Oh, Ricky

I'm sure you've all heard the news by now that Ricky Martin has finally come out of the closet as, in his words, "a fortunate homosexual man."

It's always great when someone has the courage to come out of the closet, whether it's to their family or to the public in general. Everyone pretty much knew Ricky was gay anyway, what with his years of non-denials, but having another out and proud LGBT celebrity is certainly a good thing.

All day long, I've been remembering a heated conversation I had with a friend back around the year 2000 or so. We were trying to study, but the conversation drifted to guys, as it usually did. I told her that Ricky Martin was gay and she absolutely refused to believe it. Of course, any time I pointed out a guy I thought was gay, she'd scoff.

Looking back, I realize that if someone wasn't overtly effeminate or hadn't directly told her that they were gay, she was firmly convinced that they were straight and nothing would budge her from that view. One of our biggest arguments was over whether or not there was such a thing as 'gaydar'! To be fair, it probably didn't help that she and I tended to be interested in the same guys!

I told her back then that Ricky would come out one day and that I'd be waiting with a big fat "I told you so!" when he did. I haven't really spoken to her in a long while, though, so I'll just use the old blog for a sort of cosmic "I told you so!" in her general direction.

Congratulations to Ricky. It would have been nice if he'd come out back in the Livin' La Vida Loca days, but maybe having the courage to be open about who he is will revitalize his career in the United States?