by Ian Halperin
Indeed, after all the drama that came later, it is easy to forget that Whitney used her sudden success and fame to dedicate herself to some of the causes that she held dear. In 1988, she launched the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children. And unlike many celebrities who turn to philanthropy to burnish their public image, it was clear from the outset that Whitney was passionate about the cause. The foundation’s mission was to improve the lives of homeless children and kids suffering from HIV or cancer. She raised millions for the cause and traveled tirelessly to promote the foundation’s mission. But more importantly, she became one of a small array of celebrities who helped raise public awareness around HIV issues during the peak of the AIDS crisis. Her own passion for the issue reportedly stemmed from the death of a male friend from the disease during the eighties. It was a subject rarely discussed in the black community, making her voice all the more important. Acting as the foundation’s president, Cissy also did important humanitarian work during this period.
In addition, Whitney performed countless benefits and raised money for a number of organizations close to her heart, including the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund. She was a steadfast and outspoken opponent of apartheid and refused to do any business with any company with ties to South Africa.
At a time when her handlers were clearly nervous about the rumors about her sexuality, Whitney also sang at numerous benefits to raise money for organizations battling AIDS, including Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
“Sadly, there is a stigma associated with people afflicted with AIDS,” she said at the 1991 Reach Out and Touch UK HIV/AIDS Vigil in Hyde Park. “Even as we speak, it is sweeping away our children, our families, our loved ones. Our world must continue through research to work towards finding a cure.”
It is likely that it was this high-profile advocacy rather than her purported lesbianism that made her a darling of the gay community throughout her career. Aside from my own encounter, I am struck by the fact that virtually everybody I have spoken to who met or was close to Whitney used words like sweet, warm, generous, humble, and giving to describe the Whitney Houston of the eighties and early nineties.
And for those who knew her and experienced her magnanimous spirit during those golden years of her career, it made what happened next all the more tragic.
* * *
Whitney’s work with the foundation—and the fact that she simply needed a break after the whirlwind of the last few years—was one of the reasons almost three years would go by between the release of her second album and the time she hit the studio to release the follow-up album, I’m Your Baby Tonight, which would not see the light of day until late 1990.
During the interval, those around her could sense a backlash brewing that threatened to derail her status as the world’s most successful female recording artist.
Cissy claims she had sensed trouble as early as 1986, when MTV started playing her videos in regular rotation—unusual at that time for a black female artist—and that her wide exposure on the network signified to some people that her music wasn’t “black enough.”
On the first season of the Wayans brothers’ satirical comedy TV series In Living Color, Kim Wayans would parody Whitney’s pop ballad–heavy album I’m Your Baby Tonight in a way that some observers interpreted as implying that she had no rhythm and therefore is too white.
“Whitney was never trying to be white,” writes Cissy. “She just wanted to sing, to share her God-given talent and be herself. If they didn’t like it that she didn’t take off her clothes and shake her ass and all that mess, well—that was their problem.”
Occasionally, Whitney herself brought up the subject in a defensive manner. “Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?” she complained to Katie Couric on the Today show. “You’re not black enough for them. I don’t know. You’re not R&B enough. You’re very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them.”
Speaking to USA Today, she again referenced the supposed criticisms: “I would think that black people would be proud,” she says. “I don’t sing music thinking this is black, or this is white. I just sing songs that I think and hope everybody is going to like.”
And yet it was rare that the interviewers themselves broached the subject of whether Whitney was sounding too white. There was just one subject that still seemed to be on everybody’s mind, despite all the publicity about the various men she was allegedly dating.
In an appearance on the TV series Ebony Showcase in 1999, the interviewer told Whitney that she recently did a radio call-in show in Detroit. She claimed that thirty calls came in that day and everybody wanted to know “Is Whitney gay or not?”
“Whitney is not gay. That is the story about that,” the singer responded emphatically. “I’m particular, that’s all. I’d rather wait you know instead of spreading myself too thin. I don’t know why people think that you have to be running around with every Tom, Dick or Harry there is. I was not raised that way. I just wasn’t. Nobody in my family was. That is the basis for that but (exasperated sigh) Whitney is not gay. The only gayness I feel is when I’m happy honey. That’s it. That’s all that matters.”
On April 13, 1989, Whitney attended the third annual Soul Train Music Awards at LA’s Shrine Auditorium, where she was nominated for Best R&B Urban Contemporary single for her song “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”—the fourth single from her second album. The year before, at the same ceremony, she had won the award for Best Album–Female and lost Best Music Video to Janet Jackson, but this time she was up against Karyn White, Anita Baker, and Vanessa Williams for only one award on a night when Baker was heavily favored to sweep the evening for her acclaimed 1988 release, Giving You the Best That I Got.
