AMC & GL Alum Comes Out

[Graham]

He was so hot in the TCM prequel. If I remember correctly, he gets hogtied in a barn.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Who'd he play on AMC?

I'm with those who never thought that he was never in a closet for him to have to come out from. It was clear to those in NYC that he was gay, though I didn't know that he was married with kids (I just assumed that he was single).

[Gray Bunny]

All in all, telling us that Matt Bomer is gay is like confirming that Paul Anthony Stewart is gay. We know.

[Khan]

Thank God we're in a day and age where someone comes out and the reaction, if any, is lukewarm. Don't get me wrong: good for him to acknowledge his family in an acceptance speech, but really, what's the big deal here?

[KMan101]

I dont see it as being treated as a big deal at all which it shouldnt be. Everyone knew he just never publically confirmed it or talked about it.

[Juliajms]

Yeah, I sort of agree. I guess it's still a big deal in certain circles, but I wish we were past the whole "coming out" thing. Hopefully in a few years there won't be a closet in the first place.

[DRW50]

As long as actors are punished for being openly gay, there will always be a closet. In this case I think it's enough, but some will always want a celebrity to make a big coming out (although then they are criticized for playing on a token status, and being a bad role model).

[Juliajms]

Yeah, I think it's too bad. I guess the idea is that women won't find gay men attractive, so they won't sell as well? Idk, I guess I always figure these guys like Matt are way out of my league no matter which team they play for, so I still find him hot.

But this is still a pretty conservative country and I agree it will take awhile before people in certain areas will be able to come out without consequence.

[Khan]

Good for him, too. What any man does behind closed doors is no one's business but God's.

[All My Shadows]

The news here isn't that he's gay; it's that he publicly acknowledged it.

[quartermainefan]

It will be a big deal if he continues to be cast in leading or romantic roles. Up til now there is still no gay actor out in Hollywood that is cast in those kind of roles. Neil Patrick Harris is basically your non-threatening, non-sexual talk show guest, singing gay man who will one day be cast in a revival of Hollywood Squares. Ian McKellen is old and Magneto doesn't get to kiss the girl. Everyone thought Matthew Bomer was impossibly handsome last week. Let's see if people think this a month from now or a year from now.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

Exactly and I'm glad he did. It shouldn't be a big deal anymore and a lot of us already knew about him but the more celebrities that come out, the better.

[JackPeyton]

Yeah, i didnt know he was in the closet. Hes been out and about with his partner and their kids, gave that shout out to the kids on GMA, talked about his family before. I guess hes never said "im gay" or "my boyfriend" so it was kind of a glass closet but not to the degree of like Anderson Cooper and others. But good for him, hopefully he gets no backlash.

[EricMontreal22]

I agree with the majority on here (and many blogs). First of all, why do they always credit him at AMC? was he there more than three episodes (or how did I miss it?) Despite the story in many respects, I do think he deserves a lot of credit for his stint at GL, and he's an *amazing* Broadway dancer (which I hope Glee takes some advantage of now that he's Darren Criss' brother--blah), with a good voice, and a *nice* guy who I met once when stage dooring a show. I've never heard anything negative about him (except that he's almost too pretty). As others have said, he's basically always been out--even when he did GL he was much more open about being gay, in the very don't ask/don't tell way, than any other male soap star I can think of. But when he, or his agent (*ahem* his husband) started focusing him on being a star, for a while they DID try to hide it. That said they never went the usual route of having beards or claiming to be straight, it was more the "I don't discuss my private life" route which given the business and society, I think is more than justified.

I get disappointed as I said in another thread with actors like Brit, Luke Evans who I met (again "met" means saw for 5 minutes at the stage door) over a decade back when he was a London musical theatre star in Miss Saigon. He was VERY openly gay then, and even did some embrassing gay magazine interviews about his preferences in gay porn (granted he was doing a show about a gay porn star), etc. And he seemed genuine and nice (as much as anyone can be in 5 minutes). But of course now that he and/or his agent have him as the Next Big Hollywood Star (*ha*), he suddenly has a girlfriend, and is not allowed to even bring up his past gay interviews, despite the fact that most of them are in legit newspapers online--but I guess he has a bigger studio picture on his shoulders than Bomerhas, starring in The Raven and with a lead in The Hobbit, etc... Still, that's the only time I really find it disappointing when stars are closeted--when they were either brave enough, or saw it to their benefit, to be openly gay and then suddenly hope that the non gay fans never heard about that and can believe they're straight.

(I do cynically wonder if Bomer realized now that his next two biggest appearances--as the gay brother on Glee and as the gay lead of the 80s gay classic play The Normal Heart, now a movie with Julia Roberts no less--are gay has just decided he might as well go with it. He also seems to be set to be comfortable, like Neil Patrick Harris, in a mild TV hit for a few more years. Some blogs have complained that he still hasn't "come out". He doesn't say he's gay anywhere, or even call his husband, his husband in so many words--but frankly in this case I find it far classier. Still, while I think it's still rare to have guys who are often cast as leading romantic males--as opposed to comic or chracter oparts--come out and hope to have a good career, it does deserve some mention that he's done this--and it's been nothing but a good decision IMHO--just as he's starting to be quite successful, not when he was, say, trying to cross over from soaps and build a career).

[EricMontreal22]

Hence the Luke Evans thing. (and I know Luke isn't even on most people's radar, but that's the very reason why they're trying to back peddle his public past). To be fair NPH still seems to get credit with the straight male crowd that people assume (and I think they sell them short here) would be most turned off by it--he's seen as cool in an admittedly comic way in Harold and Kumar and as a straight sex fiend on HIMYM. But those still aren't movies trying to sell him as the romantic lead in a movie targeted towartds middle America with a 20+mill budget.