Jackson held a national press conference in 1984 to refute insinuations that he is a homosexual. Intimating the rumors as "terrible slander," he threatened to sue any periodical that printed "new fantasies." Michael's brother Jermaine told one newspaper, "Even to say that he's not gives people the idea that he is. People want to hear ugliness." The Los Angeles Times later commented: "There does not appear to be any precedent for a celebrity going to such lengths to proclaim his or her heterosexuality."