Five reasons for people to come out of the closet.

And after the jump, five people it would be cool to see coming out—not saying they are gay, but...

Houston, Bobby Brown, Cissy Houston & Crawford

Robyn Crawford—Whitney Houston's former assistant and beyond a doubt her former lover for many years—has contributed a truly touching and honest piece about Houson to Esquire via Tom Junod. (Ironically, the man behind the infamous "Kevin Spacey Has a Secret" cover in which he openly talked about the actor's glass-closeted existence in popular culture.)

Globe (January 17, 2011) recycles rumors of the past dozen years that Kevin Spacey might have a gay secret. What shocked me most about this very unshocking piece—spurred on by Spacey's recent Kevin Sessums interview—was the realization that those photos of Spacey with a male model are 10 years old already!

Kevin Spacey says he will "never" come out. His belief is that discussing his sexual orientation—or any aspect of his private life—is an invasion and a distraction from his work. Furthermore, he sounds almost relieved that this whole anti-gay bullying thing is happening because it gives him the excuse to parallel questions about his sexual identity with kids tormenting and beating up other kids over theirs. Yeah, we've got another Vivica A. Fox here.

He does manage to clarify, in codified terms, that he's not closeted in his personal life.

 

Gawker attempts to help us figure out "How to Know When Gay Rumors are True." In the process, they seem to out Gerard Butler, Kenny Chesney, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto, Hugh Jackman, Tom Cruise, Will Smith and John Travolta.

Their logic is pretty off, but their results seem pretty on! (Except keep in mind they say gay rumors about the following are not true: Jake Gyllenhaal, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Vin Diesel and Jeremy Piven...and a couple of those...c'mon!)

National Enquirer (January 11, 2010) tackles the age-old, oft-asked question: "Who's Gay & Who's Not?" this week. Here's the low-down on who's on the down-low: