Inspired by the Michael Cera thread over in CS. Poll follows shortly.
Well, I want to say “not really”, but it does make me happy when people come out.
No.
I picked “Depends, if I am sexually attracted to them, I want to know if they are incompatible”. Beyond that I could not care less.
I don’t care one way or another. It’s a trivial matter and makes absolutely no difference to me.
It’s personal information that I’m usually not interested in. It’s not like I’m planning to date any celebrity, and even if I did, I’d just move on if they weren’t interested.
I might find it interesting, if the answer is the opposite of what I would have expected. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to find out. I don’t know what option that corresponds to.
I care, to the extent that having highly visible, openly gay people helps gays as a group gain acceptance, and helps people still struggling with their sexuality come to terms with it.
You are vast and contain multitudes.
I said “Yes it enhances…”. If it’s someone I’m interested enough in to be curious about their lives, that is. It enhanced my enjoyment of Neil Patrick Harris’sEmmys song to know he’s gay and out, for instance ('specially the joke at 1:42 - 1:56). Tee hee!
Singers and writers - couldn’t care less. Actors - it helps a little to know, but sometimes not. Depends on what, if any, my fantasies are. George Takei coming out didn’t change a thing. Finding out about Portia de Rossi ruined some good Ally McBeal fantasies.
I’m usually curious about the lives of the artists I admire, but it’s not like it really matters in any way. I might look it up (you can usually find out in the “Personal life” section of Wikipedia) if it’s somebody I’m not sure of, all other people I just find out when they mention it/come out.
“No. In fact I want to know as little about their personal lives as possible”
I want to appreciate or dislike them for their work, not because of their personal habits or beliefs. The exception being people with beliefs or behavior so repellent that I don’t want to contribute even a tiny amount of money to them. Something that doesn’t come up often since I read more than watch, and really bigoted or fanatic writers tend to let their attitudes contaminate their writing, making it worse in its own right.
I could care less who or what the actor is screwing. What he or she does in private doesn’t matter.
I only care if they are convincing in the role they are portraying.
I picked “I want to know as little as possible” but in the case of writers sometimes I get something from knowing about their life (for instance, Tolkien’s experience in WWI).
I don’t need to know, since I won’t be hopping into the sack with anybody other than mrAru, but if they want to come out and say something in an interview, I am ok with that.
In the grand scheme of things sexual orientation of strangers means absolutely nothing, and it shouldn’t have any significance in the world - but I am encouraged when society has started easing up on alternative lifestyles enough that people are feeling able to come out of the closet. I think everybody should be able to marry the [other consenting adult] person of their choice. Heck, I am even ok with poly if all the people in the relationship are in agreement and they have a functional contract.
I chose, “No, but I don’t mind knowing other things about their personal lives if they want to share.” What I meant was, “Not particularly, but I don’t mind knowing most anything about their personal lives if they want to share.”
Same here. It is at least as interesting as who the straight celebrities are dating (and, yes, I find that interesting sometimes).
As a gay woman it matters to me to support gay artists. Most of all because they articulate a lot of my feelings that tend to get ignored by the hetero majority. I don’t get why I’m supposed to think it doesn’t matter. Hell yes, it does matter to me.
I don’t care.
And really improved some others.