She had been well received at these awards on two previous occasions. But when the nominations were called out in her category and Whitney’s name was mentioned, a smattering of boos rang out among the crowd, which consisted of a who’s who of black music industry heavyweights. Robyn sat beside her as she endured the indignity. It was even later claimed that the Pointer Sisters were among those booing their peer and that the words oreo and whitey were flung from the balcony but no such contemporary account exists. Although that night would later mark a much more significant milestone in Whitney’s life, the booing would be widely cited as evidence that there was a growing backlash among African Americans against Whitney because of the perception that she was “too white.” The incident failed to garner much mention at the time, but when her third album was released and its sales lagged far behind her first two, some would look back to that night as evidence that she was perceived as a sellout by some. In a May 1991 profile, Ebony would later reference the booing, noting, “Black disk jockeys have chided her for not having soul.”
Leona Price, a radio syndication rep, was in attendance at the Shrine Auditorium that evening, and she has a different take on what went down than the conventional narrative:
First of all, it’s simply not true that the crowd booed her that evening. It would be accurate to say that there were some boos but much more cheering than booing, the cheers were louder. I can’t speak for those people but I think it’s bullshit to say that they were booing because she was too white or wasn’t black enough or whatever, as people have said. That simply wasn’t the attitude of the black community at that time. You had Whitney being this major force; she was as big as Elvis or the Beatles and her success was this point of pride for the community. If you remember, Michael Jackson actually lightened his skin to look whiter for Chrissake and even then the black community didn’t turn against him or accuse him of selling out. Maybe later with the pedophile stuff but that was a different thing. So why would they turn against Whitney just because some people perceived she didn’t have enough soul or whatever it was? No, if anything bothered people it was the whole lesbian thing. That is something that definitely had some people turned off. I think a lot of people didn’t believe the talk but a lot certainly did. I remember you’d have men making these crude
jokes about her and “carpet munching”; things like that and they’d be sniggering. And the women also talked about it in a negative light. Not everybody but it was there. You’d hear it in the beauty shops and salons for sure, people would talk and gossip. I think if people were talking about her being not black enough, that was code for her being gay. It definitely hurt her but she was still being played on black radio so there was an audience no matter what.
Was African-American homophobia genuinely a factor in the so-called backlash?
In 2008, author Terrance Dean penned a memoir, Hiding in Hip Hop: On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry—from Music to Hollywood, detailing his encounters with closeted gay men in the music and film industries. Dean, who is black, possessed the credentials and credibility, having worked for more than a decade with industry heavyweights such as Spike Lee, Rob Reiner, Keenan Ivory Wayans, and Anjelica Huston, and with production companies ranging from Paramount to Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures. He reveals that a wide range of very prominent figures from hip-hop moguls to rappers, actors to musicians, are hiding in the Hollywood closet and that industry insiders go out of their way to hide these secrets for fear of jeopardizing their profits.
Dean is particularly eloquent on the subject of homophobia in the black community and its effect on closeted African-American stars. He argues that it is far riskier for black celebrities to come out than white stars. Interviewed by Time soon after the book’s release, he pointed to some concrete examples.
I think for whites it has been more accepting because you look at the presence of Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell, Melissa Etheridge, they’ve all been accepted. When they came out, the community rallied behind them and encouraged them, and they were empowered. Unfortunately in the black community it seems that if you come out, you risk jeopardizing your career because we do not discuss sex or sexuality in our community. It’s seen as taboo. The more masculine you present yourself, then we will love you, accept you, praise you. The more effeminate you are, we tend to shy away because we don’t want to be seen with you, we don’t want to be guilty by association. Even if [a person] is not gay, but because a friend is, that person will stop associating with them because they don’t want people to think that’s what they do.
A year later I would discover poignant evidence of this phenomenon—a discovery that would shed important insight on the life and career of Whitney Houston.
CHAPTER TEN
Who needs to turn on a TV set to watch the reality show allegedly being produced by the Brown family? As the clan gathers in Atlanta to offer support to Bobby in his time of anguish, the ongoing antics of his extended family are presenting their own real-time reality show right before our very eyes.
Before the spectacle of Leolah Brown’s unsubstantiated accusation against Nick Gordon about his Dr. Phil appearance could dissipate, along comes her nephew Jerod Brown, suggesting that the police are barking up the wrong tree, looking at Gordon—a mere appendage of Whitney’s family—as a suspect. Instead, they should be looking at actual honest-to-goodness relatives.
In a March 9 post on his Facebook page, he levels an astonishing charge against Whitney’s sister-in-law Pat Houston, who has acted as executor of the late singer’s estate since her 2012 death in a Los Angeles hotel bathtub that the coroner had ruled was caused by drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors:
Auntie Whitney was murdered not drowned. That’s a fact. Now the whole bathroom plot shows up again w/ Bobbi Kristina’s situation. C’mon are you people that bold to perform this act again on my family? And the public believes whatever these people put in their faces, I mean it is convincing if you’re not on the inside. However, I will let it be known Kristina has always had suspicion about Pat Houston. Soon evidence will be handed over to assist this investigation.
