Freddie's Beard in the Late 80s

While reading the Somebody To Love biography about Freddie, I noticed that in one part, it mentioned that when Freddie developed Kaposi's Sarcoma on his face, he grew a beard to cover them up, thus leading to his appearance change in that time. Was this true, or is this just speculation on the author's part?

I just wanted to say that that "Somebody To Love" book uses Lesley Ann Jones book as a source, so read carefully. But yeah, Freddie grew a beard to cover them up.

I know, I've read that book too

Jim said the same. In his book he said that Freddie used makeup to cover the marks of KS when he went out in public and Jim suggested to Freddie a short beard to cover marks. And we know that Freddie did it.

I'm not a monster, but interestingly, has anyone seen Freddie with sarcoma stains at least once? What does it even look like?

Search it on the forum and you'll find pictures.

At the time I thought he was going down the designer stubble thing that was big at the time - then I figured it was to cover up the weight loss. But yes, sadly I slowly suspected the OP reason is true.

@InvisibleWoman—Thanks for this information. I haven’t read Jim’s book and have wondered if this beard story was true.

@SpaceGrey—I have never seen a photo or footage of Freddie with a lesion I thought was KS. He was expert at hiding them. There are various photos of Freddie with visible marks on his skin that are claimed to be KS by QZ members, but none of them look like KS to me. My dermatology training is from google University, ha ha. I think theirs is too. KS is normally diagnosed by biopsy. If someone like Marcus Conant (who ran a KS clinic in San Francisco) tells me a photo of Freddie looks like KS, I’ll believe him, but I would not believe anyone less than that.

Nevertheless the lesions do have a characteristic appearance. If you want to see what KS looks like, you can do an internet image search, plus there are a few pictures on the wikipedia page on KS. This can get gruesome. The top picture on the wiki page is typical but scroll down at your own risk.

In the “Who Wants to Live Forever” film—horrible film I know—there is an interview with Freddie’s AIDS doctor Graeme Moyle. Sadly it’s broken up into pieces during the film, because it’s a great interview. In it he says that in HIV disease, pre-AIDS, patients get “skin problems”. To me all these early visible marks on Freddie from 1985 to 1986 that get shown around and talked about on QZ as supposed KS are just bunk. Some of them could just be bruises. Some could be caused by HIV.

These kinds of conditions are non-specific to AIDS, so there wasn’t any reason to cover them up. You could just say it’s dermatitis or whatever.

By 1985-86 every gay man knew what KS lesions looked liked and as they were the most stigmatizing feature of the disease they typically went to great effort to keep them hidden. So Freddie was no exception in this regard.

I don’t think you’re a monster. Curiosity is a good thing as long as it’s respectful and you’re being respectful.

[url]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_xipkQboBAE[/url]

40:17 Graeme Moyle mentions “skin problems”.
Around 1:01:30 he talks about the cause and diagnosis of KS and this is interrupted by disrespectful stupidity. We probably owe Innuendo to this man so please don’t be mad at him for participating in this film. He likely didn’t know it was going to be trash. He never reveals anything about Freddie’s case in the interview, but interestingly speaks about a didanosine (ddI) trial that Freddie would have had the opportunity to be in.

Absolutely true and gave Freddie peace of mind that no one noticed there was something going on with him.
I also read that he went blind and his foot was rotting badly.

He did apparently start to lose his Vision towards the end. Must have been terrifying.

And the Leg/Foot rotting thing was mentioned by Brian.

leave the poor man alone....crap you..typical sun people..and btw any thoughts of real interests of what's going on and in your oh so brave island? islam,gangs,politicians, ?? No..afcourse not....spitting on Fred's legacy is all you can do...

[QUOTE] [b]Sparks. wrote:[/b]

Absolutely true and gave Freddie peace of mind that no one noticed there was something going on with him.
I also read that he went blind and his foot was rotting badly.[/QUOTE]


The name changing prick is back.

Highlighting the horrendousness as he does...

Anyway.. regardless.. Freddie really suited it. It was a brilliant mask that fooled the world.

@bootlegger STFU.

Talking about the worst aspects of what Freddie went through is not necessarily disrespectful or taboo. Even when you talk about it bluntly. Laughing about it or mocking it would be but just talking about the darker side of reality should be fine.
We aren't children are we? We aren't those skinless snowflakes are we? Everything can be discussed even if someone might not like reading about it. Ignoring parts of reality, life, the world because you don't like it is just weak, dumb and silly.
Also, comments like "leave the poor man alone" are just strange. How could anything thats being talked about here affect him or who he was in any way? If you dont want to talk about it, if you dont want to read about it, just click away. Its not that difficult.

Are you new?