Last week, there was a minor tizzy when it seemed like ‘80s pop star Tiffany drunkenly outed her ex-boyfriend, New Kids On the Block’s Jonathan Knight, on live television. Tiffany claimed that she and Jonathan has dated back in the day, “before” he was gay. This caused a stir, and many people were yelling at Tiffany for publicly outing a dude who hadn’t really made any public statements on his sexuality. A few days after Tiffany’s drunken outburst on Bravo, Jonathan Knight tweeted about the incident, in essence saying that Tiffany shouldn’t worry and that everything was cool between them. Basically, he was a total gentleman, and he sounded like a really nice guy. In any case, the incident showed Jonathan that people are still interested in hearing about him, so he decided to clear up some matters about his sexuality in an exclamation-filled blog post:
“I have never been outed by anyone but myself! I did so almost twenty years ago. I never know that I would have to do it all over again publicly just because I reunited with NKOTB! I have lived my life very openly and have never hidden the fact that I am gay! Apparently the prerequiste to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption “I am gay”. I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected! My belief is that you live your life by example, and not by a caption on a magazine! If there ever has been any confusion about my sexuality, then you are someone that doesn’t even know me!”
“I love living my life being open and honest, but at this time I choose not to discuss my private life any further! My fellow band members don’t discuss their private lives with their loved ones and I don’t feel that just because I am gay, I should have to discuss mine!”
[From Jonathan Knight’s blog post, via Towleroad]
I write like this when I’m emailing friends. I’ll glance over my email, and I’ll release that every sentence is an exclamation (!!!!). As far as what Jonathan wrote… sure. I agree with him and applaud him. Not every gay celebrity needs the cover of People Magazine (“I’M GAY!!”) when they come out. It’s clear that Jonathan has been out and proud for years, and it’s his business. He isn’t lying to anybody and he’s not trying to sell an image of a heterosexual heartthrob for his fans. And by being so straight-forward while maintaining his privacy, I think he’s probably earned himself even more fans.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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