John Travolta

[BiBottomBoy]

Gawker has managed to get advance details on the John Travolta expose book.

To summarize: Travolta is a size queen, a bottom and into black and Middle Eastern dudes with the occasional Korean and Mexican thrown in the mix.

His preference seems to be straight acting dudes and doing them in public sauna while other dudes watch.

The New You Need!

http://gawker.com/5685811/the-secret-sex-life-of-john-travolta?skyline=true&s=i

[TampaYankee]

I'm really against people being outed against their will unless they are flaming hypoocrits like some of our politicians or pious types. The more so when someone does it for profit.

[Guest zipperzone]

I'm really against people being outed against their will unless they are flaming hypoocrits like some of our politicians or pious types. The more so when someone does it for profit.

I don't know about "flaming" but IMO he IS a hypocrite. But I don't think this book is necessarily outing him. It has been an open secret in LA for years.

For what it's worth - Amazon is not showing this book as being available or about to be.

[BiBottomBoy]

Also if you are having public sex in pretty much every gay sauna in LA you aren't trying to hide it that much.

[JKane]

I'm really against people being outed against their will unless they are flaming hypoocrits like some of our politicians or pious types. The more so when someone does it for profit.

I agree with this sentiment 110% but would classify Travolta *as a pious type*. He was the first "major" celebrity to embrace Scientology and proselytized it throughout Hollywood (and the world). Even after Scientology's batshit opposition to psychiatric drugs *resulted in the death of his SON* he hasn't disavowed it.

And while Scientology is no LDS when it comes to gays, I get the feeling it's not something they really approve of--more something they can use to blackmail members (hmm, two biggest celebrity advocates: Travolta and Tom Cruise...).

[TampaYankee]

Also if you are having public sex in pretty much every gay sauna in LA you aren't trying to hide it that much.

This is totally bogus IMO. How many of us have carried on in suanas like that in the past? Would we all want our lives put on the front page?

If it weren't for who he is then it wouldn't be an issue. His sex life shouldnt be an issue unless he is public hypocrit about it. I haven't seen him take public actions that would qualify for that.

As far as being a member of a church or religious group, that is not only thin but totally insufficent as a reason for outting. That opens to the door to outting every catholic and every member of most other christian sects on that basis.

To repeat... it's wrong no matter how titillated we may be by reading about it.

[MsGuy]

This is totally bogus IMO.

Agreed.

If you're down with randomly outing folks for purely commercial purposes, just man up about it ( ) and say so. The pretense that Travolta's Scientology has anything to do with this is just plain silly.

[Buddy2]

.

As far as being a member of a church or religious group, that is not only thin but totally insufficent as a reason for outting. That opens to the door to outting every catholic and every member of most other christian sects on that basis.

I could not possibly disagree more. He is a member of the Church of Scientology, a religion that is militantly anti-gay and lesbian. Travolta has been a member of the church for decades, and holds a high position. Certainly, you must know that if a well-known celebrity bishop in the Catholic Church is as openly gay as Travolta has been, it would be a story.

[caeron]

I'm with Tampa Yankee. The position of the scientology on gays isn't fully clear, and calling him a bishop isn't accurate either. John has done nothing to the community to warrant outing.

I absolutely believe in outing folks like Larry Craig, but to compare John to these enemies of our community is frankly bullshit.

[Guest zipperzone]

Did he honestly think that as a famous and easily recognized face he could actually have sex in bath houses WITH AN AUDIENCE and no one would talk about it? If so he is delusional. He must have known that in our present media-crazed world it was just a matter of time until somebody published it.

So, was he "outed"? I guess you could call it that but IMO he was begging to be.

[BiBottomBoy]

Not only is Scientology very, very anti gay, one of their pitches to people is that they can cure homosexuality.

Travolta is the fourth highest ranking member of the church. If his own behavior proves that their homosexuality cures don't work, it's a legitimate news item.

[Buddy2]

Not only is Scientology very, very anti gay, one of their pitches to people is that they can cure homosexuality.

Travolta is the fourth highest ranking member of the church. If his own behavior proves that their homosexuality cures don't work, it's a legitimate news item.

I agree. I attended an est orientation in the 1980s by mistake. Est was a more gentle second cousin to Scientology. But, I saw the mind control techniques first hand during that orientation. I refused to sign up (as everyone else was doing), and was surrounded quickly by six est members who attacked me for not wanting to significantly change my life by borrowing money to pay for est training. Luckily, I drove there, and they could not stop me from leaving and driving home. That was just an hour or two, but one of the worst experiences in my life.

