Chely Wright has married girlfriend Lauren Blitzer just a little over a year after the country music star came out about being a lesbian and revealed just how painful that confession was in the world of country music. 
 
 Wright, who has posted wedding photos on Twitter of herself and Blitzer in white gowns, announced to the world in May 2010 that she was a lesbian. 
 
 "Country music would rather an artist be a drunk -- they even encourage and endorse that one," Wright said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times' Geoff Boucher shortly after she came out. 
 
 "You get good money from Jim Beam to put that emblem on the side of your bus. I was on the Crown Royal tour, and I have to say it was one of my favorite tours. They would rather you were a drug addict than be gay. They will forgive you if you beat your wife, lose your kids to state, get six divorces, make a sex tape, get labeled as a tramp — any and all of it is better than being gay." 
 
 After the honeymoon, Wright will see how the latest turn in her personal life has affected her career. 
 
 In an interview earlier this year with the blog Autostraddle, Wright said coming out "didn't help my career." 
 
 A January article in the Tennessean said that Wright’s sales were down about two-thirds from her last studio album and noted that she had shifted her focus from country music to Americana. 
 
 But Saturday was a day of celebration for the 40-year-old singer and Blitzer, 30, an LGBT activist. The couple married at the home of Blitzer’s aunt in Connecticut. 
 
 On Sunday, Wright's Twitter account was filled with congratulations from fans: 
 
 "Congratulations on your big day tomorrow! Wishing you a long and joyful life together. (@MaddiesCorner)” 
 
 "congrats lady!!!! Wishing you and your love so much happiness! (from @AudraEqualityMc)” 
 
 A comment she made last year is fitting given this weekend's celebration: "I feel like I'm floating," Wright said after coming out. "It's like my friends who are in the know, which are not many, and my family members who know, which isn't all of them, are lifting me up to get through this." 
 
 ALSO: 
 
 Chely Wright's 'Lifted Off the Ground' 
 
 Chely Wright finds strength to face the music 
 
 Chely Wright is engaged to girlfriend Lauren Blitzer 
 
 -- Amy Hubbard 
 
 Photo: Chely Wright. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times ||||| David Fincher couldn’t sleep. The celebrated director of such films as Se7en, Gone Girl, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was up late in the Four Seasons in Baltimore, where he was staying while shooting the pilot episode of the Netflix political drama House of Cards. Fincher is an executive producer of the series as well as the director of the pilot. He was pacing in his hotel room, thinking about the next day’s shoot, when he flipped on the TV and found himself watching the 1990 gangster/cop movie State of Grace, co-starring Robin Wright and Sean Penn, with whom she was then romantically involved. “I gasped. I hadn’t seen State of Grace in 20 years,” Fincher said. “It was amazing to see the evolution of this 23-year-old to the woman she is now. You just go, Wow! Fantastic!” Based on the 1990 BBC satirical political drama of the same name, the American House of Cards was moved from the British Parliament to Capitol Hill, in contemporary Washington, D.C. It first aired through Netflix streaming in February 2013. For the one or two of you who haven’t seen it, the show centers on the political machinations of Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey), a charming but ruthless congressman from South Carolina’s Fifth District, and his formidable wife, Claire, who runs a nonprofit organization, the Clean Water Initiative (C.W.I.), and coolly abets her husband’s scheming. When Underwood, serving as majority whip in the U.S. House of Representatives, is passed over for secretary of state, he begins a murderous campaign that ultimately wins him the presidency. Fincher knew the series would hinge on perfect casting. And he knew exactly whom he wanted in the lead roles as the ultimate power couple: Spacey and the severely beautiful Robin Wright, whom he had directed two years earlier in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Read more: Subscribe now for access. The full issue is available March 11 in the digital editions and March 17 on national newsstands. Fincher was right on both counts. House of Cards, once considered a risky experiment, won nine Primetime Emmy Awards and received four Golden Globe Award nominations in its first season and 13 Emmy nominations in its second season. Wright has won multiple awards for best actress in a television drama, including a Golden Globe, a Critics’ Choice Television Award, and a Primetime Emmy. Robin Wright Has a Cold 
 
 Vanity Fair met with Wright in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, on the eve of a blizzard that threatened to shut down the city. She was on Z-Pak, fighting a terrific cold (“croup,” she called it, as anyone might who has raised two children). Wearing a newsboy cap and comfortably nestled in front of a fire in the Safari Room of the Beatrice Inn (co-owned by the editor of this magazine), she kept her beige checked Burberry scarf wrapped around her neck as she sipped chamomile tea. Before playing Claire Underwood, Wright, who lives most of the year in Baltimore while filming House of Cards, was probably best known as Buttercup in the cult favorite The Princess Bride, and as the troubled Jenny opposite Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. She actually began acting 31 years ago as Kelly Capwell, the “daddy’s girl” ingénue on the soap opera Santa Barbara, and she has appeared in 43 films since then, often playing supporting characters. It took only three decades for her to find big, unequivocal stardom—ironically, back on the small screen. Watch: Robin Wright’s Cover Shoot When asked about the new fame and respect House of Cards has brought her, Wright answered, “I feel as though I’ve just graduated. I mean, I never went to college. I was pregnant at 23. You hear people say how they have ‘arrived,’ but it was just always there, waiting to come out. For me, it just took a long time. I’m 48. I’m finally a person. I think I’m finally ready.” Jodie Foster, who directed Wright in an episode of House of Cards, also believes that Wright has finally “settled into a pair of shoes that were the ones that were always supposed to fit her.” Foster says she’s “been talking up Robin Wright for 20 years—it’s just so clear she’s an amazing actress, one of the best we’ve got. But she was in movies that were not home runs.” Rebecca Miller, who cast Wright in the lead role of the 2009 film adaptation of her novel, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, felt that part of the actress’s late launch was due to the fact that she was “a great actress trapped inside the body of a Norse goddess.” So, perhaps Wright was smart to develop herself as a character actress, instead of just relying on the looks that made her a fashion model at the age of 16. “This is her flowering and her becoming,” Miller explains. “There’s something about her subtlety and her approach that’s just very special—she achieves liftoff in a way that very few people can do. With House of Cards, she’s created a character.” Claire Underwood has been described as manipulative, ruthless, and calculating, but Wright doesn’t really see her that way. “I can’t see her as evil and cunning. To me, she’s utilitarian and efficient,” Wright said between sips of tea. Part of what makes the character so intimidating is her fierce, androgynous beauty. First, there’s the ultra-short haircut. It came about by chance. “I was just cutting off damaged hair—too much bleach over months of [appearing in] different movies,” Wright explained. “It was a mercy killing, but it works for the character.” Her wardrobe, by first-season costume designer Tom Broecker, is a study in muted elegance, by way of Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Armani, and Zac Posen. For decades Washington, D.C., has been known for a somewhat dowdy style for women—pantsuits and low-heeled shoes. (John F. Kennedy, while still a senator living in Georgetown, once described the city as possessing “Southern efficiency and Northern charm.”) Not so in House of Cards. Claire’s stiletto heels, pencil skirts, crisp white blouses, and asymmetrical, sleeveless dresses revealing striking, toned arms give her the look of a sleek warrior. “Helping build Claire’s wardrobe has been a hoot!” Wright noted. “Sleek, sexy, and all woman.” 
 
 The role, and the image, really clicked for her when Fincher suggested that she think of Claire as resembling a marble bust, appropriate in D.C., that city of monuments. “There’s something in that stillness,” she said. Fincher recalls, “We discussed that whole idea—I said, ‘Your job is to remain immovable, and it’s everyone else’s job to orbit you.’ ” Photograph by Patrick Demarchelier. The series’s 37-year-old show-runner, Beau Willimon, said that he didn’t think of himself as “having created Claire. I think of Claire as a collaboration. Robin created Claire as much as I and the writers did. Unlike Elizabeth Urquhart [played by Diane Fletcher] in the BBC version, we wanted her front and center, to be equal to her husband—the couple pursued a mutual ascendancy, almost completely from scratch.” Willimon learned from Wright that, for Claire, “fewer words are better. Her real strength is between the lines. She’d ask me, ‘Can we cut these three lines? I think I can act them.’ Claire is a woman of few words, but well-chosen and powerful words. She doesn’t bloviate. When she speaks, it’s powerful, potent, fast.” Jodie Foster understood immediately that the relationship between Claire and Frank is crucial to the show’s success. “This is in some ways the greatest love story of all time because each of them accepts the gravest, shameful secrets about the other.” In Season One, Claire is well aware of Frank’s adultery with the ambitious newspaper reporter Zoe Barnes (played by Kate Mara), but she allows it because she knows it can further his career. In Season Two, Frank helps Claire spin the tabloid news of her affair with an acclaimed New York photographer, Adam Galloway (played by Ben Daniels). “If the show didn’t have that—if it was just Frank and his machinations—I don’t think it would’ve been of interest,” Foster believes. Fincher confided that “a lot of people were asking, Is this meant to be Bill and Hillary? It shouldn’t be, but what I do love—especially with Bill and Hillary—is there’s an unfathomable place at which they meet, and you’re not going to get to the bottom of it. That was kind of where we started.” A leitmotif of the show is the intimate moment when Claire and Frank, framed by a window in their town house, share a postcoital cigarette, except that it’s for a coitus that never happens. “I love the idea of that,” said Fincher. “There is this intimacy, a moment where they decompress from the day. You know, Machiavelli is only as good as his right hand, and he needs to keep her apprised.” And satisfied. Becoming an Actor 
 
