Steve Grand comes out; NME promotes idea that "that shit is wrong"

You know, if you're going to come out, and you're a country musician, you might as well really come out.

Steve Grand's done it by releasing this:

... and then saying 'oh, and that's autobiographical'.

It's just a bit grim that it's 2013, and an out country (as opposed to alt country) artist is a rarity. uproxx.com provided some context:

Before country musician Steve Grand uploaded “All-American Boy” to YouTube, the most prominent Google search result for “gay country song” was a link to Yahoo! Answers. Three years ago, “Gex” asked, “Is their any gay country song?” to which “ihatebho” replied, “Another song dealing with homosexuality: Ain’t Going Down On Brokeback Mountain by Willie Nelson,” which, yes, is a real song, with the refrain “That sh*t ain’t right.”

I'm sorry, Willie Nelson did what? (He even works in a gag about bumming, like he's seven years old.)

Even more surprisingly, the NME is hosting the video. Yes, that's the NME with a page dedicated to a song which says that homosexuality is wrong.

Obviously, it's been somehow auto-generated and the paper tartly disclaims any responsibility:

DISCLAIMER: The video content provided on this page is generated by YouTube and consequently features user-generated content. While we do our best to stop offensive material appearing, NME.COM cannot be held responsible for all of the material that may be displayed on this page. If you object to any video, please visit the YouTube Abuse and Policy Centre

- but, frankly, that's not good enough. What actions have the NME taken that it feels is "doing our best"? And why on earth should someone complain to YouTube because the NME has embedded something homophobic on it's site?

Turns out 50% of Chely Wright's audience were homophobes

There seems to be a general assumption that coming out has been good for Chely Wright - which seems to be based on little more than people not really having heard of her before. But now she's been written about outside the country music press, so that's good, right?

Not entirely, no:

"In coming out I had a feeling that it would diminish my wage earning, and that feeling was correct... It didn't help my career.

"My record sales went directly in half. If it appears from the outside in that it's helped my career, it could be because I haven't talked about the negative."

That's in addition to the green inked letters and threats, of course.

Does she regret it, though?

Nope. And there are some things bigger than selling records to people who don't like gays.

Ricky Martin comes out... apparently

Ten years after Barbara Walters asked, Ricky Martin has finally answered:

According to the Associated Press, Ricky Martin, who's 38, decided he didn't want to keep any secrets in the closet. But what closet? Frankly this blogger was surprised to learn Ricky Martin was straight.

If Martin's coming out was late in timing, it was dull as hell in form. It was almost as if he hoped he could bore people away from the announcement before he got to the announcement:

A few months ago I decided to write my memoirs, a project I knew was going to bring me closer to an amazing turning point in my life. From the moment I wrote the first phrase I was sure the book was the tool that was going to help me free myself from things I was carrying within me for a long time. Things that were too heavy for me to keep inside. Writing this account of my life, I got very close to my truth. And thisis something worth celebrating.

For many years, there has been only one place where I am in touch with my emotions fearlessly and that's the stage. Being on stage fills my soul in many ways, almost completely. It's my vice. The music, the lights and the roar of the audience are elements that make me feel capable of anything. This rush of adrenaline is incredibly addictive. I don't ever want to stop feeling these emotions. But it is serenity that brings me to where I'm at right now. An amazing emotional place of comprehension, reflection and enlightenment. At this moment I'm feeling the same freedom I usually feel only on stage, without a doubt, I need to share.

Many people told me: "Ricky it's not important", "it's not worth it", "all the years you've worked and everything you've built will collapse", "many people in the world are not ready to accept your truth, your reality, your nature". Because all this advice came from people who I love dearly, I decided to move on with my life not sharing with the world my entire truth. Allowing myself to be seduced by fear and insecurity became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sabotage. Today I take full responsibility for my decisions and my actions.

If someone asked me today, "Ricky, what are you afraid of?" I would answer "the blood that runs through the streets of countries at war...child slavery, terrorism...the cynicism of some people in positions of power, the misinterpretation of faith." But fear of my truth? Not at all! On the contrary, It fills me with strength and courage. This is just what I need especially now that I am the father of two beautiful boys that are so full of light and who with their outlook teach me new things every day. To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids where born with. Enough is enough. This has to change. This was not supposed to happen 5 or 10 years ago, it is supposed to happen now. Today is my day, this is my time, and this is my moment.

These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed.