Travolta has been a member of Scientology for as long as I can remember. How could he have avoided using mind control methods to encourage people to

'cure' their homosexuality? He could not, and remain in good standing.

[caeron]

What they talked about 30 years ago and what they talk about today isn't the same thing. And even if true, this is equivalent to outing someone because they're a catholic.

My googling doesn't show Travolta as a ranking member of the church hierarchy. And the stuff on being anti-gay seems out of date too.

Not mind you, that I'm a fan, but I think there's no justification for outing.

[BiBottomBoy]

When has a Catholic cardinal ever said that homosexuality could be cured?

And, yes, if any of the leading cardinals or the pope was having sex in half the bath houses in Rome I think that would be news.

[caeron]

When has a Catholic cardinal ever said that homosexuality could be cured?

And, yes, if any of the leading cardinals or the pope was having sex in half the bath houses in Rome I think that would be news.

Try google. Scientology doesn't have that view currently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_topics_and_Scientology

And on what basis do you equate Travolta with being a cardinal?

[Guest zipperzone]

What they talked about 30 years ago and what they talk about today isn't the same thing. And even if true, this is equivalent to outing someone because they're a catholic.

My googling doesn't show Travolta as a ranking member of the church hierarchy. And the stuff on being anti-gay seems out of date too.

Not mind you, that I'm a fan, but I think there's no justification for outing.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I think you're wrong. He wasn't outed because he never tried to conceal it. Having sex in public with an audience? Come on, get real.

[Buddy2]

Try google. Scientology doesn't have that view currently.

And on what basis do you equate Travolta with being a cardinal?

Travolta has been a member of the Church of Scientology for thirty-five years, so whatever the Church's current position may be in 2010...I still do not know because your citation is in question because of footnote problems...is not

relevant.

[MsGuy]

Guys, back in the day, gays just didn't out other gays. These days some do. Times change. Standards of behavior change.

Some out for ideological/political reasons, some out from anger/revenge/spite, some for their 15 minutes of fame or to make a buck. All I'm saying is do what you think right but don't be a hypocrite about it and be honest about what you're doing.

Go back and read the article. Can anyone honestly say that the business about his Scientology was anything but throw-a-way fluff to cover their ass from criticism by gays who still are uncomfortable with commercialized outing?

[RA1]

Standards of behavior change.

Pity.

Best regards,

RA1

[BiBottomBoy]

In 1950 Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, introducing his "science of the mind," Dianetics. He classified homosexuality as an illness or sexual perversion, citing contemporary psychiatric and psychological textbooks to support his view:

"The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in Dynamic II [i.e. sexuality] such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically... he is very far from culpable for his condition, but he is also far from normal and extremely dangerous to society..."[1]

Hubbard further defined perversion in his 1951 book Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior. Here he introduced the concept of the "tone scale", a means of classifying individuals and human behaviour on a chart running from +40 (the most beneficial) to -40 (the least beneficial). Sexual perversion, a category in which he included homosexuality, was termed "covert hostility" and given a score of 1.1, "the level of the pervert, the hypocrite, the turncoat, ... the subversive." Such people were "skulking coward who yet contains enough perfidious energy to strike back, but not enough courage ever to give warning."[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_topics_and_Scientology

[caeron]

60 year old stuff? Seriously?

60 years ago, NOBODY thought being gay was ok. Using this as your cover for saying it is ok to out Travolta is ridiculous.

[JKane]

60 year old stuff? Seriously?

60 years ago, NOBODY thought being gay was ok. Using this as your cover for saying it is ok to out Travolta is ridiculous.

Bible's *much* older and yet many agree it'd be OK to out a high-ranking Catholic. In fact, the two antigay passages in the bible are pretty tame and many believe superseded (like the rest of Leviticus).

Verses it being the recent basis of CoS that homosexuality is a perversion to be cured. And where it can't be cured (

) it can be used as a means of control.

[BiBottomBoy]

Control and blackmail.

[lookin]

Perhaps then JT's purported public peccadilloes are merely his way of thumbing his nose at the more hidebound views of his adopted religion?

Control me, will ya? Ha! Blackmail? I don't think so!!

Good for him! Sounds like he's got 'em on the ropes.

[KYTOP]

I'm really against people being outed against their will unless they are flaming hypoocrits like some of our politicians or pious types. The more so when someone does it for profit.

I agree with you. I've always been uncomfortable with the whole outing thing. Each person has a different private life and reason for why they stay in the closet or not. It is not my place to make that decision for them, of course I'm a big fan of the Right of Privacy. To me the whole outing thing has more to do with people's love for gossip than anything else.