 As snow began to swirl outside the windows of the Beatrice Inn, we talked about the trajectory of her career. She said that becoming an actor wasn’t anything she’d planned, but “from a very young age my brother and I would perform for my mother. We were mimics. We would do accents. We would do characters for her. Keep her entertained. You know, you love to make your parents laugh.” Her older brother, Richard, took up ballet at age 15 and danced with Baryshnikov at American Ballet Theatre. “He was ballet; I went into modern jazz. And that was my life—get out of school, 11 A.M., [then] independent study and dance for 10 hours a day. My dream was to come to New York and be a dancer on Broadway. I wanted to be in A Chorus Line and Cats!” Following her divorce from pharmaceutical sales rep Freddie Wright, Robin’s mother, Gayle Gaston Wright, moved her two talented offspring from Fort Worth, Texas, to La Jolla, California, where there wasn’t an opportunity to study dance. Instead, Robin began modeling. She looked like the quintessential California girl—athletic and sun-kissed. She “danced in commercials, holding Doritos,” until her talent agent, Eileen Farrell, suggested she audition for John Hughes, the director of a slew of popular teen-themed films (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink). Despite several callbacks, she never made it into a John Hughes movie. Wright describes herself as “painfully shy as a kid” but says her mother was congenial and outgoing. After her divorce, she got together with some of her friends, including entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash, and they started selling cosmetics door-to-door. “From the time I was wee big, my mother was one of the first members of Mary Kay Cosmetics. Women going door-to-door and letting housewives have their own business—that was really a breakthrough. It was huge.” Robin grew up with beauty shows in their home. “We were driven to school in a pink Cadillac [a perk awarded to top Mary Kay saleswomen] every day.” Wright went on auditions for almost two years and didn’t get anything but a bit part on a short-lived nighttime soap, The Yellow Rose, with Sam Elliott and Cybill Shepherd. “I’d basically thrown in the towel after I wasn’t getting anything, graduated high school, kept driving to L.A. from La Jolla [to audition]. I had already done Europe for eight months, modeled right out of high school, and decided to go back to California to pursue acting again. Well, I didn’t get anything. You know, three and four callbacks—and I never got it. That just happened 14 million times for all of those [youth-oriented] movies that were going around, like Less than Zero and Sixteen Candles.” Robin gave up and got a job working in the kitchen of a tour boat, despite a tendency to get seasick; 24 hours before she was set to sail she got the part as Kelly Capwell, on Santa Barbara. She signed a two-year contract and, without any acting training, managed to be nominated for three Daytime Emmys. When Rob Reiner, who saw her on Santa Barbara, cast her as Buttercup in The Princess Bride (opposite Cary Elwes), in 1987, she found herself in a big movie with a wonderful cast of well-established actors—Billy Crystal, Mandy Patinkin, Carol Kane, Wallace Shawn, and Chris Sarandon. Seven years later she co-starred in Forrest Gump, as Gump’s troubled best friend/love interest, who ends up a victim of the excesses of the 60s. 
 
 Tom Hanks first met Wright when the cast did camera tests for Forrest Gump. “She had, even then, a mysterious presence that is based on no small amount of physical grace and beauty,” he recalled. She also possessed a “degree of concentration that’s almost intimidating.” During one scene in Forrest Gump, in which Hanks’s awkward, mentally challenged character dances, he made Wright laugh so hard that “I peed my pants and didn’t have a change of costume!” she recalled with a laugh. A member of the crew dried her clothes with a hair dryer. Hanks remembered that night, too, but a little differently. “We’re out on this beautiful location. The light was kind of magical. And Forrest’s innate lack of rhythm and yet his unfettered joy at dancing with the love of his life—yeah, that was a pretty great night.” Josh Brolin co-stars with Wright in her next film, Everest, based on Jon Krakauer’s 1997 best-seller Into Thin Air and due to be released later this year. Like Hanks and Michael Kelly, who also appears in Everest, he’d been deeply impressed when he first saw her in The Princess Bride. Brolin told Vanity Fair that “there was nothing phony in what she did: total conviction is what she had, and it was, and still is, extremely powerful. She lends herself to her characters completely, no matter how intense, funny, silly, or tragic. Even in *Forrest Gump—*who wouldn’t run if Jenny told you to?” Photograph by Patrick Demarchelier. 
 
 Wright met Sean Penn on the set of State of Grace and they fell in love, marrying in 1996. This was a second marriage for both—Wright had been briefly married to the late actor Dane Witherspoon, in 1986, who acted with her in Santa Barbara. Penn, famously and also briefly, was married to Madonna, in 1985. (They made one movie together, Shanghai Surprise, in 1986, “a venture so grisly that it added to one’s reverence for the deranged power of love,” in the words of film critic David Thomson.) Indeed, marriage to Wright was a kind of redemption for Penn, and she really was a princess bride, married to one of America’s great leading men, who’s been compared to James Dean and Marlon Brando. “I was pregnant and ostensibly married at 24,” Robin says. She called herself Robin Wright Penn and raised their two kids, Dylan and Hopper Jack, now 23 and 21 years old, respectively. “I did it [changed my name] really for my children because we’d had kids before we married, and I thought that we should all have the same name. That’s traditional.” Their marriage lasted 14 years, but there was tristesse. Some felt that Wright suffered in the shadow of Sean Penn’s fame. Was this another Ali MacGraw-Steve McQueen marriage, in which McQueen’s moodiness and greater fame had a chilling effect on MacGraw’s career? When asked if she felt that way, Wright answered that she didn’t warm to the idea of talking about her marriage to Penn. “I’m not in the business of talking about what ‘isn’t,’ ” she wrote in an e-mail. “My eyes are set forward and I’ve never been happier. I have too much respect for Sean and our two extraordinary children to sell our past joys and woes for public consumption and fodder.” But after several weeks in Paris, she phoned to say she was ready to talk about the marriage and what she has learned sifting through the ashes. “I grew up very fast as a young girl, but I grew slowly into my womanhood. We were learning as we were going along. We agreed as parents that we’d not work at the same time, so that one of us was always with the kids. He was making more money than I was at the time, so it was a simple decision: ‘You go work—I’ll stay with the kids.’ And we got along great as creative people. Acting together, him directing me [in The Crossing Guard in 1995]—that was great.” To avoid the “bubble of celebrity,” Wright says, “we got out of L.A. and raised our kids in Northern Cal.” But the move ultimately failed to preserve their marriage, and in 2010, after repeated breakups and reconciliations, they divorced. “I believe we were together not only to have our beautiful children but to learn how to love … for the next time around, the right way. And then, what I’m looking for in people now,” she adds, “is kindness.” (V.F. reached out to Penn for anything he would like to say about their life together, but his publicist, Mara Buxbaum, responded in an e-mail: “Sean is traveling and not available to participate.”) In 2013 she appeared alongside Naomi Watts in the unsettling Australian movie Adore, about two best friends who have sex with each other’s sons (a role that still disturbs her). But it was her supporting role as Erika Berger in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the best-selling thriller by Stieg Larsson, that changed the game for her. When Fincher took her out for coffee and told her about House of Cards, Wright asked why she should consider doing television. Fincher told her, “ ‘It’s a great story. It’s a great character, and I don’t think it’s television. I think it’s something slightly four feet to the left of television.’ So I asked if she would bless us with her presence. I basically begged.” As for the chemistry between the series’s two lead actors, Tom Hanks thinks that Wright is “without a doubt the absolute equal to Kevin Spacey. Perhaps she even tops his character, because you get a sense of how afraid he is of her, and rightly so. In a lot of ways, she’s like the female version of Bryan Cranston as Walter White in Breaking Bad—someone loaded with secrets and so very self-aware. It’s a perfect match of story, character, and actor.” Directors and Directing 
 
