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COME ON OUT!

National Coming Out Day: 9 Celebrities Who Came Out In The Past Year

By Dan Avery October 11, 2012 at 6:27am · Updated on October 17, 2012
It’s National Coming Out Day. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already come out—so congrats on that! The past twelve months have seen a number of big-name outings—athletes, journalists, actors. None is more important that the disclosure of everyday people like you, of course. But just the same, we’ve made a list of notable folks who announced they’re LGB or T since last National Coming Out Day. Did we forget someone? Sound off in the comments!  
Matt Bomer The ridiculously hot White Collar star was already the star of our nighttime reruns before he confirmed what many of us suspected at an awards ceremony in February. He may have danced around the subject for a while (his husband is a public-relations wizard, after all) but Bomer has since been an out advocate for the LGBT community. Just last weekend, he picked up an award from GLSEN and spoke about what it was like to be a gay teenager.)  
Frank Ocean When Frank Ocean came out in the liner notes to his then-upcoming album, Channel Orange, pop culture skipped a beat for a moment. Was he really talking about a tortured relationship with another man? How would hip-hop react? The jury is still out to some extent, and Ocean hasn’t talked much about his sexuality since then, but he has earned major props from the biggest names in pop music, not to mention Grammy and VMA nods.  
  Jim Parsons It’s not that The Big Bang Theory star was on the cover of tween magazines or was a heartthrob that made his subtle coming out in a New York Times article so important. It was that he is a household face (if not name) to millions of Americans who never thought they’ve encountered a gay person in their daily life.  

 

Zachary Quinto He’s not exactly the star of a CW series or the host of a daytime talk show, but Zachary Quinto went from a hit TV show to a mega-successful movie franchise to a role in Angels in America to coming out—without anyone in Hollywood crapping their pants. That’s big. Quinto speaks to the new generation that sees a celebrity come out and says, “so what?”  
Sally Ride It was sad when Sally Ride passed away—and even moreso when we found out she was gay only through her obituary. With the utmost respect, it felt like we were looking back at someone trapped in the values of an older generation. But that awkwardness was oddly comforting, knowing that the next time a lesbian break’s the Earth’s atmosphere, she’ll have a picture of her girlfriend taped on the windshield.  
Sam Champion This one made us smile: It was just the other weekend—in a New York Times writeup about the wedding of Thomas Roberts and his husband, Patrick Abner—that we saw in black and white what we’d known for years: That Good Morning America weatherman Sam Champion was family. What made it so sweet was that he came out by way of announcing he and partner Rubem Robierb were getting married, too. It felt like just another item in the society pages.  
Orlando Cruz We’ll admit we didn’t know Cruz, a former Olympian and the World Boxing Federation’s number four ranked featherweight, before he came out last week. But as a premier athlete in one of the most macho of sports, Cruz made us stop and reassess.  “I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career,” he said.  I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican.  I have always been and always will be a proud gay man.” And that’s worth more than knocking anyone unconscious in the ring.  
Kristy McNichol After years of seeing McNichol, a former teen star and TV veteran from Family and Empty Nest, splashed across the pages of tabloids, it was nice to see her happily share her truth: McNichol came out in the pages of People in January 2012 because, she hoped, “coming out can help kids who need support.”
Anderson Cooper Okay, so this was the coming out heard ’round the world. Even our bubbe knew Anderson Cooper went up the down staircase, but when you’re dealing with the American public until you actually say it, it’s not a fact. So Cooper said it, in a letter to Andrew Sullivan that went up on Sullivan’s blog. Talk about underplaying it! Star Jones was convinced the Silver Fox came out over the summer to boost ratings for his flagging daytime talk show, but as Cooper said: “If I was wanting to boost ratings, I would have waited to announce it on ‘A Very Special Episode’ that would have been promo’d for weeks and weeks and there would have been commercials  [for] ‘Anderson’s Huge Announcement!”

Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Service Members
Technically we should have mentioned these brave men and women last Coming Out Day, since Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was officially tossed in September 2011. But, well, we didn’t. Let’s assume it took everyone a few weeks to believe it was true before they started living openly. So we’re gonna take the time now to congratulate all the gays and lesbians in the Armed Forces, and thank them for putting up with all that bullshit for so long.

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17 Comments*

  • SoloZach

    Didn’t Ezra Miller also kind of come out? Asking for a friend…

  • defsteve

    Lana Wachowski, formerly Larry Wachowski of the Wachowski brothers, director of the Matrix movies, came out as trans this year.

