[OCCASparky]

What a bunch of pillow-biting rump-rangers.

IIRC, the verse in question refers to George Michael, who in fact IS gay, so in a sense, they're banning a song for telling the truth?

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“the verse in question refers to George Michael, who in fact IS gay”

I think George Michael was still in the closet at that time, but I don’t think anyone back then thought he preferred women.

Oddly enough, my mother LOVED Wham!.

[Darren McCarty]

IIRC, the verse in question refers to George Michael, who in fact IS gay, so in a sense, they're banning a song for telling the truth?

That's probably right.

I think the official explanation of the song was that of a working class New Yorker at an appliance store who watches MTV and describes what he sees. Knopfler overheard some of it and wrote a song about it. He wanted to use the real language they used.