 James Foley, who directed nine episodes of House of Cards in the first two seasons, says, “I’ll tell you the God’s honest truth: in shooting Season One, everybody shared the same healthy skepticism, and we were very aware that this could be totally under the radar. We even joked in the beginning, you know: ‘Streaming soon to a device near you.’ I remember being stunned when David told me he was even doing it.” Michael Kelly, who plays Underwood’s henchman, recovering alcoholic Doug Stamper, was also skeptical about the new, streaming format of the series. “We knew [early on] that we had something special, but the only thing we didn’t know was Netflix. Nobody might ever see the show. But it’s just so great—look at how many people have followed it.” (Though Netflix doesn’t release its numbers, the show’s popularity has skyrocketed since its first season, increasing its viewership eightfold.) The Congo ||||| Wentworth Miller, 2013 "Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/wentworth-miller-comes-out-gay_n_3792389.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices" target="_blank">came out</a> in August 2013 after being invited to attend the St. Petersburg International Film Festival in Russia. In the midst of massive anti-gay violence and legislation throughout the country at that time, he decided it was time to go public about his sexuality. "Thank you for your kind invitation. As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes," the 41-year-old wrote in a letter to the festival's director, which was posted on GLAAD's website. "However, as a gay man, I must decline." 
 
 Jodie Foster, 2013 The "Silence of the Lambs" star ended years of rampant media speculation when she casually came out of the closet while accepting her Cecil B. Demille award at the 2013 Golden Globes. "I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the Stone Age," she said in the speech. "In those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends, and family, coworkers and then gradually, proudly, to everyone who knew her." 
 
 Gillian Anderson, 2012 The "X-Files" actress <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/13/gillian-anderson-lesbian-relationships-out-magazine_n_1342801.html" target="_hplink">revealed she's had numerous relationships</a> with women in a 2012 interview with <em>Out</em> magazine. The 43-year-old mother of three, who's long enjoyed a sizable lesbian fanbase, told <em>Out</em> that she first had a relationship with a woman while still in high school, after moving from her native England to suburban Michigan. "If I had thought I was 100 percent gay, would it have been a different experience for me?" Anderson, who was voted "Most Bizarre" and "Most Likely to Be Arrested" in high school, ponders. "Would it have been a bigger deal if shame had been attached to it and all those things that become huge life-altering issues for youngsters in that situation? It's possible that my attitude around it came, on some level, from knowing that I still liked boys." 
 
 Anderson Cooper, 2012 Anderson Cooper's sexuality had been <a href="http://www.out.com/entertainment/2008/09/22/glass-closet">scrutinized for years</a> but it wasn't until July 2012 that he finally addressed the issue when he <a href="http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/anderson-cooper-the-fact-is-im-gay.html">came out in an email </a> to his friend and fellow journalist, Andrew Sullivan, this summer. In Cooper's message, which was posted on Sullivan's blog, "The Dish," on <em>The Daily Beast</em>, the CNN anchor states, "The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud." 
 
 Lana Wachowski, 2012 Award-winning filmmaker <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0905154/">Lana Wachowski</a>, who's best known for co-writing and -directing the "Matrix" trilogy with her brother, Andy Wachowski, is the first major Hollywood director to come out as transgender in July 2012. The Chicago native recently released "Cloud Atlas" and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/lana-wachowski-transgender-cloud-atlas-director-reveals-pain-suicide-attempt_n_2009112.html">received the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award</a> in October 2012, where she delivered a revealing and heartfelt speech (VIDEO). 
 
 Raven-Symone, 2013 Raven-Symone <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/raven-symone-comes-out_n_3697024.html" target="_blank">came out via Twitter</a> in early August 2013 after long-term speculation surrounding the actress' sexuality. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>I can finally get married! Yay government! So proud of you</p>— Raven-Symonè (@MissRavenSymone) <a href="https://twitter.com/MissRavenSymone/statuses/363360946905153536">August 2, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Raven-Symone confirmed the subtle coming out by retweeting of her followers congratulating the star. In a statement to <a href="http://www.eonline.com/news/445392/raven-symone-s-gay-marriage-tweet-explained-star-not-getting-married-but-it-s-great-to-know-i-can-now" target="_blank">E! News</a>, the actress said: "I am very happy that gay marriage is opening up around the country and is being accepted. I was excited to hear today that more states legalized gay marriage. I, however am not currently getting married, but it is great to know I can now, should I wish to." 
 
