FAMOUS GAY CELEBRITIES

Singer
STEPHEN GATELY
Irish
Born 17 March 1976

Gately rose to fame during his time with the chart-topping boyband, Boyzone. He is now persuing a solo career. Gately came out in The Sun newspaper, giving his story for free, on 16 June 1999. He stated that "it shouldn't be an issue", however he knew he was about to be 'outed' by a member of security staff - so Gately stole his thunder, good on him... Stephen and his long term boyfriend are still living together in Amsterdam as far as I know.

TV Presenter
DALE WINTON
British
Born 22 May 1955

Dale Winton is a household name in the UK, he's been presenting television programmes for the BBC since 1986, and has fronted numerous shows ranging from Supermarket Sweep to The Other Half to The National Lottery. He never officially came out, or publicly addressed his sexuality in any way, until writing about it in his autobiography. Some would say this is due to a fear of damaging his career. In an interview with Richard & Judy however, he made it clear that he wasn't sure for a long time, and felt it to be of a very personal nature.

TV Presenter
GRAHAM NORTON
Irish
Born 1964

The openly gay Graham Norton started out as a struggling actor, working in bars to supplement his income. However he soon moved onto stand-up comedy, and got his big break in 1997 when he was nominated for the prestigious Perrier comedy award at the world-famous Edinburgh International Festival. TV offers rolled in, and Norton ended up presenting Channel 4's Not The Jack Docherty Show before he was given his own comedy chat show, So Graham Norton, which became hugely successful.

Gay Rights Activist
PETER TATCHELL
Australian
Born 1952

Tatchell was born and raised in Melbourne, came out in 1969 at the age of 17, and moved to London in 1971. He's been at it (campaigning) for over 30 years, written 6 books, 2,000 published articles, and staged numerous political stunts. His controversial, up-front approach has gained him as much criticism as respect, from both gays and straights. However, the massively successful OutRage!, co-founded by Tatchell, has undoubtably gone a long way to changing attitudes towards homosexuality in the UK.

Musician
GEORGE MICHAEL
British
Born 25 June 1963

In a career spanning almost 20 years, Michael has had six US number 1's, eleven British number 1's, and has sold more than 67 million records worldwide. He started off as one member of the duo Wham! in the early eighties, and went on to play some of the biggest concerts in history, including Live Aid and The Freddie Mercury Tribute. Michael didn't come out as much as he was 'outed' after being arrested for lewd conduct in an LA public toilet. You've gotta give him respect though, as he then mocked the whole incident in his later music video, Outside. In addition, he talked openly about it, and many other things in an infamous interview with Parkinson. He recently broke it off with his partner, Kenny Goss.

Musician
MICHAEL STIPE
American
Born 4 January 1960

Michael Stipe is most famous for being the frontman of R.E.M., a band that some would call the most important and influential American rock band of the post-punk era. Stipe met fellow band-member, guitarist Peter Buck, while he was studying painting and photography at the University of Georgia, US. R.E.M. was then formed in 1980 with bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. Stipe has also published photo collections and produced feature films (such as Being John Malkovich, 1999, through his company Single Cell). Stipe finally came out in May 2001 saying "I was being made to be a coward about it, rather than someone who felt like it really was a very private thing." At the same time, it was revealed he was in a relationship of over 3 years.

Musician
ELTON JOHN
British
Born 25 March 1947

His real name is possibly just as famous as his 'rock star name'. Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Middlesex, UK, and started playing the piano at the age of 4, he started early. Despite his obvious talents as a musician, he struggled to conquer the charts - even with favourable reviews by the critics. The renamed, more saleable Elton John, got his first hit major in 1970 with the release of Your Song. From there, John whent on to become the most successful rock pianist in the world. Within the same decade, bravely for the time, John announced he was bisexual, and has been open about it ever since. He married Renate Blauel in 1984, but they seperated in the following years. John is now married to David Furnish who he "loves very much."

Author
CHRISTOPHER RICE
American
Born 11 March 1979

Rice has the (dis?)advantage of being the son of poet/artist Stan Rice and megastar author Anne Rice (Interview With the Vampire, 1976). Rice, however, grew up with the ambition of being an actor and only started writing after being disheartned because he wasn't called back after an audition. He initially started writing screenplays, later claiming "I always thought that I wouldn't write novels, that I wasn't cut out for it." His first novel, A Density Of Souls, published when he was 21, is a thriller which tells the story of four young friends in New Orleans whose lives are pulled in drastically different directions when they enter high school. One character is loosely based on himself; tall, blue-eyed, and gay.

Musician
BOY GEORGE
British
Born 14 June 1961

Boy George is a global TV and media personality, as much as he is the frontman of the 80's band Culture Club. His name is synonymous with his brand -- androgyny combined with extreme dress-sense. "His barely concealed homosexuality, though no problem to his many fans, caused considerable comment in the tabloid press." - VH1. The thing that caused more controversy however, was his drug addiction, at one point taunting the media with the statement that he was "your favourite junkie." He was however successfully treated for his dependancy. More recently he has been producing dance mix compilations for the Ministry Of Sound label, often in conjunction with fellow DJ, Pete Tong.

Actor & Comedian
ELLEN DEGENERES
American
Born 26 January 1958

Degeneres was voted Funniest Person in America way back in 1982, won the Comedy Award for Best Female Club Standup in 1991, and was named Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year in 1997. In the same year she came out, mirroring the coming out of her character Ellen in the ABC sitcom of the same name. Also in 1997, she met and started dating Anne Heche, and the two announced their relationship on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and impressively, the two were seen talking with President Clinton with linked arms at a White House press gathering. Degeneres and Heche seperated in 2000.

Actor & Politician
MICHAEL CASHMAN MEP
British
Born 1950

Born in the East End of London. By the age of 12 he was performing in Lionel Bart's musical Oliver which was running in one of London's west end theatres. He then went on to stage school in Surbiton, Surrey. He has had a distinguished career as an actor and singer spanning thirty seven years. He has also worked as a director. He then moved to a career in politics, and is now Labour MEP for the West Midlands. He is also the European Parliamentary Labour Party Spokesperson on Northern Ireland. He has been an active campaigner across a wide range of issues. During his time on Eastenders (playing Colin Russell), he formed the Stonewall Group (British group campaigning for lesbian and gay equality) and was its founding chair, and he was awarded a Special Service Award in 1988 for his campaigning work by the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights and the Gay Medical Association. Michael is currently living with his partner, Paul, and they have been together for 18 years.

Musician
kd lang
Canadian
Born 2 November 1961

Lang, born Kathryn Dawn Lang in Consort, Alberta, is the daughter of a farmer. She became skillful at playing the guitar and the piano at a young age, and she persued a career in performing arts when she left school. She eventually chose to sing country - a style she had once hated, describing it as "the corniest in pop." Angel With A Lariat, lang's debut release on a major label, was given positive feedback from rock magazines such as Rolling Stone, but most country radio stations refused to play it, prejudiced by her spiky hair cut, vegetarianism and her ambiguous sexuality. lang came out in June 1992 in The Advocate magazine, and entered a serious relationship with musician Leisha Hailey in 1996. Oh, and she prefers her name in lower case because "it's generic and unlike Cherry Bomb, it's a name, not a sexuality"...