As the ridicule poured in about this apparently baseless conspiracy theory, Jerod took to Facebook again to preempt a predicted attempt by his uncle to shut him up by referencing some of the conspiracy theories leveled by Michael Jackson’s sister after his 2009 death:
La Toya Jackson was considered crazy for standing for her brother (Michael) because she knew the truth. I will not stand down anymore. My bloodline is on the line and we no longer will be hush hush! I know people got jobs on the line, and some are afraid to speak up, and my uncle Bobby might even put another statement on me about remaining quiet, But somebody will pay for the death of auntie Whitney. Kristina is UNTOUCHABLE! THIS ISNT THE FIRST TIME THIS ACT WAS ATTEMPTED. BUT THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME! THEY MIGHT COME FOR ME BUT SOMEONE HAS TO STAND FOR WHATS RIGHT. THIS ISNT ABOUT MONEY, FAME, OR ATTENTION . . . THIS IS ABOUT MY FAMILY. BOBBI KRISTINA WILL PULL THROUGH BECAUSE SHES A CHILD OF GOD. SO WITH THAT SAID CONTINUE TO #PRAYFORBK AS WE NOW FIGHT FOR #TrueJusticeForWhitney
A few hours later, after being subject to more ridicule, Jerod attempted to soften his previous postings:
I never said Pat Houston was a murderer. I said Krissi has had suspicion of her (when it came to her money & her mom). The fact still remains, Auntie Whitney’s case needs to be reopen #PrayForBK
If all this wasn’t unfolding against the tragic backdrop of a young woman fighting for her life in a hospital bed, it would almost be fun to watch. But I had no time to pay much attention to this clan of clowns. I was finally on my way to Atlanta to attempt to make some sense of the unfolding drama and separate the facts from the nonsense.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It is fashionable to dismiss rumors about the sexuality of celebrities as tabloid gossip or as nobody’s business but their own. Others believe that entertainment figures belong to the public whose patronage supplies their livelihood and so their lives deserve to be open to scrutiny. For me, it’s never been that simple.
When I published my first book with Max Wallace in 1998, casting doubt on the circumstances behind the 1994 death of Kurt Cobain, it may have seemed to some people on par with the recent accusations leveled by Jerod Brown suggesting that Whitney Brown had been murdered. In actuality, most of the book focused on discrediting the myriad conspiracy theories circulating about who may have murdered the grunge icon. In the end, I simply shed light on the hastiness of the suicide verdict and called for authorities to reopen the investigation. The New Yorker called the book a “judicious presentation of explosive material.”
In fact, the book’s central theme was not in the end the murder conspiracy theories but the exploration of a phenomenon that surfaced following Cobain’s death. In the weeks and months following his reported shotgun suicide, at least sixty-eight young people—mostly teens—committed “copycat suicides.”
Youth suicide was a subject that haunted me and my coauthor, whose young cousin had killed himself years before on the day of his law school graduation, leaving a note to his deeply conservative, religious parents announcing that he was gay and that their homophobia had helped drive him to suicide.
The link between homophobia and youth suicide has in fact been long documented with jarring statistics to bolster the link. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center has estimated that between thirty and forty percent of LGBT youth, depending on age and sex groups, have attempted suicide.
Suicide experts have argued that the lack of gay role models contributes to the problem. Some believe that gay public figures have an obligation to come out because of the impact it might have on struggling youth. Others decry the staggering number of conservative and religious figures—including a number of high-profile Republican politicians and countless Roman Catholic priests—who are not only closeted but who publicly spew venomous hatred toward gays and lesbians or oppose same-sex marriage to serve as a smoke screen to avoid suspicion.
Some activists are even dedicated to the questionable ethical practice of outing gay public figures, arguing that they have an obligation to serve as role models for gay and lesbian youth confused about their own sexuality or battling societal homophobia. When I was in school, I remember that I believed as
common knowledge that the actor Rock Hudson was “married” to Jim Nabors, TV’s Gomer Pyle. What was unusual is that this was the seventies, long before Hudson became the first major celebrity to be outed following his death from AIDS, supposedly surprising millions of people unaware that the heartthrob was gay. And yet I remember that all my friends and I had heard this story long before anybody had ever heard of AIDS. Following Hudson’s death in 1985, a number of books were published about his life. With the release of each one, I remember eagerly searching the index in vain to find Jim Nabors’s name and get to the bottom of this mystery.
Finally, a few years later, a biography was released that shed light on the connection. It seemed that in the early seventies, according to Hudson himself, a group of “middle aged homosexuals” from Huntington Beach sent out invitations announcing the marriage of Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson, who would subsequently be taking the name “Rock Pyle.” Hudson later maintained that the invitation had been a joke, but considering that the public was blissfully unaware of the two stars’ sexuality at the time (Hudson had spent his career deep in the closet), it seems more likely that it was a deliberate attempt to out them. It seemed to have worked, because years later none of my friends were at all surprised by the supposedly shocking revelation.
Indeed, nowhere has the debate about outing public figures been more pronounced than in Hollywood, where the celluloid closet has long sheltered a vast array of celebrities. In a roundabout way, this is how Whitney Houston first happened upon my radar in any significant way.