 Zachary Quinto, 2011 Long rumored to be gay, the actor, most famous for his roles on "Heroes" and in the recent "Star Trek" film, came out in a October 2011 <em>New York</em> magazine profile, saying: <blockquote>"In light of Jamey's [Rodemeyer] death -- it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it -- is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality. Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country."</blockquote> 
 
 Meredith Baxter, 2009 In December 2009 Baxter, most famous for playing Elyse Keaton on '80s sitcom "Family Ties," went on the "Today Show" and told Matt Lauer that she was a lesbian. Baxter said, "Some people would say, well, you're living a lie and, you know, the truth is -- not at all. This has only been for the past seven years." 
 
 Frank Ocean, 2012 No mainstream black male hip-hop artist had ever come out until <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/07/arts/music/frank-ocean-draws-praise-for-declaring-his-homosexuality.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">Frank Ocean did in July 2012</a>, just before he debuted his first solo album, "Channel Orange." The singer-songwriter posted a Tumblr post which read, in part, "4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide.” After that, Ocean received support from fellow hip-hop artists Jay-Z (and wife, Beyoncé), 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes and more. Daryl Hannah, director of media and community partnerships for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said, "[The support for Frank is] an extension of the overall kind of support we’re seeing across the country for LGBT people, and not just in a broad sense, but specifically from iconic members of the black community.” 
 
 Wanda Sykes, 2008 The comedian and actress came out in November 2008 <a href="http://thestrippodcast.blogspot.com/2008/11/wanda-sykes-lv-gay-rally-im-proud-to-be.html" target="_hplink">while speaking at an anti-Prop 8 rally</a> in Las Vegas. Sykes said in part: <blockquote>"I got married Oct. 25, I don't really talk about my sexual orientation, I felt like I was living my life, I wasn't in the closet, but I was just living my life. Everybody who knows me personally, they know I'm gay. And that's the way people should be able to live our lives, really. We shouldn't have to be standing out here demanding something we automatically should have as citizens of this country."</blockquote> 
 
 Lucas Cruikshank, 2013 This Nickelodeon star and YouTube sensation <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/lucas-cruikshank-comes-out-gay_n_3786658.html?ir=Gay+Voices" target="_blank">came out at 19</a> via an Internet question and answer session with friend and actress Jennifer Veal, telling fans "I'm gay." "My family and friends have known for like three years, I just haven't felt the need to announce it on the Internet," he explained. At one point during the video he turned and asked Veal: "How come you didn't have to make a video saying you're straight?" 
 
 Matt Bomer, 2012 The 34-year-old "White Collar" hunk <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/matt-bomer-comes-out-gay-thanks-partner_n_1272997.html" target="_hplink">thanked his partner</a> Simon Halls and his three children during Saturday's Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards, where he received the New Generation Arts and Activism Award for his work in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "I'd really especially like to thank my beautiful family: Simon, Kit, Walker, Henry," he told the crowd. "Thank you for teaching me what unconditional love is. You will always be my proudest accomplishment." 
 
 Anne Burrell, 2012 "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" host Anne Burrell confirmed she's a lesbian and in a committed relationship with a woman, just days after "Chopped" host Ted Allen made a reference to her sexuality in a radio interview. "Anne doesn't feel she was outed," Burrell's rep told Page Six. "She has made no secret of her relationship." The rep went on to note, "Her significant other is a very private woman. They have been together for a couple of years and spend a lot of time together." 
 
 Adam Lambert, 2009 The singer's sexuality was always a topic of discussion for viewers when he was performing on "American Idol," but Lambert didn't come out until after the competition had wrapped. In a June 2009 <em>Rolling Stone</em> cover story, Lambert said, "Right after the finale [of "AI"], I almost started talking about it to the reporters, but I thought, 'I'm going to wait for <em>Rolling Stone</em>, that will be cooler,'.. I didn't want the Clay Aiken thing and the celebrity-magazine bullshit. I need to be able to explain myself in context." 
 
 Jim Parsons, 2012 <em>New York Times </em>scribe Patrick Healy confirmed "The Big Bang Theory" star's sexuality<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/theater/jim-parsons-prepares-for-his-lead-role-in-harvey.html?_r=1" target="_hplink"> as part of a profile</a>. The revelation came late in the article, when Healy describes the 39-year-old actor's role in the 2011 revival of Larry Kramer's HIV/AIDS crisis drama, "The Normal Heart." Wrote Healy: '"The Normal Heart" resonated with him on a few levels: Mr. Parsons is gay and in a 10-year relationship, and working with an ensemble again onstage was like nourishment, he said." Though the <em>Times </em>didn't identify Parsons' partner, he has been romantically liked with art director Todd Spiewak (pictured). 
 
 Laura Jane Grace, 2012 Punk band Against Me!'s lead singer made headlines in May with the announcement that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/tom-gabel-transgender-against-me_n_1501731.html">she is transgender and will be now known as Laura Jane Grace</a>. The musician, who shared her story in <em>Rolling Stone</em>, said "For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she [my wife, Heather] would accept the news. But she's been super-amazing and understanding." The couple has a 2-year-old daughter. 
 
