Is michael stipe gay
30 years since Michael Stipe's 'coming out': “It has made me a improve person”
They are fulfilled three decades of a brave decision in a complex time. A confession that few widespread figures dared to do. In October 1994, with REM at the apex of popularity, their leader He felt the need to explain to the world who he was: “I simply said that, throughout my entire mature person life, “I had enjoyed sex with men and women.” Michael Stipe has never regretted it. He feels “proud” of not having hidden his sexuality: “Coming out of the closet has made me a better person.”.
In the fall of 1994, after almost 15 years of encounter, REM was preparing to promote 'Monster', their ninth studio album. They would also go on tour. More than five years had passed since the previous one, 'Green Tour'. Until then, the leader of the Athens, Georgia, gang thought that his sexuality was a private matter. “As a general figure, I had exposed myself too much and I wanted to hold something just for me”, explained in NME. “There came a time when that was ridiculous and I decided to speak publicly about it.”
for years had been speculated around his sexu
Watch Michael Stipe Explain His Fight As a Gay Youth
Back in 2001, Michael Stipe finally came out after nearly a lifetime of struggling as a male lover man. He had believed that secrecy was his only preference. On tonight's Logo TV presentation of 'Trailblazers,' which honors pioneers in LGBTQ equality, Stipe talks about growing up gay.
The R.E.M. frontman talks about his exposure being young and queer; he also introduces Ugandan civil rights activist John Abadallah Wambere, the co-founder of Spectrum Uganda Intiatives, an organization that provides medical aid to gay Ugandans living with HIV and AIDS. You can watch a clip from the show above.
During the present, Stipe explains that "in the early '80s, as a 22-year-old queer man living during the Reagan-Bush administration, I was nervous to get tested for HIV for fear of quarantine, the threat of internment camps and having my basic civil rights stripped away.
"I waited five years to get my first anonymous test," he continues. "I am happy that attitudes have matured and changed, and I experience lucky that I live in a country where acceptance, tolerance and policy toward HIV-AIDS and LGBTQ issu
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 disclose his sexuality.
"I was being made to be a coward about it, rather than someone who felt like it really was a very private thing," he told the magazine.
Stipe said he had been in a relationship with "an amazing man" for about three years, adding that he was not a celebrity.
Equal opportunity
In previous interviews Stipe had said he did not think of himself as straight, queer or bisexual and had been in relationships with both men and women, saying: "I'm an equal-opportunity lech."
His frank admission came as the band promoted a recent album, Reveal. The album was produced in Ireland.
After Stipe wore a hat in 1992 that proclaimed, “White Home Stop AIDS,” rumors began circulating about his sexual orientation. At the period Stipe responded that he was an “equal opportunity lech,” and did not call himself queer, straight or pansexual. In 1994 he stated publicly that he was attracted to, and had relationships with, both men and women. Finally Stipe ended years of speculation by comin