives, thanks to the deadly combination of AIDs and our no-sex dogma, which comes hands-in-hand with all U.S. government-funded sexual health programs.
The AIDS issue is very close to Michael's heart. Michael's lover, Anselmo Feleppa, died of an AIDS-related cerebral hemorrhage in March 1993. "I Want Your Sex" was released in 1987, when Michael was still firmly in the closet (the singer came out to his parents shortly after Feleppa's death, and to the public in 1998). To dispel misconceptions about the anti-promiscuity but pro-sex song, which was banned by many radio stations due to its explicit lyrics, Michael recorded a prologue for the video in which he stated "this song is not about casual sex." During one of the scenes in the steamy video, which featured celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung, Michael is seen writing "explore monogamy" on her body in lipstick.
"It was inspired by a relationship. Like most of my work it was autobiographical," said Michael in response to a question posed by Stone's boss and trial colleague Jordan Wethersby (played by Victor Gaber) during cross-examination about the origins of the song. When asked if the song encouraged promiscuity, Michael responded by saying, "It's just the opposite. Ironically I wrote the song about abstinence and I was very much in love with someone at the time."
"When I wrote it we were in year six of the AIDS crises, a crisis that Ronald Reagan did not even address publicly until there were over 21,000 people dead, and what the government is doing right now, funding federal programs that tell children that condoms don't work, is killing people all over again."
To quote Mr. Wethersby, "Thank you, Mr. Michael." We rest our case. How many more of us will be caught 'praying for time' with HIV-infected loved ones before the state gets the church-infected dogma out our publicly-funded education programs and lets pragmatism take its course.
Editor, writer, photographer and conversationalist Nicole Powers believes in working hard and playing hard – preferably simultaneously. When she’s not working hard at having a really, really good time, she tries to make her corner of the world a better, neater place (one stray sock at a time). She strives to live by her personal mantra, you can sleep when you’re dead. She aims to experience as much as she can while she walks on this wonderful earth, and has a passion for sharing the things she’s passionate about. She loves her husband, Al Gore, Michael Moore, Moby, Apple Macs, yoga, modern dance, Vanity Fair, Douglas Adams and John Stewart, hates Wal-Mart, 4X4s, greed and apathy, and thinks Zero 7 make the best music to make love to – which, incidentally, is what we all should be doing instead of waging wars.
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