# This just in! Gay man is gay! \[Ricky Martin comes out\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258 "2010-03-29T21:52:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/21 "2010-03-30T03:56:13Z")
No, he didn’t. And I don’t know if they ever did paternity testing or not, but IIRC, the babies are biologically his. That did fuel speculation, as there were no females around him or cover ups around him at that time… ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/22 "2010-03-30T15:37:57Z")
Martin gay, Pope Catholic, ursine excretory habits still skew towards woodlands. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/23 "2010-03-30T16:37:38Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > I don’t understand why people say “everybody knows” that Anderson Cooper is gay. The rule: If the answer isn’t No (and sometimes even if it is), then it’s Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/24 "2010-03-30T16:51:47Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The rule: If the answer isn’t No (and sometimes even if it is), then it’s Yes. Quite - what straight man when asked if he’s gay answers “I prefer not to discuss my private life”? ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/25 "2010-03-30T23:13:24Z")
Surprisingly, nobody at the bar last night, and nobody at the office today talked about it. There was brief mention when the friend who told me about it yesterday came up to me and said, “I’m going home early. I’m still in shock about the whole Ricky Martin thing,” and then left. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/26 "2010-03-30T23:39:56Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Quite - what straight man when asked if he’s gay answers “I prefer not to discuss my private life”? Especially after writing a memoir about his life.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/27 "2010-03-31T00:34:26Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > I don’t understand why people say “everybody knows” that Anderson Cooper is gay. Because it’s something they’ve heard others say. I think that’s usually how celebrity gossip rises to “everybody knows” status. I don’t know about you, but I can think of several times I’ve heard other people (in person, not online) refer to Anderson Cooper as being gay or say that “everybody knows” he is. It would be silly for someone to treat this as hot insider gossip when a lot of other people have heard the same thing. > [@](#): > > \*I have no clue if he is or not, nor do I know if any other reporter might be gay. Are there really people who follow the dating lives of news anchors? \*He is a pretty well-known newsman, and a lot of women think Cooper is attractive so his sexual orientation is of some interest to them. Cooper was one of the speakers at the annual American Library Association convention in 2006, and several of my friends mentioned being jealous of me because I was the only one in our group who was going to be there on the right day to see him. Actually, I think most of them said something like “I’m so jealous, Anderson Cooper is HOT! Of course, everyone knows he plays for the other team.” ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/28 "2010-03-31T00:59:59Z")
The thing is you can know something but can’t say it. For instance, I live in Chicago, we have an African American anchorman who is gay. I’ve seen him in gay bars making out with other guys. The newspapers ran articles calling him a “tweeker” and saying he went into rehab for meth addiction. At the same station is a former latino anchor and now reporter who is at least bi-sexual. I’ve seen him in gay bars making out with men. If I tell someone they say “but he’s married with kids.” And they’re not wrong, but he also makes out with guys in gay bars. See even if I had photos of this, so what? No one is going to pay for photos of these local people. If one of them became famous perhaps, but there’s always wiggle room as in, I was making a joke Ha ha ha. Liberace went to his grave denying he was gay. He even had his friends do an elaborate cover up to move his body out of the county so his autopsy wouldn’t say AIDS. The thing is unless a person is willing to say “I AM GAY.” There’s no way to convince people, 'cause let’s face it, a sex act does not a homosexual make. Right now it is still poltically correct to deny you’re gay so people do it. Can you imagine what would happen if Tiger Woods say “Stop calling me an African American I’m Asian.” I have never seen it printed that Tiger Woods is an Asian golfer, but I see a lot saying he’s a black or African American golfer. Yet he’s just as much Asian as African. Certain people look and act stereotypically gay. Certain people you can tell are gay. Now this in no way means you can tell ALL gay people. But you can tell some people are gay. The same way you can look at Mariah Carey and see she has a racial mixture. But this in no way means you can look at everyone and see what race they are. But some you can. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/29 "2010-03-31T02:39:42Z")
