Voting Station

Michelangelo Signorile

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Commentator

The Resume

    (December 19, 1960- )
    Born in Brooklyn, New York
    Journalist/gay rights activist
    Chaired the media committee of ACT UP
    Founded the magazine 'OutWeek' (1989)
    Columnist and features writer for 'The Advocate' and 'Out'
    Hosts 'The Michelangelo Signorile Show' on Sirius XM Radio
    Wrote the books 'Queer in America' (1993) and 'It's Not Over' (2015)

Why he might be annoying:

    He started at a public relations firm planting items in gossip columns, noting 'We would pair up gay stars, a gay man and a lesbian, in fake relationships and give them to celebrity gossip columnists who themselves were closeted. We were all closeted people perpetuating the closet for other closeted people.'
    He briefly became a gossip columnist himself.
    He was arrested after disrupting a religious service by yelling at Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 'He is no man of God! He is the devil!' (1988)
    He became (in)famous for outing celebrities, including media mogul David Geffen, gossip columnist Liz Smith and (posthumously) billionaire publisher Malcolm Forbes.
    He admitted to continuing to have unsafe sex after the risk of AIDS had been widely publicized.
    He left 'Out' magazine after an argument in which he threw a glass of water in the new editor's face (1998).
    When a gay man called into his radio show and admitted to voting for Mitt Romney, he replied 'It would have been much easier to go to the store and buy some arsenic... than waiting for the slow, painful death Mitt Romney will bring.' (2012)

Why he might not be annoying:

    He said he became politicized when friends started dying from AIDS.
    Rosie O'Donnell called him a 'moron' after he outed her.
    He drew media attention to the ban on gays in the military by revealing that Assistant Secretary of Defense Pete Williams, who as Pentagon spokesman was a public defender of the policy, was gay (1991).
    FAIR noted, 'Outing proved to be one of the few ways to get the media to take notice of the discrimination gay people struggle against every day.'
    In his story 'Out at the New York Times,' reporters and editors went on record for the first time about years of homophobic reporting at the paper (1994).
    He apologized for the 'arsenic' comment, saying 'I can see that my statement was not just jarring but offensive -- certainly in the current climate of gay teen suicides.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 97 Votes: 54.64% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 65 Votes: 56.92% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 7 Votes: 85.71% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 76 Votes: 53.95% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 90 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 15 Votes: 60.0% Annoying