Come out of the closet, Tom

Is Tom Cruise gay? Hell if I know, but the perception that he is has reached critical mass when it's alluded to on the front of the Sunday funnies (Opus) and there's an entire episode of South Park dedicated to getting him to come out of the closet. At this point, even if he's straight, maybe he should just 'admit' his gayness and get it over with.

Can a leading man be openly gay and still work? Who knows.

Even if people don't feel safe coming out for career reasons it would be nice if they went the Don't ask, don't tell route. There are a number of Soap actors who are as close to out as you can get without being Grand Marshall of a Pride Parade and their fans just refuse to acknowledge it. They still have crushes, talk about how the guys are on their Top 5 list, and if you mention to them "Ummm, have you noticed that he's 48, never been married, and thanked his 'Partner' at the last Daytime Emmy Awards?" will respond with "He must have meant his writing partner." It's not too big of a stretch to think the same could be done for movie actors.

People can ignore what's not in their face if they choose but it seems like every time an actor whose sexuality is under question tries to prove their Hetero cred things just get worse. Kevin Spacey butched his career into oblivion, Tom Cruise has Love, LOVE, LOVE'd his into ridicule. Could having a private private life have really been worse?

It would take some brave souls to give it a try but I keep thinking of the admittedly idealistic things that could come of it. It's hard to hate people you 'know' and care about. How many people could continue to blindly hate gays if they knew their favorite actor, singer, newsman, politician was gay? How many young people would have role models to emulate?

How many good works do people owe to the world around them?