Ty Herndon Comes Out ... Then Billy Gilman Does, Too

After nearly two decades in country music and after nearly twenty years of speculation over his sexual orientation, Ty Herndon has come out as gay:

"I have an awesome relationship that I've been in for a good number of years. I] love him very much and he loves me."

Herndon was married twice in the past and revealed that both is ex-wives knew he was gay when they married him; sounds like marriages of convenience to stave off the rumors of his homosexuality.

"I had a lot of people around me that I trusted at a time and I was like, 'Hey, you know this about me but the world doesn't. So I'm gonna need to call on your services for a little while.' It was unfortunate that I had to do that, but I felt that's what I had to do to have my career. Standing on some pretty solid legs today, so I get to tell my truth today."

Truth. That’s what it means; being able to be yourself, love yourself, and let everyone know exactly who you are, damn the torpedoes.

"I've dreamed about being in country music since I was 6 years old. It's my life, it’s what I do, it's who I am, and I went to great lengths to cover up that fact to be to be a country star."

Rumors began circulating about Herndon's sexuality back in 1995, when an undercover male police officer alleged that Herndon exposed himself in a park where he’d gone to buy crystal meth:

"I wish I had really great recall or memory about that. I think I had been up for like 6 days doing drugs the night and the day was really a huge blur for me."

Now fully clean and sober, Herndon is looking forward to a future with Matt, his partner of five years.

Happiness, truthfulness; it’s all in those two words: I‘m gay.

And then, hours later, it happened again …

On the heels of Ty Herndon’s coming out, fellow country music performer Billy Gilman announced that he, too, is gay.

He had his Coming Out on YouTube, and during the five-and-a-half-minute long video, Gilman credited his friend Ty Herndon for making his road a little easier to follow. But, at the same time, he talked about the mere rumor that he might be gay hurt his career, and likely cost him a record deal:

“I threw a showcase in Nashville, and no major label showed. … It’s difficult for me to make this video, not because I’m ashamed of being a gay male artist, or a gay artist or a gay person, but it’s pretty silly to know that I’m ashamed of doing this knowing that I’m in a genre and an industry that’s ashamed of me for being me.”

Several months ago, a reporter took a picture of Gilman and his partner. He says at that moment he knew what he needed to do.

“It was in that moment that I knew that I’d rather it be from me, than you reading it from somewhere else. I can honestly say I’m scared to death.”

Scared, sure, because you never know what the future holds for you, especially in the country music arena.

I mean, look at it: it appears that Ty Herndon was encouraged to get married twice to maintain a heterosexual image; it seems that just the rumor that Billy Gilman was gay stopped him from signing with a major Nashville record label even though he’d been a very popular child star in country music.

And then there’s Chely Wright.

In the late 90's, after years of singing in Nashville, Chely Wright had her first Number One country hit, "Single White Female".  She followed that up with three other top 10 hits and sold over a million singles in the United States. She made her first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry on September 16th, 1989 and made many subsequent appearances, especially after having that Number One. But, since coming out as gay in 2010, Chely Wright she has not once been invited back to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, even though she was considered a regular, pre-2010.

The good news is, that may be changing, slowly. Ty Herndon notes that he’s seeing increased support for gay country singers, and the LGBT community in Nashville and Country Music:

"Traditionally in country music, we don't see a lot of support for the LGBT community, but that's changing so much. Nashville is changing so much. I mean my goodness… Kacey Musgraves won Song of the Year for [the lyrics] 'follow your arrow, wherever it points' and two amazing songwriters that happened to be gay wrote that song."

So, maybe there is hope that gay country artists can record music, can be openly gay, and can be invited back to the Grand Ole Opry.

Failing that, at least allow the good folks at Homo HQ to offer a big “Howdy” and a “Welcome Out” to Ty and Billy, and to make sure they receive the Obligatory Coming Out Toaster Oven and a copy of The Gay Agenda.

Welcome out, boys, welcome out.

Ty Herndon

Billy Gilman

Random Musings

Taylor Swift is everywhere this week because she has a new album coming out; get over it, I’m old, and I’ll call them “albums” until I die. But seriously, she’s everywhere and I am so afraid to see that Blow Up Doll’s bright red lips that I won’t turn on my TV.

So, what will I do about tonight’s episode of How To Get Away With Murder? I mean, I love Viola Davis. But what if Swifty appears? Unless, and this could be good, she’s the murder victim? I mean she plays the victim in all her songs, the ones that have infiltrated my brain without consent, so maybe she’d be a good victim on HTGAWM.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I like some Mindnumbingly Dumb Pop Music, but at least the kind I like comes from actual singers and not the computer-enhanced variety—Google her disastrous “live” performance on the Grammy’s a couple of years back when she couldn’t carry a tune in Size 10 Jimmy Choos.

