iconic
Unique, shocking, compelling and haunting — PETE BURNS will be missed
by Juno Dawson
IT’S NEARLY TWO MONTHS SINCE PETE BURNS DIED. His death came a fortnight after I stumbled on Celebrity Botched Up Bodies on Channel 5, while channel-hopping after Bake-Off.
In suede, thigh boots and a jazzy poncho, Pete strutted his stuff down Wimpole Street to see a cosmetic surgeon to fix his “botched” lips and dodgy dermal fillers. When he spoke to the specialist, it was in a booming, scouse voice reminiscent of Paul O’Grady.
However he looked, Pete was still a man. Ask any bisexual person how it feels to live between the dichotomy of gay or straight, and they’ll tell you how they are regarded with suspicion by the gays and shut out of the privilege of the straights. To exist between genders can’t have been easy for Peter Jozzeppi Burns.