Singer-songwriter Boy George is
speaking out after a brutal attack on his 'oldest friend' Philip
Sallon.
Boy George, whose androgynous look
helped propel his musical career, has said Sallon must have been
attacked because of his outrageous sense of style.
He warned of an increasing hostility
toward nonconformists, and suggested gay men harbor such sentiments.
Sallon, 59, was found unconscious by
paramedics in central London outside a Gap store in Piccadilly Circus
last Saturday. He suffered a fractured skull and broken bones.
The 49-year-old Boy George said
attitudes have changed since the days of the New Romantic movement.
“These things go in circles,” he
told the
Guardian. “In the early 80s there was this sense that
things were changing, and becoming more open-minded. But we don't
have that sort of gorgeous youth culture any more, the glam rockers,
the New Romantics. People aren't so individual any more.”
“You can find that sort of attitude
in the gay community too. That if you are an exhibitionist you are
somehow spoiling the big assimilation. Most gay men go out of their
way to look normal and fit in, but Phillip is not of that breed.”
Police say they have no witnesses to
the beat down and are not investigating it as a hate crime.