# Any celebrities refusing to enter the closet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 5, 2012, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209 "2012-06-05T22:15:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/21 "2012-06-06T18:13:58Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Isn’t that what **Sampiro** is saying, that Bowie is straight? Romy Haag was born male and lived presumably as transgender. DMark was respecting Romy’s desire to be seen as a female w/ the pronoun ‘her’. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/22 "2012-06-06T18:29:06Z")
Simplicio - the singer you’re thinking of might be Holly Near. political, folky. straight, then gay. don’t know if she went straight again. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/23 "2012-06-06T18:38:36Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > Romy Haag was born male and lived presumably as transgender. DMark was respecting Romy’s desire to be seen as a female w/ the pronoun ‘her’. Ah. Did not know that. (Obviously.) Thanks for the explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/24 "2012-06-06T19:18:16Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Ah. Did not know that. (Obviously.) > > Thanks for the explanation. I suspected as much from the context of his post but Wiki’d it myself anyhoo. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/25 "2012-06-06T19:20:14Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Gossip and hearsay are OK? In that case: > > I knew someone who met the Village People, and claimed half of them were straight. > > Even less reliably, there were rumors that at least one of the “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” people was actually straight. I have heard that Ted, the cooking guy, is the straight one. He’s from Chicago, and apparently there are lots of people who knew him socially as straight. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/26 "2012-06-06T19:26:37Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > she went straight again. Heard an amusing way to describe this from the host of a British game show the other day: she went “back on solids.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/27 "2012-06-06T23:45:49Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Hmm…I interviewed [Romy Haag](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy_Haag) in Berlin, and when David Bowie moved to Berlin specifically to live with her, I wouldn’t consider that just PR. At least her conversation about him indicated they were a bit more than buddies who just liked to go bowling together on Saturday nights… So you’re saying Bowie is a Haag Fag? Well, when in Romy… 😉 ## Wikipedia has a fairly detailed and referenced [section on his sexual orientation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie#Sexual_orientation). The summary seems to be he’s a predominantly hetero bisexual. Anne Heche was straight, then gay for Ellen, then straight again. I don’t know if she identifies as bi or not, but other than her time with Ellen she seems to prefer men. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/28 "2012-06-07T00:29:57Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Years ago, I saw a (pretty dreadful) movie on TV (a weekend late-late night show) from Australia (the star being the guy from the _Crocodile Dundee_ series; Paul Hogan?) in which one of the subplots was about a flamingly flamboyant woman’s hairdresser in a small outback town who was actually straight, but camped it up like crazy because A) his female clients expected it, and B) they would then begin to regard him like a girlfriend/sister/confidante, after which he would easily be able to shagg them rotten, with no one (their husbands or friends) being the wiser. > > I could _almost_ be convinced that similar situations have actually happened in real life, as I recall the award winning documentary _I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry_ seemed to hypothesize… [Strange Bedfellows](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360032/). Paul Hogan and Michael Caton played two straight men who pretend to be in a long-term gay relationship to take advantage of some tax laws. They seek guidance on “acting gay” from the hairdresser, who is also pretending to be gay so the men in the town wouldn’t suspect that he was the one shagging all their wives. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/29 "2012-06-07T00:31:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I don’t know if she identifies as bi or not, but other than her time with Ellen she seems to prefer men. She certainly seems to prefer public attention and the media spotlight… ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/30 "2012-06-07T00:38:49Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > [Strange Bedfellows](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360032/). Paul Hogan and Michael Caton played two straight men who pretend to be in a long-term gay relationship to take advantage of some tax laws. They seek guidance on “acting gay” from the hairdresser, who is also pretending to be gay so the men in the town wouldn’t suspect that he was the one shagging all their wives. Yep, that’s the one… It wasn’t the world’s _worst_ movie, but on the whole even ol’ Ray Charles’ corpse could see every single cliche you knew they were going to throw in coming down the tracks 10 miles away. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/31 "2012-06-07T03:11:43Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Similarily, I vaguely remember reading an article about a female folk singer during the 90’s who presented herself as a lesbian, and caused a minor scandal when she was “reverse outted” as straight. Probably not what you’re thinking of but I saw this idea used in a sitcom once back in the nineties. I can’t remember what show it was but one of the characters was a singer and she was offered a contract by a promoter who mistakenly thought she was a lesbian. Being as this was a sitcom, the singer decided to fake being a lesbian and wackiness ensued. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/32 "2012-06-07T10:06:55Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > I have to say, I’m really puzzled about the subject line of this thread and don’t really think it matches the question asked in the OP. > > As far as I understand it, ‘the closet’ is not about straightness. Admitting that you’re straight after all is not going into the closet. Being in the closet is about keeping the secret. For the record, what I meant was: Normal people occasionally go inside a closet, to get stuff. So in the analogy. Gay person refusing to admit he’s straight= **Won’t come out** of the closet. Gay person who is openly gay/ Straight person who is openly straight= **Would occasionally go into** the closet. Therefore Gay person pretending to be straight could be **refuse to enter** the closet. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/33 "2012-06-07T14:08:14Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > Simplicio - the singer you’re thinking of might be Holly Near. political, folky. straight, then gay. don’t know if she went straight again. Last I heard, she’s been in an LTR with a man since the '90s. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/34 "2012-06-07T14:21:33Z")
Being bi-sexual doesn’t mean that you can’t have a long term relationship. Just because a bisexual woman has a LTR with a man doesn’t mean she’s straight any more than her having a LTR with a woman makes her gay. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/35 "2012-06-07T17:23:27Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > If [Richard Simmons]'s straight, he’s playing himself massively flaming for some reason. If he weren’t so exceedingly flaming, not a single person in this thread would know who the hell he was. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/36 "2012-06-07T18:10:30Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [Not that quiet. Yes, everyone, it’s the Whose Line clip.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTxkxG3DF4k) Holy shit that is hilarious! I really shouldn’t have opened that at work. Even with headphones, my laughing got way too much attention. > [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > During the ‘Will & Grace’ days, handsome Canadian Eric McCormack did the same thing during interviews, saying it shouldn’t matter whether he was gay in relation to acting like someone else. (He’s straight.) Eric McCormack openly admitted being straight. It was well known even in the first season. He did make the comment that it shouldn’t matter because he’s _acting a part_. > [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I suspected as much from the context of his post but Wiki’d it myself anyhoo. 😉 To be fair, that wiki is pretty unclear. About the only thing that really suggests she’s a transgender is > [@](#): > > At the age of 16, she joined a trapeze artist working at the Strassburger and relocated to Paris, where she began her career as an exotic dancer and female impersonator at the nightclub Alcazar. No overt descriptions, no references to making a decision, consistent use of the female pronouns. > [@](#): > > The same year, she accepted the prestigious [Teddy Award](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Award) at Berlin’s International Film Festival, in honour of her lifetime achievements in films concerning gay, lesbian and transgender issues. Suggestive, but again nothing declaratory. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/37 "2012-06-07T18:12:42Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > /snip/ To be fair, that wiki is pretty unclear. /snip/ Female impersonators aren’t females (unless you’re in a Julie Andrews movie) so that was the clarifier for me. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/38 "2012-06-07T19:44:03Z")
> [@Sateryn76](#): > > I have heard that Ted, the cooking guy, is the straight one. He’s from Chicago, and apparently there are lots of people who knew him socially as straight. [He’s gay.](http://www.foodnetwork.com/ted-allen/bio/index.html) (Skip to the end and read the last sentence.) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/39 "2012-06-08T21:32:18Z")
Or is that just part of his cover? :dubious: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209/40 "2012-06-09T03:03:52Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Holy shit that is hilarious! I really shouldn’t have opened that at work. Even with headphones, my laughing got way too much attention. And surprisingly raunchy. To paraphrase Steve Harvey: “ABC _Family_. People be watchin’ this in the _day-time_.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-celebrities-refusing-to-enter-the-closet/624209.md?page=3)