National Football League Hall-of-Famer Michael Irvin is on the cover of the latest issue of Out Magazine, “The World’s Leading Gay Fashion & Lifestyle Brand”. In the interview with the publication, Irvin stands up for equality while delving into his family’s past. His brother Vaughn, who is no longer with us, was a gay man and Irvin discusses the various effects that this had on his life.
While we at Jessica Who? are all for equality for the entire LGBT community, normally I wouldn’t post something like this. What made this blogworthy in my opinion, was the way that the former Dallas Cowboys superstar found out that his sibling was homosexual.
Some time in the 1970, Michael walked in on his brother wearing women’s clothing. This set off an alert that he was Vaughn was gay, which is of course the first and most prevalent assumption associated with this behavior.
He is quoted as saying, “And through it all we realized maybe some of the issues I’ve had with so many women, just bringing women around so everybody can see, maybe that’s the residual of the fear I had that if my brother is wearing ladies’ clothes, am I going to be doing that? Is it genetic?”
Throughout the course of the interview he touched on his support of gay marriage as well as his family being both Christian and tolerant.
I am curious as to whether Vaughn Irvin was a Drag Queen or simply an MTF crossdressing gay male.
Though I am not trying to shine any sort of negative light on Irvin’s interview, things like this do further the stereotype that if you are a man who enjoys dressing up like a woman, you must be gay. Of course, we in the community must always strive to soften this somewhat, because it’s often not the case.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I hate when they said that! There maybe a small percent of crossdress, transvestite, transgenders that are gay. But who keep on said things like this! Just because alot of women dress like boys wear basical the samething that her, brother, cousin, husband. Are they all gay!!
I didn’t care for Irvin’s photo on the cover of the magazine. If the point of the article was to promote the idea that “normal” straight Christian males can be supportive of others who are not like them, then why pose in such a homosexually suggestive manner? The image is unnecessary and confusing as it adds nothing to the narrative. (Is it that someone assumes that homosexual men won’t read a story unless a masculine man is presented this way?)
Having seen an image of his brother dressed as a woman, I believe that he was probably transsexual. He was very pretty and very feminine and if he had male partners, he probably was a woman with them. (I know, gender terms are so inadequate, but I hope you get my meaning).