 Cynthia Nixon, 2004 The "Sex And The City" star was out-ed in 2004 when the <em>NY Daily News</em> and the <em>New York Post</em> <a href="http://www.afterellen.com/People/92004/cynthianixon.html" target="_hplink">reported she was living</a> with another woman in September 2004. Nixon half-heartedly confirmed the rumors when she told the <em>Daily News</em>, "My private life is private... But at the same time, I have nothing to hide. So what I will say is that I am very happy." 
 
 Sam Champion, 2012 ABC's "Good Morning America" weatherman, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/fashion/weddings/patrick-abner-and-thomas-roberts-vows.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1&ref=weddings">Sam Champion,</a>, not only came out of the closet in October 2012, he also announced his engagement to longtime boyfriend, Rubem Robierb, at the same time. <em>The New York Times</em> subtly mentioned the news in an article about MSNBC personality <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/thomas-roberts-married-msnbc-host-weds-longtime-boyfriend_n_1928841.html">Thomas Roberts' recent wedding</a>, where Champion and Robierb were guests. After his revelation, Champion, 51, discussed about his plans on "GMA" and thanked everyone for their support (see video clip). 
 
 Kelly McGillis, 2009 Kelly McGillis, known as who starred opposite Tom Cruise in "Top Gun," <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1175410/Im-lesbian-declares-Top-Gun-siren-Kelly-McGillis.html">revealed she's gay</a> on lesbian website SheWired.com. McGillis, who was married twice to men and has two daughters, said, "It's a part of being true to yourself. That's been a challenge for me personally." 
 
 Chris Colfer, 2009 The "Glee" actor came out on the "Chelsea Lately Show" in December 2009: Chelsea Handler: "Your character on the show's gay. We know that you're gay. That's good for you. Congratulations. Don't be shy about that. Seriously. You shouldn't be shy about that because every time...an actor like you is helping a zillion other people that are scared to talk about their sexuality so good for you." Chris Colfer: "Thank you. You know what my answer to that question was prior to coming out -- was that I was straight as every other actor in Hollywood." 
 
 Ezra Miller, 2012 Breakout, up-and-coming actor Ezra Miller, who stars in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," <a href="http://www.out.com/entertainment/movies/2012/08/15/ezra-miller-im-queer">came out as queer in an interview with Out magazine</a> in August. The 20-year-old actor, who's also known for his big screen roles on "City Island" and "We Need To Talk About Kevin," told Out: "I have a lot of really wonderful friends who are of very different sexes and genders. I am very much in love with no one in particular." 
 
 Sara Gilbert, 2010 Sara Gilbert, who's best known for her role on "Roseanne," <a href="http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/07/28/sara-gilbert-lesbian-the-tal/">officially came out in 2010</a>. At that time, she was getting ready to launch "The Talk," a daytime talk show which focuses on parenthood and families, so Gilbert felt compelled to acknowledge her sexuality. “I don’t ever really think of things as out or in,” Gilbert said. “I just think I am who I am, and when topics come up that are appropriate, I’ll talk about them and share when it seems right.” 
 
 Chaz Bono, 2009 Chaz Bono revealed his plan to transition in May 2009. TMZ.com broke the story <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/11/chastity-bono-becoming-a-man/#.TptSZ2VPkqU" target="_hplink">via a prepared statement</a> from Bono's publicist that read, in part: <blockquote>"Yes, it's true -- Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity... He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones. It is Chaz's hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his 'coming out' did nearly 20 years ago."</blockquote> 
 
 Andrew Rannells, 2012 Andrew Rannells has had a stellar year. Since nabbing a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for the Broadway blockbuster "The Book of Mormon," Rannells went on to star in HBO's "Girls" and ABC's "The New Normal." In November, the 34 year old was named to Out magazine's prestigious <a href="http://www.out.com/out-exclusives/out100-2012/2012/11/15/out100-andrew-rannells">"OUT100" list</a>. “I feel very proud to be a part of The New Normal,” Rannells told Out. “I hope that it’s considered to be a part of the evolution of gay relationships on television. Coming from Nebraska, it’s exciting to me that people I went to grade school with, people that I grew up going to church with, are watching the show.” 
 
 Joanna Johnson, 2012 "Bold and the Beautiful" star Joanna Johnson became daytime soap opera's only active "out" actor when she said <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/14/joanna-johnson-lesbian-bold-and-the-beautiful_n_1515489.html">she was a lesbian in May</a>. Johnson said she feared coming out would prohibit her from getting acting roles. Johnson told <em>TV Guide</em> in an exclusive interview that she's married to L.A. club promoter Michelle Agnew, with whom she has two children, five-year-old Julian and Harlow, who is two. 
 
 George Michael, 1998 After being caught performing a "lewd act" in a public restroom, Michael came out to CNN in April 1998. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9804/11/george.michael/" target="_hplink">Michael said</a>, "This is as good of a time as any... I want to say that I have no problem with people knowing that I'm in a relationship with a man right now. I have not been in a relationship with a woman for almost 10 years." Later that year Michael spoofed the incident in the music video for his single "Outside." 
 
 Don Lemon, 2011 The CNN news anchor came out to the <em>New York Times</em> in May 2011. Lemon <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/business/media/16anchor.html?_r=3" target="_hplink">told the paper</a>, "It's quite different for an African-American male... It's about the worst thing you can be in black culture. You're taught you have to be a man; you have to be masculine. In the black community they think you can pray the gay away." 
 
