Paper Trail: Big Sister Knows Best

In this excerpt from his new book, Life With My Sister Madonna, Christopher Ciccone discusses the interview Madonna gave with The Advocate in 1991 in which she outed him to the entire world.

By Christopher Ciccone

Posted on Advocate.com July 21, 2008

Madonna ends the year by releasing “Justify My Love,” which on December 3, 1990, premieres on Nightline. Rolling Stone crowns her “Image of the Eighties.” The Immaculate Collection is released and stays at number one in the UK for nine weeks. In the United States it is certified two times platinum, and Forbes names Madonna the top-earning female entertainer of 1990, citing her income as $39 million. The magazine also votes her “America’s Smartest Business Woman.”

I realize that Forbes was right when, on May 7, 1991, just as Truth or Dare is about to be released, the Advocate publishes an interview with Madonna in which she outs me.

In an apparent ploy to garner support for the movie by ingratiating herself with her gay fans, she says, “My brother Christopher’s gay, and he and I have always been the closest members of our family.

"It’s funny. When he was really young, he was so beautiful and had girls all over him, more than any of my other brothers. I knew something was different but it was not clear to me. I just thought, I know there are a lot of girls around, but I don’t get that he has a girlfriend. He was like a girl-magnet. They all seemed incredibly fond of him and close to him in a way I hadn’t seen men with women.

"I’ll tell you when I knew. After I met Christopher [Flynn, Madonna and Christopher’s first dance teacher], I brought my brother to ballet class because he wanted to start studying dance. I just saw something between them. I can’t even tell you exactly what, but then I thought, Oh, I get it. Oh, okay. He likes men too. It was an incredible revelation, but I didn’t say anything to my brother yet. I’m not even sure he knew. He’s two years younger than me. He was still a baby. I could feel something.”

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Excerpted from the book Life With My Sister Madonna, by Christopher Ciccone from Simon & Schuster.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Name: Jason Davis
Date posted: 2009-03-27 7:36 PM
Hometown: Oxford, UK

Comment:

Madonna has succumed to the ultimate betrayal. To betray a family member (or even all of them!) for money. She is completely corrupt. Corrupt in her actions, words, persona and has sold her complete life for ultimately all the wrong reasons. Anyone using that hag as an example of how they should live, and how to be so greedy for more more more cash should stop and take a look at themselves AND Madogga and try to purge the corruption from themselves. It will be MUCH harder than you think. You are not in control of yourselves anymore. She only marries ppl for publicity, or to adopt children. She went to Africa under the guise of meeting AIDS sick children, and bought a child. Anyone who thinks they can just buy a person should be cast off the face of the earth. She is comletely VILE and dwells in the darkest pits of Tohu and the all mighty Alhim will erradicate all traces of your physical and spiritual existance. You are not worthy of QBLH knowledge.

Name: JDW
Date posted: 2008-07-28 9:13 AM
Hometown: NYC

Comment:

I remember reading that Advocate interview. At the time Madonna was becoming the biggest publicity whore of all time. Her relationship with Warren Beaty broke up because there was no Madonna off camera. Madonna was the first A list straight celebrity along with Kurt Cobain to do an interview a gay publication like the Advocate. There was no will and Grace. Gerorge Michael, Boy George, KD Lang , Melissa Etheridge, Ellen DeGeneres and (then Madonna pal) Rosie O'Donnell were all still in the closet. It was a very different and more hostile world. In 91 Madonna was selling every second of her private life to the media. Her business. That she so readily sold the private life of a family member so she could sell a couple of more movie tickets to gay fans shows a lack of ethics and loyalty.

Name: Michael
Date posted: 2008-07-22 3:21 PM
Hometown: New York City

Comment:

When I was 17, I was outed by a friend of my family who had spotted me doing god-knows-what at a gay bar, where she was celebrating a gay colleague's birthday. It was a brutal shock to have my mom confront me about being gay. I was not prepared for that, since at 17 I was just starting to explore my own sexuality and not ready to tell the world. However, I see that in retrospect, while I question this family friend's motives (gossiping bitch), she did me a favor. I would not have had the courage to sit my mother and father down and tell them who I really was, allowing me to learn that my father still loved me and my mom to start the process of accepting the real me. Despite the fact that Madonna acted without Christopher's consent, I am sure that in the long run Christopher could be his own man, and face the repercusions of his outing with the courage necessary to do so. You have to be courageous when you have no other choice!

Name: Christopher
Date posted: 2008-07-22 2:22 PM
Hometown: Spokane, Seattle, Yakima

Comment:

The longer GLBTQ people lead lives that are not authentic and honest, the longer it will take for us to gain equal rights. Perhaps it IS the privilege of each of us to come out in our own time. Meanwhile, LGBTQ people are STILL being murdered, harassed, beaten and discriminated against. How long as a community must we wait for the majority of us to be OUT? Fear immobilizes. Action is the answer. Big Sis Madonna could have been more sensitive to her brothers feelings and checked in, but that was hardly part of her repertoire in those days. I am glad you are OUT, Chris. I hope you can let go of your bitterness now that you have revealed your sister for the thoughtless bitch you clearly think she is.

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