Tiger Woods calls himself “cablasian.” Other than that, yeah to your post. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/30 "2010-03-31T02:52:31Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Tiger Woods calls himself “cablasian.” CablINasian. “Cablasian” would disrespect his American Indian ancestry. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/31 "2010-03-31T02:57:01Z")
Ricky Martin got his start in Menudo. How many of those 50 or so band members have now come out? ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/32 "2010-03-31T07:38:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Especially after writing a memoir about his life.:rolleyes: Care to clue me in on the meaning of your roll eyes? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/33 "2010-03-31T09:55:59Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Ricky Martin got his start in Menudo. > > How many of those 50 or so band members have now come out? Not any that are remotely famous, if at all. The next famous singer/songwriter who started in that group, Robi Draco Rosa (he wrote some of Martin’s songs, btw), is not gay. Currently married, with two kids, and from all the interviews he has given, very much in love with his wife and family life. He is another one who probably said “Finally, Ricky!”. The rest of the singers (at least from Martin’s generation, if not a bit older)… a few of them got together years ago to do a reunion tour singing the original Menudo songs that had been popular about 20 years earlier or so. IIRC, all of them were now family men, engineers, lawyers, accountants, etc. None of them came out then or now as gay. I’m not up to date in the last Menudo pickings, but I’m guessing most of them are, again, not gay. C’mon, even in Backstreet Boys, only one of them (Lance Bass) turned out gay. Are you saying Menudo would have a higher rate? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/34 "2010-03-31T10:00:46Z")
BTW, I am aware that many guys can be married and still be gay (same for women), but I’m saying that, as far as everybody knows, those men really do love their wives, none of them appear beards, and the men look very very happy to have those women in their lives. In Robi’s case, his wife works with him in some of his projects, and some in some interviews he does nothing other than praise her. None of the ones who are known have ever publicly caused questioning, the way Ricky Martin has done for the last… decade or so. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/35 "2010-03-31T13:07:49Z")
In related news, Shaquille O’Neal has revealed that he’s tall and black. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/36 "2010-03-31T13:19:15Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Care to clue me in on the meaning of your roll eyes? It irks me that Anderson Cooper states that he doesn’t discuss his private life because it would undermine his journalistic integrity yada yada when in fact he wrote a memoir about his private life: growing up Gloria Vanderbilt’s son, dealing with the deaths of his father and his brother and other highly personal information. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/37 "2010-03-31T16:21:21Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > C’mon, even in Backstreet Boys, only one of them (Lance Bass) turned out gay. Are you saying Menudo would have a higher rate? :dubious: Well, based on that ratio, there ought to be about 10-12 gay ex-Menudoans. Even just using the standard percentage for a general population (10% gay/lesbian), there ought to be about 5 gay ones. (And I would think that that the group ‘singers in a boy band’ would be more gay than the general population!) And about the Backstreet Boys, I recall a song [“Which Backstreet Boy is Gay?”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ1i2-Vmqs8) which had a different answer. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/38 "2010-03-31T18:15:54Z")
As someone who knows very little about Ricky Martin, I’m curious how everybody already knew he was gay. Was it his mannerisms, either on stage or while being interviewed? Or was all from rumors? Or all of the above? ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/39 "2010-03-31T18:49:44Z")
Lance Bass wasn’t a Backstreet Boy, though. In fact, the straight-to-gay ratio for the Backstreet Boys currently stands at 5 to 0. Which means there’s still a slim chance that one of these days the deep, burning unrequited love I had for Nick back in 1997 will finally be returned. Not that I’m holding my breath, or anything. 🙂 ETA: **Revtim** , I think the dead giveaway was when he announced a couple of years ago that he was adopting twin sons he’d fathered via surrogate. Not an immediate red flag for gay, but certainly a red flag for “not particularly heterosexual”. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258/40 "2010-03-31T18:50:13Z")
Gaydar? I just ‘picked it up’ out of thin air, myself… Or maybe it was his haircut, it is a stereotypical ‘gay’ haircut. Like big hair=female country singer, it sent out a vibe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-just-in-gay-man-is-gay-ricky-martin-comes-out/534258.md?page=3)