Being a celebrity means that everything a person is rumored to say or do can be thrown into the public sphere, open to be scrutinized by anyone who reads about it on the pages of tabloids or sees it on their TV screens as entertainment news. It can be something as insignificant as showing their face in public without wearing any makeup (How dare they?!), or something as momentous and sensitive as revealing that they’re gay.
Unfortunately, society has made it difficult for people to reveal their sexual orientation when it goes against what some might consider “normal” or “acceptable”. And for celebrities, coming out to the world is a lot different than coming out to just close friends and family. Although the number of states allowing gay marriage is still much smaller than the number of states banning it (14 states with legal gay marriage, 35 states with same-sex marriage bans) many celebrities have found the confidence to reveal, through public statements, that they are gay and proud of it. Unfortunately, this act of courage has the potential to harm a celebrity’s career. But slowly, more and more people are accepting and embracing this diversity, and gay celebrities are proving to be powerhouses in Hollywood.
One of the first celebrities to reveal that she is gay is the iconic talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. DeGeneres came out in 1977 at a time when being gay was far less acceptable than it is today. She appeared on the cover of Time magazine with a bold headline saying “Yep, I’m gay.” She was very confident in her statement, saying, “Now, I feel completely comfortable with myself, and I don’t have to be fearful about something damaging my career if it gets out, because now I’m in control of it — sort of.”
Prior to and during the time she came out, DeGeneres had a very successful sitcom called Ellen which she received numerous Best Actress Emmy nominations for. However, after the Time magazine issue ran in 1977, her career took a downward turn. Ellen was canceled after one more season and DeGeneres could not find work for three years. In 2001 she made her first attempt at The Ellen Show but the show gained no popularity and lasted just one season.
In the next two years, however, DeGeneres successfully revived her career. She gained much praise hosting for the first time the Emmy Awards and Saturday Night Live in 2001, and officially made the world fall in love with her again with her role as Dory in Finding Nemo. In 2003 following the film’s debut, DeGeneres made her second attempt at The Ellen DeGeneres Show which immediately became a success. The show won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show after the first season and has since then won a total of 32 Emmys. Although initially revealing that she was gay seemed to tarnish her career, DeGeneres’ reputation has skyrocketed over the past decade and in 2010 Forbes named her the 10th most powerful woman in the world.
Another celebrity who came out to the public after establishing his fame is the How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris. Harris started his career in 1989, when he was 16. However, he did not publicly reveal that he was gay until 2006 at the age of 33. Following speculations and rumors that he was gay, Harris came out during an interview with People Magazine saying, “… I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love.”
Harris later said that one of his motives for publicly coming out was to respect his now fiancé David Burtka. He didn’t want it to look like he was ashamed of his relationship with Burtka or trying to hide it in any way. At the time that Harris revealed he was gay, How I Met Your Mother had already become a hit series and Harris was playing the role as Barney Stinson, one of the show’s main characters, who is known for being a well-dressed womanizer. In contrast to Degeneres’ experiences, most likely due to the time period, Harris’s career was not negatively affected by his coming out.
When Harris appeared on Bravo’s “After Show” hosted by Andy Cohen, he responded to a caller’s question asking how coming out has affected his career by saying “Career wise it’s been—honestly it’s been nothing but a positive.” Seven years after coming out, How I Met Your Mother continues to be a huge success, having been nominated for 28 Emmy Awards and winning nine. Harris is proudly engaged to David Burtka and the couple has a set of twins together.
Anderson Cooper is yet another celebrity who revealed that he was gay after his career and reputation were already well established. Cooper is an investigative journalist for CNN news where he is the primary anchor on Anderson Cooper 360, which started in 2003. He is also an author, has served as the host of his daytime talk show Anderson Live, and has appeared on many other talk shows such as Saturday Night Live, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and 60 Minutes.
Since Cooper had been a prominent public figure for years, there has been a lot of speculation over his sexuality. However, Cooper kept quiet about his personal life until he made a statement revealing his sexuality in an email to blogger Andrew Sullivan in July 2012. In the email Cooper said, “The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”
He explained that he has never tried to hide the fact that he is gay; it was just never something he felt necessary to bring up in his career. People weren’t very surprised with Cooper’s statement and it seemed that most of the public saw it as a long time coming.
The similarity among the coming out stories of Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, and Anderson Cooper is that none of them are ashamed or embarrassed of their sexuality, nor should they have a reason to be. While gay rights are still an ongoing issue in the world, it is becoming a much more accepted and even embraced culture. These are just a few of the many celebrities who have come out to the public and proved that being gay doesn’t restrict you from being just as successful, confident, and idolized as anyone else.
Sonny Billotte can be reached at sonny.billotte@spartans.ut.edu