The list of suspected lesbians and gay men is ever growing: In addition to the perennial suspect Tom Cruise, actors like Jake Gyllenhaal and Marcia Cross of “Desperate Housewives” have had to assert their heterosexuality.It all comes down to the question of "Who gives a rat's ass?" I really don't think knowing the details of a celebrity's private life really matters, and I can't think of too many people over the age of fourteen who sought affirmation of their own identity through the life and loves of a cultural icon. (Jake Gyllenhaal is a good actor, but "cultural icon?" C'mon.)
[...]
“For every one coming out, we have five denials,” said Michelangelo Signorile, the gay author and Sirius Satellite Radio talk show host famous for pioneering the outing of prominent people as homosexuals in the late 1980’s. As for how gay rumors begin in the first place, they can be triggered by just about anything — a certain look, too many gay friends, being older and still romantically unattached. And more public figures are being put on the spot about their sexual orientation, something that was once considered in bad taste.
[...]
“Gay people propagate these rumors, too, because they’re looking for affirmation in the public arena by identifying positive cultural icons as part of their own community,” said Verta Taylor, the chairwoman of the sociology department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who is a lesbian and writes about gender and sexuality.
When I was at the University of Colorado in the early 1980's, a rumor went through the campus gay community that Tom Cruise was secretly enrolled under his mother's maiden name, taking classes...and that he was gay! "Cruise sightings" were reported on a regular basis; he was taking a psych class wearing a beard and baseball cap, and so on, and several guys were sure that they had seen him at a local gay bar. None of the sightings bore fruit (sorry), and even if they had, I wonder what made my friends think they had a chance with him?