I caught an earful of her new song, Shake It Off, the other day where she, for lack of a better word, “sings” about “haters gonna hate” … repeat ad nauseum … and I got to thinking that all she sings about are the people who’ve wronged her and don’t like her and are mean to her.

And it hit me that she likes being dumped and she likes people being mean and she lives for the haters, because without them, er, us, she’d have nothing to, again, for lack of a better word, “sing” about.

After the 9th Circuit Court struck down Idaho’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, Idaho state Senator, and certifiable Pandering Loon, Steve Vick proposed a solution to what he calls “gross governmental overreach”:

“If we’re not allowed to determine the standards for a marriage license, then maybe we should just not issue them. … I’m exploring is just eliminating marriage licenses in Idaho.”

Seriously, if Idaho is gonna have to “let” The Gays get married, then Vick wants to outlaw marriage altogether. That’s his solution!

I say, You first, Steve! Why don’t you call your lovely wife at home and tell her that your marriage is meaningless because now The Gays can do it, too, and so, since you’re obviously — and this is just my opinion … I have no proof — a deeply closeted homosexual, you and your wife should call it quits.

I mean, if marriage should be outlawed, Stevie, make it retroactive.

Asshat.

I used to have a mad crush on Bruce Jenner, the Olympian. The Bruce Jenner of reality TV fame? Not so much.

I don’t know what’s going on with him, and it isn’t my business, but the hairdo, the Farrah he’s rockin’, the shaving down of his Adam’s Apple, and this new picture of him with his lovely nail polish?

I don’t know if he’s transgender and planning to transition, or if he’s become such a famewhore that he’s taken a page from the Kash Kow’s playbook and will do anything to keep people talking.

That said, while I was stunned by the polish, I was more shocked that he’s a smoker.

AHS is getting some NPH and I am like OMG.

Neil Patrick Harris, and his adorable husband David Burtka, are set to guest-star on AHS. 

NPH will appear in Freak Show‘s 11th and 12th episodes as a chameleon salesman, while Burtka will turn up in the season finale—episode Lucky 13—in what is said to be a sexy storyline with Jessica Lange.

I.Can’t.Wait. But …. In other AHS news:

Lily Rabe, who played the role of Sister Mary Eunice on American Horror Story: Asylum, will reprise her Asylum role on Freak Show in Episode 10. 

And since Naomi Grossman returned to AHS: Freak Show as Asylum’s Pepper, maybe Sister Mary’s return involves Pepper and how she went from the freak show to Asylum‘s Briarcliff Institution.

Again: Can’t.Wait.

Leave it to FoxNews, the media arm of the GOP, and the talking-heads from The Five to declare that the war on women a creation of the Democratic Party.

And yet, in a segment focused on voting and how women and women's issues are impacting the midterm elections, co-host Greg Gutfield says it's a fact that women grow more conservative as they grow older, and so they should wait until they're older to vote:

"With age comes wisdom. I tell young people, 'You don't have to wait to become a conservative."

And off camera, co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle—a women, I’m guessing—is heard saying that women should wait "to get a brain." And then on-camera, she talks about how, as an attorney, she dismisses young women when choosing juries:

"Young women on juries are not a good idea."

She says she tells them to "go back on Tinder or Match.com," because they "don't get it" -- "it" being experience with household duties, "paying the bills, doing the mortgage, kids, community, crime, education, healthcare."

So, explain again how this whole war on women is a Democratic thing.

Asshats.

We watched Constantine last week; what a horrible show; and not one shot of last week’s Random Musing hottie, Michael James Shaw. A total waste of time.

So, this week, we’ll show off Carter Macintyre from USA’s new comedy — which started off funny so we’ll see — Benched, and the lovely and talented Erich Bergen, the Is-he-gay-or-isn’t-he assistant on Madam Secretary.

Totes adorbs.

I have talked before about how I wake up every day with a song in my head, and how, sometimes it’s something I heard on the radio or TV during the previous day, and how sometimes it’s just a song I like and how it crept back into my brain and out my mouth.

This week, though, it’s a song I haven’t heard since I was a young queerling and had a young queerling crush on Larry Gatlin.

But it’s pretty and, well, when I YouTube’d — that’s a verb now — it, I still felt a little something  …

Anyway, here’s the song that been playing on a loop in my head for the past few days.