Stephen Gately 1976 - 2009

I was at work on my last break of the night shift last night when I happened to glance at the television screen in the corner of he canteen. The sound was off, and the screen was partially blocked and I couldn't read the headline was, as it was across the room, but for some reason it caught my attention. It was Sky News and as I got closer I saw that they were reporting the death of Stephen Gately. I was really surprised. I went back to my computer to check the details on the BBC News website and was surprised that it mentioned nothing at all about the story. I kept checking and was frustrated to find nothing until over 3 hours later when they reported it as "breaking news." A bit slow off the mark for the BBC, they must have known about the story, I wonder what their thinking was behind not mentioning it for so long?


Now, in the grand scheme of things (celebrity wise) it isn't a massive story. He wasn't a major international celeb, but, to me, this is more important that Michael Jackson's death. Stephen Gately always appeared to be a nice, friendly, almost ordinary guy who was well liked. His popularity was shown by the outpouring of support when he "came out" back in 1999. That year he was voted as "Hero of 1999" at that year's Smash Hits Poll Winner's Party (a teen magazine award ceremony), which was voted for by the readers.
It did make me wonder too, what with Kevin McGee earlier in the week also dying, will there be a third LGBT celeb death this week?

My condolences go out to his loved ones.