After years of speculation, Jim Nabors, the actor behind the classic 60's sitcom and character Gomer Pyle, came out of the closet in an announcement that he married his partner of 38 years, Stand Cadwaller, in Seattle on January 15. Said Nabors: I'm 82 and he's in his 60s and so we've been together for 38 years and I'm not ashamed of people knowing, it's just that it was such a personal thing, I didn't tell anybody," Nabors said. "I'm very happy that I've had a partner of 38 years and I feel very blessed. And, what can I tell you, I'm just very happy." As promised, Nabors has continued to live a very private life. Nabors was the subject of a longtime rumor that he had 'married' Rock Hudson. Hudson said that the urban legend was started by "middle-aged homosexuals who live in Huntington Beach" who sent out a joke invitation to their marriage, which blew up into something that a few people started to take seriously. It reportedly damaged their relationship forever.
Maulik Pancholy, who played Jonathan on 30 Rock and Sanjay on Weeds, spoke for the first time about his sexuality in a profile for this year's OUT100 in Out magazine. Said Pancholy: "I just celebrated my nine-year anniversary with my partner. It feels like a nice time to be celebrating something like that, especially on the heels of the DOMA and Prop 8 decisions."
Micah Porter is a four-time state champion high school track & field coach in Denver, Colorado. In September, the story broke that Porter had called his team together to break some news. Outsports had the report: He let them know that an article about him would be coming out this week, and that the article discussed him being gay and would talk about his partner, Brandan. The news was met with the same silence that stared back at him when he came out to his wife four years earlier. After a few seconds, one of the team leaders - who Porter says could end the season as a conference champion - stood up, shook his hand, told him it didn't matter to him, and asked what that day's practice had in store for them. The rest of the team laced up their shoes and followed suit. Porter's story was just one more refreshing example that sexuality is becoming a non-issue for today's youth, and that LGBT people in sports deserve to be able to live openly and honestly.
Senator Rob Portman's son may not have come out to his friends and family this year, but he came out to the world through his father, a Republican lawmaker whose shift on marriage equality made him the first sitting GOP senator to bak same-sex marriage.
Said the elder Portman of his shift: "I had a very personal experience which is my son came to Jane, my wife and I, told us he was gay and that it was not a choice, that's just part of who he is and that he had been that way since he could remember." Will Portman later wrote that he was "especially proud" of his father for coming out for marriage equality.
Jennifer Pritzker, the billionaire heir (formerly known as James) to the Pritzker fortune came out of the closet in August in a statement to her staff, Crain's Chicago Business reported: In a memo to employees at the Pritzker Military Library and Tawani Enterprises, the retired Army lieutenant colonel and wealth management CEO said he is now living as a woman named Jennifer Natalya Pritzker. A statement released by email said this: "As of Aug. 16, 2013, J.N. Pritzker will undergo an official legal name change, will now be known as Jennifer Natalya Pritzker. This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly. Pritzker now identifies herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings." A spokeswoman declined to answer questions about Col. Pritzker's sexuality or possible hormone therapy. Pritzker became one of several transgender military veterans coming out this year, along with Chelsea Manning and Kristen Beck. Pritzker served 11 years in active duty in the U.S. Army, including in the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Ky., and VII Corps at Kelly Barracks, Germany. That service was followed by 16 years in the U.S. National Guard.
Young and the Restless star Greg Rikaart came out via Twitter in June after being inspired by the striking down of DOMA by the U.S. Supreme Court. Rikaart tweeted a selfie of him and his boyfriend, writing: "Not getting married anytime soon, but celebrating #equality tonight nonetheless."
In early February, Robbie Rogers, a little known former Major League Soccer player who had played for the Columbus Crew and then in Europe, made headlines after coming out of the closet in a post on his personal blog. Rogers' blog post, in which he also announced he was retiring from football, was quickly international news. Rogers wrote in his blog post: Secrets can cause so much internal damage. People love to preach about honesty, how honesty is so plain and simple. Try explaining to your loved ones after 25 years you are gay. Try convincing yourself that your creator has the most wonderful purpose for you even though you were taught differently. I always thought I could hide this secret. Football was my escape, my purpose, my identity. Football hid my secret, gave me more joy than I could have ever imagined... I will always be thankful for my career. I will remember Beijing, The MLS Cup, and most of all my teammates. I will never forget the friends I have made a long the way and the friends that supported me once they knew my secret. Now is my time to step away. It's time to discover myself away from football. It's 1 A.M. in London as I write this and I could not be happier with my decision. Life is so full of amazing things. I realized I could only truly enjoy my life once I was honest. Honesty is a bitch but makes life so simple and clear. My secret is gone, I am a free man, I can move on and live my life as my creator intended. LGBT advocates expressed disappointment over Rogers' retirement, noting the lack of out professional athletes and the position he was in to make a difference. But Rogers returned with a vengeance after some time off, signing with the L.A. Galaxy and stepping up with renewed confidence as an openly gay player.
