Barry Manilow Came out... (actors, andy griffith, film, character)

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by blktoptrvl

He didn't for years because he was afraid his fans would be disappointed.

Barry Manilow Comes Out As Gay At Age 73 | The Huffington Post

This is kinda weird news... Where there any fans who didn't already know or suspect he was gay (To quite Seinfeld: "Not that there is anything wrong with that!")

Personally, I don't think that anyone who likes his music would have cared - even back when he was on top of the charts.

IMHO Barry Manilow "came out" as it were because like Jim Nabors and other gays who lived long enough, times changed by the 2000's. When same sex marriage became legal across the United States older gays with assets just like the rest of us realized and wanted in on all those rights that come to conferring someone as your "spouse".


You look at straight mega stars like Prince who not only didn't leave a will but neither had a spouse or children. Their estate goes to whatever immediate next of kin to pretty much do with it what they will with nil to no restrictions.

[Robert&Ripley]

My mother was shocked when I told her Luther Vandross was gay even though he never officially came out. Her response "but he sings all those beautiful ballads about women!" Oh mother.

[fitzy24]

Originally Posted by fitzy24

I'm surprised too. I didn't know people thought he was gas.

omg...gas should be gay.

Originally Posted by Robert&Ripley

My mother was shocked when I told her Luther Vandross was gay even though he never officially came out. Her response "but he sings all those beautiful ballads about women!" Oh mother.

Didn't he sue some tabloid for suggesting he was gay? He won.

[English Dave]

Originally Posted by fitzy24

Didn't he sue some tabloid for suggesting he was gay? He won.

So did Liberace, and he won damages..........


https://www.theguardian.com/media/gr...irror-medialaw

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by tantan1968

....or Roger C. Carmel from Star Trek and The Mothers-in-Law or Anthony Perkins from the movie Psycho. True the latter was married to a woman in his later years but pretty much everyone knew he was gay.

To be fair until really rather recently the only way a gay man was going to have a family was to marry a woman. Anthony Perkins, Joel Grey and countless other gay men of past went this route, and they would have wouldn't they? Surrogacy for pay (one step up from prostitution IMHO, but we're not on that right now), didn't really exist, nor was adoption a viable option.


Even if a gay man did marry and have children with a woman (wife or mistress) there was always the risk whatever "arrangement" was made could be thrown out. All the woman had to do was head to court and say the man was a homosexual. That alone was often enough grounds to deprive him of custody or even seeing his children. This would have been piled onto the then long standing bias that children, especially young ones *always* were given fully to the custody of their mother. A woman would have be declared really unfit to the level of major slattern for this not to happen.


Today of course Ricky Martin, Neil Patrick Harris, Cristiano Ronaldo, Elton John, and scores if not hundreds of other gay men the world over can simply "order" an infant with few to no questions asked.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by fitzy24

omg...gas should be gay.

I think he's gas too. Especially when eating beans.

[PegE]

Originally Posted by fitzy24

omg...gas should be gay.






Didn't he sue some tabloid for suggesting he was gay? He won.

Originally Posted by English Dave

So did Liberace, and he won damages..........


https://www.theguardian.com/media/gr...irror-medialaw

Funny if those companies sued them or in Liberace's case his estate.

[jayden22]

Everyone knew Barry allen. It's so funny his name is the same as the flash.

[Labonte18]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

To be fair until really rather recently the only way a gay man was going to have a family was to marry a woman. Anthony Perkins, Joel Grey and countless other gay men of past went this route, and they would have wouldn't they? Surrogacy for pay (one step up from prostitution IMHO, but we're not on that right now), didn't really exist, nor was adoption a viable option.


Even if a gay man did marry and have children with a woman (wife or mistress) there was always the risk whatever "arrangement" was made could be thrown out. All the woman had to do was head to court and say the man was a homosexual. That alone was often enough grounds to deprive him of custody or even seeing his children. This would have been piled onto the then long standing bias that children, especially young ones *always* were given fully to the custody of their mother. A woman would have be declared really unfit to the level of major slattern for this not to happen.


Today of course Ricky Martin, Neil Patrick Harris, Cristiano Ronaldo, Elton John, and scores if not hundreds of other gay men the world over can simply "order" an infant with few to no questions asked.

well.. You can't discount the stigma from back in the day. It simply wasn't acceptable.

Many people still don't know that Isaac Asimov died of AIDS. He wasn't gay, he contracted it through open heart surgery in the early 80s and a tainted blood transfusion.. But.. The stigma that people would THINK he was gay led to them covering up the true cause of his death for many years.

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by Labonte18

well.. You can't discount the stigma from back in the day. It simply wasn't acceptable.

Many people still don't know that Isaac Asimov died of AIDS. He wasn't gay, he contracted it through open heart surgery in the early 80s and a tainted blood transfusion.. But.. The stigma that people would THINK he was gay led to them covering up the true cause of his death for many years.

Yes, there was stigma, but much also depended upon where in society one was or ran with I suppose.


Joel Gray coming out likely wouldn't have harmed his career as the New York "theatre" scene has always been rather "liberal".


But then again suppose you do have a point. Paul Lynde likely became the bitter, drunk and often angry person he was off stage because his career was stalled to an extent. Yes, there was television (Bewitched and later Hollywood Squares), Broadway musical theatre (Bye, Bye Birdie) and films (again Bye, Bye Birdie), but everyone in Hollywood knew Mr. Lynde was gay including the *shirts* to were responsible for producing shows. So that was that.


In an interesting twist of fate at least two of Paul Lynde's co-stars on Bewitched (Dick Sargent and Maurice Evans) were gay, but kept it in the closet.


Few if anyone outside the "loop" knew Richard Chamberlain was gay, so much for all those females lusting after "Dr. Kildare".


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Chamberlain