SHOCKING News: Sean Hayes, Jack From Will & Grace, Is Gay

If you didn't know this one yet, here are some other people you may have misjudged: Boy George, Neil Patrick Harris, Scanner Ben, me.

Because, let's be honest: everyone knew Sean Hayes was gay. Sean Hayes in turn knew everyone knew he was gay. And so on. In fact, that's why this particular kind of celebrity coming out story gets under my skin like no other (I'm looking at you, Clay Aiken).

Normally I don't get too worked up about celebrities who stay in the closet - even though I think they could make a huge difference by coming out and that fact alone should be enough to motivate them - because I think there are more important things to focus on as far as the gay movement in the U.S.

But a situation like Hayes' or Aiken's strikes me as the oiliest kind of revelation, because they so clearly want to have it both ways. There's always an attitude of, "Well, if everyone knew I was gay then was there really any point in saying it?" But at the same time, these celebrities want to get the interviews and magazine covers and career bump (even if it's a slight, short one) that comes with such an announcement. So they wait as long as they can, until a career really starts to stall, and then it's one phone call to People or The Advocate and now we're supposed to talk about how brave they are, those scrappy little fighters.

What do they want, a fucking medal for taking a decade to say the thing that everyone knew already? You can't say things like "I was never really 'in'" and expect us (I say "us" to mean the gay community, but really it could be anyone) to give you any credit at this point. If you were never in, why does this warrant a magazine cover? Because obviously it does matter, no matter how many people "know", to say something out loud, and people who try to say otherwise are kidding themselves. Paul Lynde was as gay as a drag queen Madonna on a Pride parade float for the Cock, but the only reason he got to stay center square was because of what he didn't say.

So why should I care, then, about Sean Hayes deciding now is the time to say he was never actually "in"? Or when Anderson Cooper, or Jodie Foster, or any of the other public figures who are out in every sense except for the one that actually gets to the point of the matter decide to finally say it? That would be quite a courageous stand they took, if it were 1999.

They're obviously free to make their own choices about their personal life - everyone should be - which is why, again, normally the timing of a celebrity's coming out doesn't bug me. But if they grew up anything like other gay people did, there must have been a part of them that wished for someone well known, someone successful, to just come out and say that they're gay. And I can't imagine they've completely forgotten that part, either. So if everyone already knows, and you know they know, and they know you know they know - well then, what's the goddamn point in waiting anymore?

Via Towleroad.