Hillsdale College basketball player Derek Schell broke another barrier in sports in October in an open letter to Outsports in which he declared that his decision to come out reignited his love for basketball. With his declaration Schell became the first openly gay NCAA Division II basketball player, hopefully paving the way for many more. Schell described telling his teammates: I went to each of them and told them I treated them as brothers, since I have none biologically, and that this is just a part of me they finally deserved to know... They all respected me and recognized that nothing had changed and I was the same teammate and friend that I was before. Despite attending a conservative college, I have been accepted for who I am by those on my team and others close to me. Eventually, I was so tired of living my life in fear. I was mentally exhausted. Instead, I realized that I could be an athlete, be a friend, be a son, be a brother, be an artist, and be gay as well.
Irish actor Andrew Scott, who plays Moriarty in the BBC1 series Sherlock alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, spoke publicly about his sexuality for the first time in November when asked about Legacy, a BBC2 drama about spying between the UK and USSR during the Cold War years. Said Scott: "There isn't a huge amount of footage of Russians speaking English as a second language, so I started looking at Vladimir Putin videos on YouTube. But then Putin introduced anti-gay legislation this summer – so, being a gay person, I switched to Rudolf Nureyev videos instead. It was another Nureyev defection of sorts! ... Mercifully, these days people don't see being gay as a character flaw. But nor is it a virtue, like kindness. Or a talent, like playing the banjo. It's just a fact. Of course, it's part of my make-up, but I don't want to trade on it. I am a private person; I think that's important if you're an actor. But there's a difference between privacy and secrecy, and I'm not a secretive person. Really I just want to get on with my job, which is to pretend to be lots of different people. Simple as that."
Nikki Sinclaire, a British member of the European Parliament revealed in a book published in November that she underwent gender reassignment at the age of 23 and knew since she was 3 years old that she is transgender: "It sounds weird, but I knew something was wrong even then - I've always felt I was in the wrong body. I remember dressing up as a girl on my first day of school. It then started to happen every day. The other kids knew I was different," she said." Sinclaire added: "If I hadn't become a woman I would have led a lonely, neurotic life, forever out of place, endlessly consulting doctors and therapists at public expense. As it is I have become a happy, fulfilled achiever and I have repaid, in tax, the cost of my NHS operation many times over....I feel passionately that true equality happens only when your colour, creed, gender or sexuality is not a label used next to your name. We are not there yet."
Troye Sivan, the diminutive teen who played the young Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, has a devoted following as a YouTube vlogger, and decided to be straight up with them in a clip posted in August. Said Sivan: "On August 7, 2010 I told my family that I am gay. And on August 7, 2013 I want you guys to know that I am gay. It feels kind of weird to have to announce it like this on the internet but I feel like a lot of you guys are genuine friends of mine. I share everything with the internet. Whether or not that's a good thing I don't know but this is not something that I'm ashamed of..." The clip has been viewed more than 2,000,000 times.
Rod Snyder wrapped up a three-year tenure as President of the Young Democrats of America this year, but coming out of the closet in August may have been his crowning personal achievement. Said Snyder: But in the midst of all this historic progress, I've never taken the opportunity to tell my own story – that I am a Christian, an American, a West Virginian, a Young Democrat, a rural advocate, a singer-songwriter, a brother, a son, a grandson, a nephew, an uncle, and a gay man. Growing up in a conservative Christian family in rural West Virginia, my own journey to a place of self acceptance has been a long and difficult one. Over the past two years, now in my early thirties, I've finally found the courage to look in the mirror and insist upon honesty and authenticity, overcoming so many negative messages I had internalized as a child and young adult. I've reached a place where I believe my story can help increase understanding, provide encouragement and be a catalyst for change.
Broadway star Bobby Steggert was one of 2013's 'nonchalant' coming outs, buried in a September profile of the performer in OUT magazine, and not an announcement per se, but a discussion of his craft: The role also marks Steggert's most mature, complex portrayal to date. Up until his turn as a gay dad in Mothers and Sons—"I think it's a gay actor's responsibility to give full-blooded life to gay characters"—the 32-year-old actor spent years starring in coming-of-age stories. He played a conflicted gay soldier in the Off-Broadway World War II musical Yank! and earned a Tony nom for his performance in the 2009 revival of McNally's Ragtime. His work in the latter actually inspired the four-time Tony-winning scribe to write a role for him in Mothers. "Now I'm playing men dealing with adult issues," Steggert says. Many familiar with the Broadway world knew that Steggert is gay, but it's certainly a step for many to discuss it publicly.
Cosby Show actress Raven Symonè ended years of speculation in August when she tweeted "I can finally get married! Yay government! So proud of you" Symoné had never said publicly if she was gay but addressed the rumors previously in response to a National Enquirer article that reported she was living with an America's Next Top Model contestant in New York City.
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