I’m sick and tired of the hypocrisy and I'm sick and tired of the lies. Look, I realize it’s near to impossible to predict your career. In fact, if you had Tinkerbell, a crystal ball and a pound of really good weed you couldn’t predict a career in show business.

Did anyone ever really think Paris Hilton would be a role model for young women? I don’t even think she thought that.

So…you never know.

But to hide in the closet, to lie to the press and to the public at large doesn’t just keep your personal life safe. It’s not only about you. It’s about the millions of people who see your movies. Or who buy your records or who come to your concerts and hear you play. Yes, you have a responsibility.

That’s right….you. Gay You.

I know there are straight people who had no idea Elton John, Billie Jean King and Clay Aiken were gay. I know that this is the kind of thing where sometimes people see what they want to see. I don’t think heterosexuals are stupid. I don’t think that’s fair and it makes no sense. I honestly put it down to experience. If you haven’t had a lot of homosexual affairs or dealt with a lot of homosexual people, you have less of a frame of reference for that kind of life. However, Gaydar is rampant. In both heteros and homos.

By the way, just for the record, I have a gay pal who had no clue about KD Lang. Just for argument’s sake, I thought I’d throw that in there. I mean, c’mon. Helen Keller would have known Lang was gay.

When I was a teenager there was no such thing as gay people on TV. They didn’t exist. Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Riley, and a couple of lady wrestlers were about it. And even they weren’t out of the closet. They were considered “flamboyant”. Add in Flip Wilson in drag and you pretty much have the entire Gay community represented. So, for the longest time I thought I was insane. I thought I was losing my mind and I should probably be put away or I’d end up a serial killer or a pedophile. That’s all the news we had. There was nothing else to compare us to. I tried to commit suicide and so did many of my friends. As a matter of fact, Chrisanne and I personally know a girl in College who went out to a field, took out her gun, and shot herself in the head.

She was 23 years old. And she was Gay.

Now I’m certainly not saying that just because a celebrity comes out of the closet that it’s going to save someone’s life. But I do know that if I had at least one gay role model on a TV show I watched, or knew someone in the public eye that most of America admired, I might have at least thought twice about swallowing a half a bottle of pills.

I guess if there are people who choose to live a lie that really should be their decision. Okay. I’ll buy that. Then at least spare us the public smoke and mirrors. Don’t tell us you’re not gay when the gay community (and you) know you are. It’s not like we can’t see you. We’re standing right here. We can see you.

We can actually see you.

So my anger is directed toward those liars. The ones that deny and then pop off to the nearest bar or web cam and buy up the best deal. Meanwhile, when the press interviews them, they get tongue tied and resort to “my private life is just that. Private.”

Well, that might be true if we weren’t all in the middle of fighting a civil rights suit that might prevent further generations from falling in love with each other and acquiring equal rights under the law like every other American. It’s time to stand up and be counted. It’s time to do something real and something right with your life. Drop the limos and parties and Vera Wang trains and get honest. Not only with us, but with yourselves. It’s not going to kill you. If anything, it will set you free.

But freedom comes with a price. I know that. Everyone who’s fought for it knows it. The men who started this country certainly knew it. Signing that little piece of paper by Mr. Jefferson could have easily cost them their lives. Easily. And sometimes that one thing we do for freedom is the one thing that costs the most.

Get honest. I’m begging you. There’s a little boy in Schaumburg with a bottle of pills in his hand who’s just looking for a reason to turn himself around. And you yourself will sleep much easier. Freedom is wonderful panacea.