With several countries legalizing same sex marriages, the days of hiding your relationship status if you happened to be gay are gone. And with more individuals coming out in the open to express their sexual preferences, we take a look at some famous celebrities who never shied away from revealing their sexual orientation, but were proud of the same!
Elton John
Leading the pack is world-renowned singer Elton John who revealed that he was bisexual way back in 1976, a move that shook the entire music industry. He entered a civil partnership with his partner of 12 years, David Furnish, in 2005. The couple invited two sons born via surrogacy into their family in the subsequent years, and named them Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John and Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John respectively.
Jodie Foster
Popular Hollywood actress joined the list of gay celebrities by coming clean of her sexual orientation at the Golden Globe Awards in 2013. The move ended a really long period of speculation wherein the actress was constantly prodded about her private life at one end, and was targeted by gay activists for not coming out of the closet in public. At the function, Foster thanked her ex-husband and sons for a wonderful life, and maintained that she had come out of the closet a long time back, but had shared the information only with a select few friends and family members.
Ricky Martin
The guy who swept a million girls of their feet with his video ‘Mysterious Girl’ managed to break an equal number (or even more) of hearts by revealing that he was gay on his official website in 2010. Martin maintained that he was proud of his individuality and was a really fortunate homosexual man. Martin has been in a relationship (details not divulged) for years now, and is father to twins who were born to a surrogate mother in 2008.
Ellen DeGeneres
Television host and stand-up comedian Ellen DeGeneres announced her sexual orientation to the world in 1997 on her own TV show which was eventually cancelled. She is known to have dated Anne Heche and Portia De Rossi before settling down with the latter. In her interview with Oprah, Portia de Rossi is said to have mentioned about how she managed to get the courage to come out of the closet after watching Ellen do the same on her show (before the couple started seeing each other). The couple tied the knot in 2008 after four years of courtship. They live together, and share their home with four cats and three dogs.
Cynthia Nixon
Sex & the City star Cynthia Nixon announced about her bisexual stance in 2012. And the actress has never shied away from admitting that she had never had any qualms in dating women even before realizing that she was gay. Put in her own words, “I don’t really feel I’ve changed. I’d been with men all my life, and I’d never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn’t seem so strange. I’m just a woman in love with another woman.” Cynthia is currently married to education activist Christine Marinoni whom she started seeing in 2009.