Viva La Vida Ricky Gay

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Living La Vida Gay
Mar 29 2010, 5:11 PM ET


So Ricky Martin is gay.

I know--sit down. You may want to have a glass of water, and possibly a valium. Who could have guessed?

Well, not me, I suppose. Pre-coming out, Ricky Martin occupied about a minute of total time in my consciousness. I never gave much thought to whether he was gay or not, because I never gave much thought to Ricky Martin.

What Martin did is awfully brave and daring--given his profession, and what I understand to be the demographic for his music, this might be a career-ender.

I find his coming-out letter sort of interesting, though. He says that by not coming out, he was "not sharing with the world my entire truth". Well, yes, but who does? I assure you, dear readers, that there are many parts of my "truth" to which you will never be privy, and lucky you, really.

Why do we think that our love lives are such a central part of our existence that we cannot be perfectly whole unless we've shared the major details with the world? I'm not arguing that Ricky Martin should stay in the closet--I'm glad he's out and proud, and hope that it makes life easier for other gay people.

Rather, I wonder why the sex lives of public figures are so central to their appeal. Frankly, I know nothing about the love lives of virtually any movie star or musician: not gender, age, hair color, or names. And it doesn't hamper my enjoyment of their work. Why should it matter whether Ricky Martin--or Anderson Cooper--comes out?

I know, these are not exactly deep thoughts. What can I say. It's Monday.

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Bombshell: Ricky Martin Is Gay
By Richard Lawson
Mar 29, 2010 -- 04:32 PM


Though long believed to be the hips-swivelingest, child-adoptingest, Miami-livingest, women-never-datingest straight pop star in town, Ricky Martin has revealed today, on his website [closed at the moment for remodeling. Yeah, really.], that he is a gay person who does gay things.

"I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am," he says at the end of a long missive on the site. Congrats, Ricky! What a nice change from this quote from back in the day:

If I were gay, why not admit it?...I am a normal man. I love women and sex. I am a real hot-blooded Puerto Rican, but I have never been attracted by sex with a man.

Anyway, we know that this is terribly surprising and that many people's entire worldview will be forever altered because of this event, so we have counselors on hand in case you need to talk or cry or just sit together and reflect.

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