What will happen from now on? It doesn't matter. I can only focus on what's happening to me in this moment. The word "happiness" takes on a new meaning for me as of today. It has been a very intense process. Every word that I write in this letter is born out of love, acceptance, detachment and real contentment. Writing this is a solid step towards my inner peace and vital part of my evolution.

I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.

"Righto, Mr. Martin. So I'm putting down as 'man looking for men', then."

It's great that Martin has decided to come out, but there's always something a little queasy about a man pushing his was to the front of the Gay Pride floats after he's spent the last two decades firmly at the head of the "Heh! That's a personal question - let's just say I'm sexual and mention that I have so many female fans" Pride march.

Simon Cowell: It's all very modern

You'll have been worrying, of course, how Simon Cowell has taken the news of Clay Aiken's coming out:

The "American Idol" judge reacted in typically sarcastic form, telling the entertainment news show "Extra": "Wow. That's a shock. It's like being told Santa Claus isn't real. Unbelievable."

Oh, he's such a card, isn't he? Do you suppose he'd have said that to Aiken if Clay had come out to him?

Cowell then showed himself to be quite modern:

"Good for him. If he said it, it's the right thing for him. ... I don't think anyone cares. Let's face it. It's 2008. You know. Who cares?"

Yes. Who cares, eh, Simon? Although clearly enough people do to make it worth People putting the story on the cover. Clearly Clay cared enough that he felt unable - prior to fatherhood - to say the words that Cowell feels so screamingly obvious.

Who cares, eh, Simon? And yet this in a nation where that bunch of charmers turn up to picket soldiers' funerals not because the soldiers were gay, but because they died fighting for a country which has sort-of come to terms with homosexuality.

You might conclude that quite a lot of people care, Simon, and that's precisely why so late into his career Clay has finally found the courage to come out; precisely why it took so long.

You might conclude that quite a lot of people care when you read gunk like this, from an Aiken fansite:

"This is really shocking news as I had no idea he was gay," read a comment posted by "Sheridansq." "And now I have to deal with this. I am not sure what to say to people who know I was a fan. ... I didn't go to work today and am not answering the telephone."

If only it was an announcement that merited only a shrug.

It's like Clay Aiken's opened the floodgates

Alright, technically, Ray Boltz came out before Clay Aiken but that just goes to prove how slippery these homosexual chappies are, doesn't it?

The name Ray Boltz might not mean much to you, but he's the guy who wrote one of the biggest Christian rock hits, Thank You. (It even got an airing during the mourning for Mother Theresa.) Given the fundamentalist American Christian position on man-on-man touching, for them, it's a bit like us discovering that Billy Bragg was a Young Conservative.

Talking to the Washington Blade, Boltz said he got tired of juggling two types of love:

“I thought I hid it really well,” he says. “I didn’t know people could see what I was going through, the darkness and the struggle. After I came out to my family, one of my daughters said she was afraid to walk in my bedroom because she was afraid she’d find me — that I’d done something to myself. And I didn’t even know they’d picked it up.”

Isn't darkness and struggle the sort of thing that churches are supposed to make easier, not worse?

Boltz is lucky - he's found a new church, one that does better with the concept of tolerance and love, and he has a profile and back catalogue which can ease the transition. The Blade, though, notes that previous, smaller Christian artists haven't exactly thrived since coming out:

Marsha Stevens, a Jesus Movement songwriter famous for the Christian folk song, “For Those Tears I Died,” a favorite in youth camps and churches for decades, came out in 1980. She was famously renounced by Bill Gaither, whom she’d been photographed with at one of his “Homecoming” concerts, in 2006.

Kirk Talley, a Southern Gospel singer (a slightly different genre than CCM, though there’s some overlap of the players), confessed to struggling with homosexuality and came out in GQ in 2005. He’s continued singing in churches but only because he’s categorized his sexual orientation as a burden to be carried.

Talley initially declined to be interviewed for this story saying he’d “been through enough hell,” but did consent to one comment: “I will definitely be in prayer for Ray,” he said in an e-mail. “He has no idea the crap he will have to endure.”

It's not all Christians, of course. It's just unfortunate that the louder the faction shouts, the narrower their hearts and minds appear to be.

And I thought he was just a natty dresser

It wasn't so long ago that Clay Aiken was complaining that nobody would believe he was straight. "The only answer they want to hear is 'yes'" he said, referring to the 'are you gay' question.

It seems he's got tired of answering no, coming out to People magazine this week.