Cheyenne Jackson

Cheyenne Jackson marries Monte Lapka

A month ago Broadway favorite Cheyenne Jackson (right) married physicist Monte Lapka (left), his partner of 11 years, in a beach ceremony in the Hamptons. The star's wedding ceremony was held the day before he appeared in concert at Guild Hall in East Hampton on September 4, 2011.

Jackson tweeted the good news with the following message: “It's official, after 11 years together, Zora’s no longer a bastard. Married the best man I've ever known.” The actor’s happy message referred to the couple’s beloved dog, Zora.

Jackson’s Broadway credits include Finian's Rainbow, Xanadu, Thoroughly Modern Millie, All Shook Up and Aida. He has guest starred on popular television series, including 30 Rock, Glee and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Jackson will be the guest artist performing with the New York Pops in concert, "Cheyenne Jackson's Cocktail Hour: Music of the Mad Men Era," at Carnegie Hall on November 18, 2011.

In a TV interview before the passage of New York’s Marriage Equality Act, Jackson commented, “My dream wedding involves just close friends and good music…our dog would be there...pretty boring, but something just nice and on the beach.”

It appears their dream came true.

In 2006, Cheyenne portrayed gay hero Mark Bingham in Universal Pictures Academy Award nominated film, "United 93", directed by famed British film maker Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, and The Bourne Supremacy).

Nathan Lane visits Cheyenne Jackson backstage after a performance of the Broadway musical Xanadu:

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Man Crush

Emerson had erotic thoughts about another man, Martin Gay. During his early years at Harvard, Emerson found himself attracted to the young freshman, about whom he wrote sexually charged poetry.

In his junior year at Harvard, Emerson began his journal, and in the August 8th entry, he wrote about his handsome schoolmate Martin Gay:

"A strange face in the Freshman class whom I should like to know very much. He has a great deal of character in his features....His name is Gay. I shall endeavor to become acquainted with him & wish if possible that I might be able to recall at a future period the singular sensations which his presence produced..."

With an unembarrassed frankness he wrote in his journal about the disturbing power of the glances he and Martin Gay exchanged. He would remain susceptible to such crushes, expressed at first through glances, all his life. Later he wrote about the quickness with which a glance could arouse a depth of interest. He had a sort of theory of "the glance." And while he heavily crossed out the Martin Gay journal notes at some later time, his initial recording of them indicates his essential emotional openness.

In a journal entry dated May 1, 1821, Emerson writes:

"I am more puzzled than ever with Gay's conduct. He came out to meet me yesterday, but just before we met, I turned another corner and most strangely avoided him. This morning I went out to meet him in a different direction and stopped to speak to a lounger so as to be directly in Gay's way, but he turned into the first gate and went towards Stoughton. All this child's play persists without any apparent design, and as soberly as if both of us were intent on some tremendous affair."

Emerson's journal was subsequently filled with many poems, comments and references to Martin Gay, who went on to become a prominent Boston physician.

As for Emerson (1803-1882), his first wife died at age twenty. Emerson did not seem to inspire passion in women, and he treated his second wife according to strictures of those times – wives were for bearing children and running households. Emerson proposed marriage to his second wife by writing her a letter. After the nuptials she treated him coolly and always called him Mr. Emerson. While Emerson admitted he could not write the sort of romantic love letters that women wanted, he had no difficulty writing sexually suggestive poetry about Martin Gay, and he wrote about Nathaniel Hawthorne in passionate terms, as well.

And there you have it.

Rugby Player Jed Hooper

Rugby’s Old Redcliffians captain Jed Hooper has become the first Bristol Combination (SW England) player to announce publicly that he is gay. The 22-year-old forward came out to family and friends earlier this year and announced this week through a newspaper interview that he is homosexual, breaking one of the great taboos in arguably the most macho sport of all. Hooper hopes that his story can help other young rugby players come to terms with their sexuality.

A fierce competitor, Hooper ended years of anxiety connected to grappling with his true identity. The decision was far from easy. "I met a guy earlier this year who said he could not be with a man who was in the closet. That, basically, was the catalyst that I needed.”

Even so, Hooper still agonized over what he knew he had to do. "I was never going to do it bit by bit, that would have been too drawn out, so I decided to text everyone and put it on Facebook. Very quickly I must have had 40 replies, and all of them were positive."

Instantly, Hooper added, there were feelings of relief. "A massive weight came off my shoulders. If I couldn't accept myself the way I am, how could I expect my friends to? No punches were pulled with questions from the rugby lads, that's for sure. I can't repeat some of the things I was asked, but I've always been someone who has been at the center of any banter flying around, and the only thing that's changed is the type of banter. Being captain is a huge privilege, so when I made my announcement one of the first people I spoke to at Reds was our chairman, Ray Massey. I said that if the club doesn't want a gay man as its figurehead I would understand and step down. But he was brilliant and said 'you're our captain, and this doesn't change anything'. That support was massive to me."

Hooper first became aware that he was gay when he was 14. "At school, I didn't want to be with a girl, and I couldn't be with a boy, because I was a rugby player. If anyone is reading this, and they're in the same situation as me, all I want to say is don't bottle things up because, trust me, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The world's not against you. If my story can help one person, then this has been worth it."

Hooper follows on the heels of Welsh rugby player Gareth "Alfie" Thomas, who came out in 2009, also while still an active player. Hooper is the most capped rugby player and the first Welshman to win 100 international caps in rugby union. In a series of media interviews since his announcement, Gareth Thomas talked about life after coming out. As well, top referee Nigel Owens recently announced his homosexuality.