Boy George: Gay Men Try to Fit In

In speaking about the brutal attack on a flamboyant longtime gay friend, Boy George discussed the pressures on gay men to assimilate.

Speaking to The Guardian, George discussed how his friend Philip Sallon, recently attacked in London, was part of the outlandish New Romantic movement in the early 1980s.

"People aren't so individual any more," George told the newspaper. "There is this sense of why would you want to stand out and make a show of yourself?" He added, "You can find that sort of attitude in the gay community too. That if you are an exhibitionist you are somehow spoiling the big assimilation. Most gay men go out of their way to look normal and fit in, but Philip is not of that breed."

George decried recent antigay violence in London and said the presence of gay people on television doesn't mean homophobia has gone away.