It's something everyone seemed to already know -- i.e., note the, ok, maybe less-than-tender comments from this thread last week -- but post-SXSW, and on the eve of Accelerate's 4/1 release date, Stipe has finally made those longtime rumors official in SPIN...
[Photo by Brian Brooks Via IndieWire]
Yes, he's gay. As he told SPIN:
"It was super complicated 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."
The singer, who had always deflected questions about his sexual orientation, says he "didn't always see" how coming out could help others.
"But I see now, of course, that's the case," he says. "I'd just never felt strongly enough about a particular relationship to say, 'Yeah, he's my boyfriend, that is what it is.'
"Now I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there."
Well, having SPIN break a story does seems pretty '80s of you, Michael. Glad to see this is finally official, though. Big ups, sir.
