Ken Mehlman, the campaign manager for President George W. Bush’s reelection bid in 2004 and the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, announced that he's gay. “It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life,” he told The Atlantic. “Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.” This makes Mehlman the most powerful openly gay Republican in history—and, as he admits, the enormous political pressure of coming out is what took him so long to do so. “"I can't change the fact that I wasn't in this place personally when I was in politics,” Mehlman said, “and I genuinely regret that. It was very hard, personally.” Mehlman says that he hopes to turn his focus to advocating for gay rights and same-sex marriage.
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Though many fans had long assumed pop star Ricky Martin is gay—given his lack of girlfriends, and his passion for leather pants and exercising in Speedos on the beach with another guy —he revealed on his blog this week that he is "a fortunate homosexual man." (In both Spanish and English, of course). The man who famously once sang about a girl with devil-red lips in "Livin' La Vida Loca," admitted that he was scared of audience's reaction to his homosexuality. "Allowing myself to be seduced by fear and insecurity became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sabotage," Martin wrote. "These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed."
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In 1997, life and art intertwined for comedian Ellen DeGeneres when she came out on her eponymous sitcom. In the now classic episode, Ellen's character reveals to her therapist, played by Oprah Winfrey, that's the only person she ever loved was "Susan," generating incredibly high ratings due to the taboo subject matter. That same week, DeGeneres appeared on the cover of Time magazine with the headline "Yep, I'm Gay." But in the coming months, ratings fell and the show was canceled. "When I came out I really did it for personal reasons," she told a group of students at the University of Michigan two years later. " I don't care if people don't like me anymore." In 2003, audiences once again learned to love DeGeneres when she debuted her talk show, where she continues to address gay issues and openly discusses her partner, actress Portia de Rossi. "It was a huge step in my life," she has said of coming out. "I think people sensed the honesty in it. I think it helped a lot of people, and still to this day I hear about parents and children being able to have an honest conversation through watching that show."
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Many in the media had made assumptions about the sexual orientation of the 2003 American Idol runner-up, but Clay Aiken had always publicly denied he was gay until 2008. That year, Aiken announced that he and Jaymes Foster, the sister of record producer David Foster, had a son together via in vitro fertilization. Soon after that revelation, Aiken felt the need to be honest with his fans. "It was the first decision I made as a father," he told People magazine of coming out. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that." The born-again Christian worried about audience's reactions, but in the two years since he came out, his only record Playlist: The Very Best of Clay Aiken, released in 2009, got plenty of play and the Claymates still seem to support their idol.
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Though Sean Hayes starred as the flamboyant Jack McFarland on Will & Grace for eight years, the actor had long been coy about his sexual orientation. But this month, as he geared up to star in a revival of Promises, Promises on Broadway, he decided to come out. In an interview with the Advocate, Hayes said, "I am who I am. I was never in, as they say. Never." After playing other openly gay characters, he was frustrated by those who suggested he wasn't outspoken enough for the gay community. "What more do you want me to do? Do you want me to stand on a float? And then what? It's never enough," Hayes added. "I feel like I've contributed monumentally to the success of the gay movement in America, and if anyone wants to argue that, I'm open to it."
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Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey forever changed language when he stood up in front of America and announced, "I am a gay American." On that day in August 2004, amid reports that he had had an extramarital affair with a man, McGreevey confessed his sexual orientation to the nation as his wife stood by. McGreevey since divorced Dina Matos and is now in a committed relationship with another man, but the road to this point of self-discovery was a difficult one. "As glorious and meaningful as it would have been to have a loving and sound sexual experience with another man, I knew I'd have to undo my happiness step by step as I began chasing my dream of a public career and the kind of ‘acceptable' life that went with it," McGreevey wrote in his memoir, The Confession McGreevey is now studying to be an Episcopal minister.
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In 1981, at the top of her game, tennis star Martina Navratilova decided to come out. But after the controversy around Billie Jean King's admission that she was a lesbian, and the potential for alienating sponsors, tour officials asked her not to. "It was a mess," Navratilova said years later. Soon after, newspaper stories began circulating about her sexuality, turning the whole thing into a media sensation. Since then, Navratilova has been a prominent gay rights activist, even while furthering her legendary playing career. In 1992, she personally filed a lawsuit against a ballot proposition in Colorado that would have denied gays and lesbians protection from discrimination.
