Freddie Mercury singing and wearing a black and white harlequin pattern bodysuit.
"Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. I'd say what any decent poet would say if anyone dared ask him to analyze his work: if you see it, darling, then it's there!"
– Freddie Mercury
Being queer in the public eye is a whole different domain from being queer as a regular person. We are not usually representatives for our community—though queer people of color and particularly black queer women are especially punished through hypervisibility. Choosing to be open or not is a personal choice, and it’s especially hard when most of your life is up for public consumption. Are queer people in the spotlight required to be open about their identity and experiences? Absolutely not. More importantly, are queer celebrities who don’t publicly “come out” living any less openly than your average queer person?
Freddie Mercury is arguably one of the most well known rock musicians, yet somehow, many people don’t know he was bisexual. Some assume he was straight by default. Others genuinely believe he was gay. Ultimately, the misconceptions come from two places. First, the erasure of bisexual people, particularly bisexual men. The second is Mercury’s choice to have a private life as a celebrity, something completely within his right, that also left room for people to make assumptions.
Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on the 5th of September, 1946 in Zanzibar. His parents moved from western India to Zanzibar before he and his sister were born in order for his father to continue his work. Despite their move, Mercury spent the majority of his childhood living with relatives in India. He started taking piano lessons when he was seven years old, and started attending St. Peter’s School shortly after. At the boarding school he befriended and started a band with some classmates. It was around this time that he started going by Freddie. Long before he wrote his own music, his school band played covers of rock and roll songs.
He moved back in with his parents in Zanzibar when he was 16, but the ensuing war caused the family to relocate to England. Because Mercury was born in Zanzibar, a British protectorate at the time, he was able to register as a citizen of the UK a few years later. At the same time, he finished his study at Ealing Art College with a degree in graphic art and design. After graduation he did a variety of work, including working as an airport baggage handler, selling second-hand clothing, and joining several bands. One of his co-workers was Roger Taylor, who would later be the drummer for his most successful band.
Leading up to their collaboration, Mercury joined two different bands. He joined and quickly left Ibex, later called Wreckage. Following their failure, he joined Sour Milk Sea. When they failed just as quickly, he joined Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May to become their lead singer. John Deacon joined the band a year later, and the band was already seeing more success than Mercury’s past endeavors. Around the same time, he changed both the band’s and his own name. He thought over the band name for some time, and even began work on the logo before decided on the name Queen. He explained the name saying:
"It's just a name, but it's very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid. It's a strong name, very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it.”
He, of course, became Freddie Mercury. The name came from his song, “My Fairy King.” Of the name change, Taylor said:
"[H]e was serious and he changed his name to Freddie Mercury. I think changing his name was part of him assuming this different skin. I think it helped him be this person that he wanted to be, and the Bulsara person was still there, but for the public he was going to be this different character."
Most people know Freddie Mercury as a major musical talent; singing, performing, and songwriting. To be certain, Mercury wrote 10 of the 17 songs on Queen's Greatest Hits album. His popularity and talent is unquestionable. His personal life is, intentionally and unintentionally, less so. He wasn’t necessarily closeted, and, in his personal life, he was open about the men and women he loved. He had a variety of relationships throughout his life, but two stand out.
The first is Mary Austin. Mercury and Austin met through Queen’s guitarist, Brian May. They began a years-long relationship in the early ‘70s and remained together until 1976, even living together for years. After having an affair with another man, Mercury came out to her in late 1976. While their romantic relationship ended then, their friendship continued throughout his life. She was his best friend; in fact, he sometimes called her his only friend. They confided in each other. She picked out the last home he lived in, and he was the godfather to her eldest son. He said of their relationship:
"All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary, but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary, and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that's enough for me."
Later, in his will, he left his home to her. His reasoning was, “You would have been my wife, and it would have been yours anyway.”
