I'm gay

When Ellen DeGeneres publicly came out and announced that she is gay back in 1997, it was a big deal. Gay celebrities lived in the closet most of the time fearing that their careers would be hurt. Ellen even had her tv sitcom character come out. When Lance Bass came out nine years later it wasn't as big. There already were some openly gay musicians and Lance was not currently doing that much performing. As more and more people came out it became easier for the next.

Neil Patrick Harris played a non-gay role on his hit television show, so you might expect him to be the last to tell the world he is gay, but tell he did, around the same time as Lance.  Did is popularity go down?  Nope.  Not a bit.  In fact he seems to have become more popular.

Ricky Martin, Rosie O’ Donnell, BD Wong, Jim Parsons, Cynthia Nixon, Meredith Baxter, and George Takei and just a few of the dozens who in recent years have said "I'm gay." Each time someone says it there seems to be a little less surprise and a little less controversy.  Gay people exist.  Some of them are famous.  It's really no big deal.  In 2020 we even saw a married gay man run for President of the United States!

Closets are really just for clothes and so more and more people are being open about who they are.  People are being honest and the honesty is being rewarded in the form of more acceptance and more equality.  It's about time.