Culture

Who would have thunk it, Michael Stipe is gay

by Rob Peters | March 18, 2008 at 12:11 pm

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Google "Stipe" and "gay" and you'll find several media reports that Michael Stipe's long-speculated gayness is made official for the first time in the April issue of Spin.

However, you'll also find a 2001 BBC article that says he came out to Time Magazine about seven years ago. It's a slow news day.

As first reported in the New York Daily News yesterday, REM frontman Michael Stipe has finally come out of the closet in the April issue of Spin. The news, of course, surprised absolutely noone. (Hell, did anyone not know that Stipe was gay?) Now, we've got a few excerpts from Spin's cover article:

"I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there [...] "7 Chinese Brothers" was about me breaking up a couple and then dating both of them — a man and a woman — which is a terrible thing to do. But I was young and stupid."

"It was supercomplicated for me in the '80s [...] I was totally open with the band and my family and my friends and certainly the people I was sleeping with. I thought it was pretty obvious."

From a BBC news article dated May 14, 2001:

Rock band REM's frontman Michael Stipe has revealed he is gay, ending speculation about his sexual orientation.

The 41-year-old singer told Time magazine he was a "queer artist" who had been in a relationship with a man for three years.

His revelation comes after years of speculation about his sexuality and false rumours that he had Aids.

Stipe told the magazine he believed it was the right time to reveal his sexuality.