 Todd Glass, 2012 Comedian Todd Glass <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/16/todd-glass-comes-out-as-gay-on-wtf-with-marc-maron_n_1209291.html">came out in January</a> in an episode of the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast. Glass cited the slew of LGBT teen suicides as his impetus for coming out. He told Maron: "I cannot listen to stories about kids killing themselves any longer without thinking [to myself], 'When are you going to have a little blood on your shirt for not being honest about who you are?'" 
 
 Rosie Pierri, 2012 Everyone loves Rosie. In a June episode of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," Rosie Pierri candidly came out to her sister, Kathy Wakile, a main cast member, proclaiming, "God made me this way. That's it." Pierri <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/30/rosie-real-housewives-nj_n_1555421.html">spoke with <em>The Huffington Post</em> in May</a> before the episode aired and shared that she was a "late bloomer," who didn't come to the realization until her 30s. 
 
 Jonathan Knight, 2011 The New Kids On The Block singer was out-ed by fellow '80s teen pop star Tiffany in January 2011 when she revealed she dated Knight before "he became gay later." In response, Knight posted a message on his website <a href="http://www.towleroad.com/2011/01/jonathan-knight.html#ixzz1azmexp8H" target="_hplink">stating in part</a>: <blockquote>"I have never been outed by anyone but myself! I did so almost twenty years ago. I never know that I would have to do it all over again publicly just because I reunited with NKOTB! I have lived my life very openly and have never hidden the fact that I am gay!"</blockquote> 
 
 Sean Maher, 2011 Sean Maher, known for his roles on "Firefly" and "Playboy Club," confirmed his sexuality in an <a href="http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/09/26/firefly-playboy-club-actor-sean-maher-comes-out-ga/"><em>Entertainment Weekly</em> interview</a>, saying, "This is my coming out ball. I’ve been dying to do this.” 
 
 Ricky Martin, March 2010 In March 2009 pop star Ricky Martin <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/ricky-martin-comes-out-im_n_517625.html" target="_hplink">posted a message on his website</a> telling the world, "I am a fortunate homosexual man." 
 
 Sean Hayes, 2010 Long dogged by rumors about his sexuality, the "Will and Grace" actor <a href="http://www.advocate.com/Arts_and_Entertainment/People/Sean_Hayes_I_Am_Who_I_Am/" target="_hplink">finally came out</a> in <em>The Advocate</em> in April 2010: "I am who I am. I was never in, as they say. Never," he said. 
 
 Lady Sovereign, 2010 In May 2010 the British rapper came out in <em>Diva</em> magazine. <a href="http://perezhilton.com/2010-05-12-lady-sov-comes-out#.Tpt-2WVPkqU" target="_hplink">Sovereign said</a>: <blockquote>"Magazines would always ask about it but [questions about my sexuality] would get stopped by my publicists. It was my choice, too, because I was a bit worried about it but now I don't really give a shit. You can't hide away forever. It's just stupid and now I've come out I feel a lot more comfortable with myself. But it was a bit scary back then because some people do have horrible opinions."</blockquote> 
 
 T.R. Knight, 2007 <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20008737,00.html">T.R. Knight's coming out</a> wasn't necessarily ideal. The actor, who played George O'Malley on ABC's <em>Grey's Anatomy</em>, was called a "faggot" by co-star Isaiah Washington, prompting Knight to stand up for himself and others. He told Ellen DeGeneres, "I've never been called that to my face. So I think when that happened, something shifted, and it became bigger than myself." 
 
 Kristy McNichol, 2012 People magazine reported In January 2012 that Kristy McNichol, who was beloved for playing Buddy Lawrence in the '70s show "Family," for which she won an Emmy, and later Barbara Weston on the "Golden Girls" spin-off "Empty Nest," revealed she is a lesbian because she is "approaching 50" and wants to "be open about who I am." <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/07/kristy-mcnichol-comes-out-as-lesbian_n_1191204.html">McNichol</a> also cited the wave of antigay bullying stories for coming out, hoping to help bullied LGBT youth who need support. 
 
 Benji Schwimmer, 2012 After Benji Schwimmer won the second season of Fox's long-running hit series "So You Think You Can Dance," the 28-year-old dancer-choreographer became somewhat of a Mormon rockstar. But in a tell-all, five-hour interview for "Mormon Stories," Schwimmer came out and discussed at length his homosexuality and the church's views on the issue. He <a href="http://www.out.com/news-commentary/2012/06/18/benji-schwimmer-naked-truth-sytycd-gay-mormon-sexuality">spoke with Out magazine in June</a> and said: "I get at least 10 emails a day from kids that say, I was going to kill myself, and I heard something in the podcast that rang true to me, and I’m holding on. For that validation alone—it’s nice that Perez Hilton and Out are covering this, but just that personal touch is what it’s about. For the last year, I didn’t hide it. I held hands with a boyfriend in the streets. I kissed him in bars—in straight bars. I don’t give a fuck." 
 
 Clay Aiken, 2008 After becoming a father in August of 2008, the "American Idol" runner up <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20228488,00.html" target="_hplink">came out on the cover</a> of <em>People</em> magazine in September 2008 saying, "[Coming out] was the first decision I made as a father... I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that." 
 
 Orlando Cruz, 2012 History was made in October when active professional featherweight boxer <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/orlando-cruz-comes-out-gay_n_1939204.html">Orlando Cruz of Puerto Rico came out</a>. He said in a USA Today article, "I've been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career, I want to be true to myself. I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career." He continued, "I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud gay man." 
 