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A few months before her talk show concluded its six-year run, "Queen of Nice" Rosie O'Donnell proclaimed "I'm a dyke!" while performing stand-up at an Ovarian Cancer Research benefit at Caroline's Comedy Club in New York City. "I don't know why people make such a big deal about the gay thing," she said, adding, "people are confused, they're shocked, like this is a big revelation to somebody." In 2004 O'Donnell tied the knot with her longtime partner Kelli Carpenter, largely in defiance of George W. Bush's intention to pass a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Said O'Donnell: "I think the actions of the president are, in my opinion, the most vile and hateful words ever spoken by a sitting president." (Carpenter and O'Donnell have since split). O'Donnell remains an active advocate for LGBT adoption, among other causes, and will soon be returning to television with a new talk show.
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Throughout his basketball career in Europe and his five years in the NBA, John Amaechi kept his sexuality to himself. He was three years into his retirement before he became the first professional basketball player to openly identify himself as gay. The British-born, 6-foot-10 center came out in his 2007 autobiography, Man in the Middle, claiming that he knew of several other gay players in the NBA. "I don't know if there are a lot, but there are some," he told ESPN. "It's a frightening prospect. It's terrifying. There are people for whom their entire world is based around this idea that people will look at them and when they look at them, they are NBA superstars, NBA players. And any change to that would be physiologically devastating. Emotionally devastating, financially devastating."
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Rupert Everett has been openly gay since announcing his homosexuality in 1989, a move that he believes seriously harmed his career. "I've been reduced to drag," the outspoken actor told The Guardian in 2009. Everett has also likened Hollywood to the Christian right, and said that as an openly gay actor, "You're going to manage to make it roll for a certain amount of time, but at the first sign of failure they'll cut you right off."
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Decades before Don't Ask Don't Tell, Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient Sgt. Leonard Matlovich made history by revealing he was gay. In 1975, six months after notifying his supervisor, Matlovich was declared unfit for military service and was discharged. His admission became public knowledge in a New York Times story that year, and he went on to become an icon of the gay rights movement, landing a Time Magazine cover and unsuccessfully running for office in California. Matlovich died from AIDS-related complications in 1988 at age 44.
Melissa Etheridge didn't plan on making a big production of announcing that she was gay. Rather, her admission was meant to be more akin to a liner note. But at the 1993 Triangle Ball, an LGBT gala organized in honor of Bill Clinton's inauguration, Etheridge did so when addressing the crowd. She later told The Advocate, "I didn't even think, ‘Oh, I'm going to come out here'…it was, ‘Gee, I'm really excited to be here, and I'm really proud to have been a lesbian all my life.'" Etheridge has long been an ardent supporter of gay rights, and upon the passage of Proposition 8 in California, she wrote on The Daily Beast t to express her outrage and to declare that she would not be paying taxes after being denied her civil rights. "Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away," Etheridge wrote , "We will not rest until we have the full rights of any other citizen. It is that simple, no fearful vote will ever stop us, that is not the American way."
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Gareth Thomas made an entire career in the machismo world of rugby before he admitted to being gay, even though he had known since he was a teenager. Once the captain of the Welsh national team and married to his high school sweetheart, Thomas came out to his inner circle in 2006—after going through a small stroke and his wife's third miscarriage. Then in December 2009, Thomas came out publicly with an interview in the Daily Mail, becoming the sports world's first gay superstar. "It is the toughest, most macho of male sports, and with that comes an image," said Thomas, who is still playing professionally. "In many ways, it is barbaric, and I could never have come out without first establishing myself and earning respect as a player." He added that he does not know of a single other gay player in the game but knows, "Statistically I can't be the only one."
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In 1976, Elton John inched open the door to his closet when he spoke with Rolling Stone of his firm belief in the universality of bisexuality: "There's nothing wrong with going to bed with somebody of your own sex. I think everybody's bisexual to a certain degree. I don't think it's just me." Then on Valentine's Day 1984, John surprised fans when he wed longtime friend, Renate Blauel. Four years later, the couple divorced and John went back to Rolling Stone and came out on the record, admitting that he was comfortable with his sexuality. In 1993, the singer met David Furnish and the two were married in a 2005 civil ceremony , following a star-studded pre-party believed to have cost £100,000.
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