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By: KEVIN NAFF COMMENTS
 
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Dreier is gay. Dreier has similarly refused to answer “the question.”
THANKFULLY, THERE ARE a handful of out public figures giving us visibility. Rupert Everett, Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres and Melissa Etheridge come to mind, proving that living an honest life doesn’t mean the death knell for a career in the public eye.
The biggest sleeping asset in the fight for full gay equality lies in the shadows of the closet. When we live openly, we force those around us to reconsider their negative views of homosexuality. That’s when the stereotypes give way to understanding and real change occurs.
No Human Rights Campaign ad campaign in the “red states” can produce the impact of gays who live in those states actually coming out.
How can we expect the construction worker making $20,000 a year to come out when the rich and pampered are still hiding in the closet? How will gays living in Peoria find the fortitude to live honest lives, when the gay denizens of New York and Hollywood won’t?
No one is asking Anderson Cooper to wear a pink triangle on the air or Jodie Foster to ride with the “Dykes on Bikes” contingent. Simply acknowledging the truth — whatever it is — would be enough.
We need role models and spokespeople to boost visibility, increase understanding and, most importantly, to inspire those living less privileged lives to come out and stand up to those who would deny us the right to marry, to adopt children and to go to work free from the prospect of legal discrimination.
Shame on the rich and famous closet cases who have let us down.
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