 Chely Wright, 2010 Country singer Chely Wright <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20365936,00.html" target="_hplink">came out in May 2010</a>. She told <em>People</em> magazine, "There had never, ever been a country music artist who had acknowledged his or her homosexuality... I wasn't going to be the first." But she changed her mind and said of her decision, "Nothing in my life has been more magical than the moment I decided to come out." 
 
 Mika, 2012 The flamboyant singer-songwriter played coy about his sexuality for many years before finally coming out as gay in the September 2012 issue of Instinct magazine. Mika <a href="http://instinctmagazine.com/blogs/blog/exclusive-sneak-peek-mika-tells-instinct-%E2%80%9Cyeah-i%E2%80%99m-gay-%E2%80%9D?directory=100011">told the magazine</a>: <blockquote>"If you ask me am I gay, I say yeah... Are these songs about my relationship with a man? I say yeah. And it’s only through my music that I’ve found the strength to come to terms with my sexuality beyond the context of just my lyrics. This is my real life."</blockquote> 
 
 Lance Bass, 2006 The 'N Sync pop star came out on the cover of <em>People</em> magazine in July 2006. When asked why he decided to come out then, <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1219142,00.html" target="_hplink">Bass said</a>, "The main reason I wanted to speak my mind was that (the rumors) really were starting to affect my daily life. Now it feels like it's on my terms. I'm at peace with my family, my friends, myself and God so there's really nothing else that I worry about." 
 
 Denise Ho, 2012 Hong Kong's fourth annual LGBT Pride Parade in November saw beloved Cantonese pop star <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/denise-ho-singer-gay-coming-out-hong-kong_n_2122773.html">Denise Ho come out as a lesbian</a>. This announcement made her the first mainstream female singer in Hong Kong to say she's gay, according to several Hong Kong media outlets. "As a celebrity, I think I have an obligation, a duty to stand forward for the sake of love and equality," the 35-year-old singer told the crowd. 
 
 Amber Heard, 2010 "I personally think that if you deny something or if you hide something you're inadvertently admitting it's wrong. I don't feel like I'm wrong," said actress Amber Heard, 26, who <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/06/amber-heard-lesbian_n_792419.html">came out while attending GLAAD's 25th anniversary party</a>. Heard has starred in movies like as "Pineapple Express" and "Zombieland." 
 
 Elton John, 1976 In <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/elton-john-lonely-at-the-top-rolling-stones-1976-cover-story-20110202" target="_hplink">an interview</a> with <em>Rolling Stone</em> in October 1976, the rock star came out by saying, "There's nothing wrong with going to bed with somebody of your own sex. I think everybody's bisexual to a certain degree. I don't think it's just me. It's not a bad thing to be. I think you're bisexual. I think everybody is." 
 
 Suze Orman, 2007 Financial guru Suze Orman came out in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/magazine/25wwlnq4.t.html">2007 <em>New York Times Magazine</em> article</a>. The 61-year-old Chicago native was asked if she was married in the interview, which prompted her to officially come out and set the record straight (so to speak). 
 
 David Hyde Pierce, 2007 "Frasier" actor David Hyde Pierce kept a low profile and <a href="http://www.afterelton.com/blog/brianjuergens/exclusive-david-hyde-pierce-is-officially-out">subtly came out</a> in an article on <em>CNN</em> where he mentioned his longtime partner, TV writer and producer Brian Hargrove. Later, while on "The View", Pierce spoke about Hargrove and his sexuality and said,"What you choose to talk about yourself is a personal decision." 
 
 Neil Patrick Harris, 2006 The "Doogie Howser, MD" and "How I Met Your Mother Star" came out on the cover of <em>People</em> magazine in November of 2006. <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1554852,00.html" target="_hplink">Harris told the magazine</a>: <blockquote>"The public eye has always been kind to me, and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life. Now it seems there is speculation and interest in my private life and relationships. So, rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love." </blockquote> 
 
 Darren Hayes, 2006 The former Savage Garden front man came out by marrying Richard Cullen in June 2006. He announced the civil union on his website <a href="http://chartrigger.blogspot.com/2006/07/darren-hayes-comes-out.html" target="_hplink">saying in part</a>: "As so many of you have given me your heart and soul over the past 10 years I thought it only fitting that I too return the respect and inform you of the most significant event in my life... On June 19th 2006 I married my boyfriend of two years, Richard, in a Civil Partnership ceremony in London." 
 
 George Takei, 2005 The beloved George Takei, known as Sulu on "Star Trek," <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/9845944/ns/today-entertainment/t/george-takei-mr-sulu-says-hes-gay/#.UHWbJ0JAsu8">came out</a> in a 2005 article in Frontiers, a biweekly LGBT Los Angeles magazine. Takei, 75, cited the political landscape surrounding LGBT issues as one reason for coming out. Since then, Takei has been an outspoken (and humorous) advocate for LGBT rights.
– She probably didn't make $17.9 million doing it, but country crooner Chely Wright has gotten married to girlfriend Lauren Blitzer a year after coming out on the cover of People magazine. The pair wed yesterday in Connecticut, and Wright's Twitter account was abuzz with photos of the two women in their dresses and congratulations from fans. Wright has said that admitting she was gay "didn't help my career," and the LA Times notes that sales of her most recent album had dropped by two-thirds over its predecessor.