Greg Louganis?
I was most shocked when I learned from someone who had met them that some of The Village People weren’t gay.
After reading the related Pit thread… Lissener, I was wrong to say what I did. I was snarky and insulting in a post where I did not need to behave like that, as the point was the link to “The Gay Thing”. I really am sorry.
In Anne Hech’s case, she may just be a confused bisexual who is generally more attracted to men then women. But while it’s not exactly normal, it’s not unheard of for a woman to come out as an adult and say that she’d hadn’t been “in the closet” but really just hadn’t felt attracted to women before. I’ve personally known a few women for whom this was the case, and I’ve seen it remarked upon in books about gay and lesbian issues. It’s a bit of a mystery and there are all kinds of theories as to why this sometimes happens with women but never seems to with men, but this thread isn’t the place to get into all that. My point, and I do have one ;), is that Ellen may have known other lesbians who told her basically the same thing as Anne and so didn’t think it was especially weird.
I have one that’s in the “DUH!” category…
Thanks, no need to mention it; was not a big deal.
About damn time.
This is the one I was going to say. His work contains so much machismo, and so much hetero sex (his latest novel, Snuff, is literally about one long porno movie gangbang) to his work that this was one that really surprised me. I had a completely false image of him as a macho, womanizing sort. Turns out he’s openly gay (although he wasn’t always open), and has a longtime partner.
There’s a bit of a funny story about how he outed himself. A few years ago he was interviewed for Entertainment Weekly, and had made some off the record comments about his boyfriend. For some reason, he later came to believe that the reporter was going to publish the personal information in her article, and basicallu out him without his permission. Palahniuk went crazy on his blog about it and posted an audio recording of himself going off on a rant, bitching out the reporter, but also revealing that he was gay and had a live-in partner.
When the article was published, Palahniuk’s anger turned out to be unfounded. The reporter had not outed him after all, but only said that he was unmarried. Palahniuk then took the rant back down from his website and apologized. When some fans thought he had taken the rant down because he was ashamed of his sexuality, he said he had taken it down because of the attacks against the reporter, not because he was ashamed of being gay. He is now openly gay, but doesn’t make a big deal out of it. As far as i know, he’s not particularly activist or political about it, and it’s not much of a theme in his writing (he writes about hetero sex way more than gay sex), but he doesn’t try to hide anything.
I’m guessing that his publisher probably wanted to keep his sexuality quiet back then to avoid turning off the kin of young, male audience that would be drawn to Fight Club.
Me too!

I have one that’s in the “DUH!” category…
That’s what I came in here to mention.
Seriously…he was IN the closet?
Ooo, the ladies at work are gonna be really riled up over that one tomorrow. Personally, I’m not surprised. (His baby is…um…breathtaking.)

I have one that’s in the “DUH!” category…
The baby’s mother is named Jaymes? That’s all kind of mixed up.
What I want to know is how many of these people mentioned really ARE publicly out of the closet, and whether any are listed just because the post author heard something or has insider info or “just thinks so.”
After the Queen Latifah thing, I’m really cautious.

I have one that’s in the “DUH!” category…
Damn. That’s a shocker.
Not that he’s gay but that he came out.
Did he even stop to think what this will do to Kathy Griffin? There’s no fun in talking about “out” gay entertainers.
Biggest surprises for me in this thread were Chuck Palahniuk and Reginald VelJohnson! (Carl Winslow? Really?) Was also a bit surprised to learn that Lily Tomlin is gay.
When I was younger and more naive, I was just starting to listen to jazz standards, and was shocked to read an article about Cole Porter that mentioned that he was gay.

I have one that’s in the “DUH!” category…
Duh, but still a surprise: I thought he was gonna ride the denial train all the way to Michael Jacksonville.
sigh. You think you were clueless. My answer is John Waters.
I gotta say Lindsay Lohan.

I gotta say Lindsay Lohan.
Is she gay or just an attention whore?
(sorry if that offends and it is certainly not meant to be derisive towards being gay or coming out AT ALL. Just that, given her track record, she seems to care more about tabloid celebrity and provoking more inches of press that sincerely making certain life choices, IMHO…carry on.)

Duh, but still a surprise: I thought he was gonna ride the denial train all the way to Michael Jacksonville.
Did he ever really actively deny it? I thought he always just refused to comment one way or the other.