  • Cam

    Congrats to all of them!!

  • ginasf

    “So we’re gonna take the time now to congratulate all the gays and lesbians in the Armed Forces”

    There are people in the military who are gay or lesbian AND trans. Don’t congratulate them because they still have to be in the closet or they’ll get kicked out.

  • tlezfemme

    Very astute of the two people who have mentioned trans inclusiveness. It’s very telling that this important coming out of a transwoman was ignored or that they didn’t mention transpeople in the military having to stay in the closet. This site needs to learn how to be more trans friendly. The very profiles that we are asked to fill out lists trans as a sexuality. Big clue folks. Trans is about gender not who you are intimate with. Gender & sexuality are on different spectrums. That is a simple thing that anyone who has been in a trans 101 session must have heard.

  • Niall

    You should just have said people who came out. The term “celebrity” is used very loosely here.

  • Mr. Enemabag Jones

    What about Paul Iacono from “The Hard Times of RJ Berger”?

  • KirkR

    Glad for all! Especially glad for Bomer, we finally have an out and proud sexy leading man in show business that both straight women and gay men adore and his orientation matters none to the straight women. Milestone!

  • boring

    Charles Bobuck.

    So awesome.

  • Reality101

    Thank you on behalf of every LGBT for being someone in the public eye and being openly a member of pur community.

    My cousin looked up to Anderson Cooper all his life. My cousin is a broadcast journalism major in college now. He came out directly as a result of Anderson coming out. He felt if Anderson can be open and accepted ad loved, so too can he. He’s SUCH a happier person now because of it. Everyone around him notices it. He may have eventually come out, but not for manyy many years (he was very closeted) seeing an icon of his open that door inspired him to be himself.

    Never underestimate the power of visibility.

  • NotStr8Acting

    After years of not understanding or accepting me being gay, my 78 year old devout religious grandmother wrote me a letter A.) apologizing for not understanding me better and B.) for attributing her new found understanding to Ellen Degeneres and Ellen being out. You see, my grandmothers only exposure to gay people was what her Church described us as. It wasn’t until Ellen’s show that she watched every day, and Ellen speaking on our rights, and speaking about our struggles that my grandma got it. And boy did she get it. She wanted to be a part of my partners life and I truly attribute it all to the exposure her favorite celebrity promoted for our movement. It makes a profound difference when people in the spotlight come out, and my family is living proof of that.

  • Steve007

    Who?

  • Jeremy L

    @KirkR: Bomer may be out but it’s very doubtful if he’s proud. Bomer is the same one that put gag orders on interviewers not to mention the fact that he’s gay for fear of upsetting his straight female fans. That’s hardly a “milestone”!

  • KirkR

    @Jeremy L: Matt has been out and proud living a private life for years hosting gay community charity events with his husband. Never lied about his orientation, never bearded, just lived his lif e on his own terms. Just because he didn’t come out on a flatbed full of drag queens and girly dancing boys doesn’t mean he is not out and proud. Some old Queerty whiners still stuck in the past.

  • girldownunder

    Kristy McNichol, was a crush. We are the same age nearly.

    How I wish she had come out when it would have mattered- like when all of us were going through what she was? Can you imagine if the “stars & celebrities” could have just come out together, en-force, and gave us some idea that we weren’t the only ones going through this?

    For her to step forward now- 20-30 years too late? Why? No young girl knows her.

    I have zero idea why she came out, to be honest. Other than to make herself feel better.

    However, at least she did it- Sally Ride denied gay pride to multiple gens. of girls. Shame she never offered something like that, considering her supposed caring. She had many years post-NASA to do so.

  • Jeremy L

    @KirkR: Bomer has been living a glass closeted life for years because he’s afraid of losing his straight female fan base. It isn’t any more complicated than that. It has nothing to do with living a “private life” or “living on his own terms”. Imposing ‘do not mention that I’m gay’ gag orders on those who want to publicly interview you, as Bomer has repeatedly done, is NOT being an out and proud gay man. It just isn’t.

    Oh, and to compare not imposing a restrictive ‘don’t mention that I’m gay’ gag order on a publication that wants to publicly interview you with “coming out on a flatbed full of drag queens and girly dancing boys” is simply ridiculous. But not surprising coming from shallow and silly Bomer worshipers.

  • KirkR

    @Jeremy L: Hmmm, shallow worshiper vs. Web Troll, I’ll take the former. Good news for Matt is that he is almost universally loved so trolling has zero impact.

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