The second is Jim Hutton. The two met in 1985, when Hutton actually turned Mercury down, as he was in a relationship. Months later the two began dating—Mercury’s second long-term relationship. They moved in together shortly after. While they could not be legally married, Freddie Mercury called Jim his husband and both wore wedding rings. Mercury described their relationship as one of mutual understanding. When Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, he feared Hutton would leave, but said he’d understand. In response, Jim Hutton said: "Don’t be stupid. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for the long haul." That was the truth. They spent the last few years of Mercury’s life together, with Hutton taking care of him until the end. Mercury kept his illness private, as he was generally a shy and reserved person in his private life. When he passed away on the 24th of November, 1991, Hutton was there at his bedside. Freddie Mercury was cremated with the gold wedding ring Hutton had given him. Supposedly, his ashes were later spread by Austin. After Austin inherited the house, Jim Hutton relocated the home he and Mercury had built in Ireland.
To erase his love for either of these people would not only unnecessarily erase important parts of his life, it would be cruel to his legacy and the people he loved. Why, then, is his sexuality so often ignored or erased? There are two primary issues.
First, bisexual people in relationships are constantly deemed actually straight or actually gay, depending entirely on their partner and not at all on their own identity. Some will use the fact that he kept his relationship with Jim Hutton private as an excuse to erase it entirely.
Second, queer celebrities are seen as hiding their sexuality if they don’t constantly and vocally come out, even if they live openly. This has been a growing issue in recent years especially, with queer celebrities being accused of queerbaiting for being in same gender relationships without explicitly coming out online. Let’s be clear—real people can’t queerbait and queer celebrities are allowed to have private lives. Actor Kal Penn recently announced his engagement to his now-fiance of 11 years, and headlines immediately turned to “Kal Penn has come out.” In reality, he was out to people in his personal life and he was clearly out to his partner. We don’t know to what extent he was out, and he had no obligation to tell us.
Freddie Mercury lived openly in his expression, in his music, and in his love. The fact that he did not specifically label his identity in an interview with a reporter doesn’t negate that. To whom should he have come out to appease those who would erase his life? To whom did he owe an explanation? It’s one thing to be upset about media that refuses to label a bisexual person’s identity while expecting praise for their mediocre representation. It’s another thing to put those expectations on real people, even celebrities. Mercury’s choice, for the variety of reasons he made it, to keep his relationships private was his choice to make. He also chose to keep his HIV status private, as was his right. Queer people, disabled people, and chronically ill people don’t owe anyone our stories or the intimate details of our lives.
There is no shame in finding comfort and power in people have lived before us and share our experiences. As queer people, we look to history to find comfort, understanding, and safety. “If they’ve done it, so can I.” That is the heart of our work. However, the truth is that those we admire and look to are still people. We cannot know everything about them, and we cannot expect them to have shared everything about themselves. In fact, Mercury once said:
"I don't talk to everybody, so they don't really know the real me."
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
Blake, M. (2016). Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic. Omnibus Press.
Freestone, P. (2010). Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Memoir by the Man who Knew Him Best: An Intimate Memoir by the Man who Knew Him Best. Omnibus Press.
Gilmore, M. (2014, July 7). Queen’s Tragic Rhapsody. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/queens-tragic-rhapsody-234996/
How Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury’s Longtime Partner, Transformed The Singer’s Life. (n.d.). Bustle. Retrieved November 13, 2021, from https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/where-jim-hutton-freddie-mercury-partner-is-now
Hutton, J., & Wapshott, T. (1995). Mercury and Me. Bloomsbury.
Jones, L.-A. (2012). Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury. Simon and Schuster.
Jones, L.-A. (2021). Love of My Life: The Life and Loves of Freddie Mercury. Hodder & Stoughton.
Richards, M., & Langthorne, M. (2018). Somebody to Love: The Life, Death, and Legacy of Freddie Mercury. Simon and Schuster.
Whitfield, D. (2019, April 3). Freddie Mercury’s sister Kashmira on the Queen legend visiting her in Nottingham. NottinghamshireLive. https://www.nottinghampost.com/whats-on/music-nightlife/freddie-mercurys-sister-kashmira-success-2710630