We've come a long way in a few short years when it comes to gay rights. It's been baby steps, but from homosexuality being legalized we progressed to civil unions, and now more recently we've seen the idea of same-sex marriage slowly gaining legality and acceptance around the world. Here are 50 same gender couples who are engaged or married, some of these may surprise you!
Although we're still waiting on many countries around the world to catch up, Great Britain legalized same-sex marriage in 2014, followed a year later by the United States of America. The legal rulings prompted tears of joy, celebrations and, of course, fabulous weddings on both sides of the pond.
Our favorite celebrities are like the rest of us when it comes to falling in love. We fall for who we fall for, and that's the way it is. Plenty of same-sex celebrity couples are taking advantage of their new rights by getting engaged or married.
Not every state of the USA had to wait until 2015 for gay marriage to reach them; some of the more progressive states started the party much earlier. One of them was New York, which meant that Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka could finally start planning their big day.
As it happens, they've been planning it for longer than any of us realized. They 'officially' announced their engagement after the marriage bill passed, but they'd privately been engaged for a full have years, waiting for the law to change before they told everyone their news. They could have gone elsewhere to get married, so they must really have wanted to register in New York! They didn't stay there to actually tie the knot though. We're happy to report that they went on to get married in Italy in 2014 and are now parents to twin children named Harper and Gideon.
How often have you found yourself scrolling through Instagram, stopped on an amazing picture of someone you don't know, and thought 'I should contact that person and tell them how amazing they look'. Most of us don't do it out of fear we'd sound insane. Ellen Page did it when she first saw a picture of dance and choreographer Emma Portner, and within a year they were married!
Actress Page says she 'just knew they shared the same creative spirit' when she saw Portner's picture, and was compelled to get in touch. We're sure the fact that she's also very good looking helped a little with that decision! They occasionally release cute videos together on Instagram, with Portner dancing to Page's guitar playing. Their first contact came online in 2017, and they married on January 3rd, 2018. We know it's still early days, but they look very happy together!
It took a long time for Ricky Martin to pluck up the courage to come out as gay. He first broke into the music scene in the mid-90s and thrilled female audience everywhere, shaking his hips to pop classics like 'La Vida Loca'. Rumors about his sexuality never left him alone though, and in 2010 he finally went public with his sexuality. Now he's making up for lost time!
Martin proposed to his long-term boyfriend Jwan Yosef in 2016, going on to describe the process to a thrilled Ellen DeGeneres on her show in November of that year. It doesn't sound like the most romantic proposal in the world; he actually said, "I got you something!" instead of "Will you marry me?", but it worked! The couple kept the details of their wedding ceremony secret, but in January 2018 Martin confirmed on his Instagram account that he's now married, so the ceremony must have occurred at some point within the previous twelve months.
Although it was wonderful to see the reaction of all the young people to same-sex marriage becoming legal, it was truly emotional to see the impact it had on the older generation. For same-sex couples of a certain age, they've gone from having to hide their sexuality due to fear of prosecution to finally having equal rights to a heterosexual couple. It's a battle they've fought all their lives, and now they've won. It doesn't matter how old you are; you can still enjoy the spoils of that victory. Ask Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner.
Actress and comedian Tomlin has been in a relationship with writer Wagner for over forty years. Tomlin is now in her late 70s, and Wagner is in her 80s. They've been waiting for almost their entire lives to get married, and they were finally able to do so in December 2013 in Los Angeles.
The star of RuPaul's Drag Race, which is the most over-the-top and in-your-face reality TV show you could ever imagine, seems to treat his private life very differently to his public persona. RuPaul is the star of any room she walks into, but the man behind the character keeps the secrets of his love-life closely guarded. So closely in fact that he got married, and none of his fans noticed at the time!
We don't know precisely when or where it happened, but when the law changed to allow same-sex couples to marry, RuPaul didn't sashay away. During a live interview with Hollywood Today in 2017, he mentioned in passing that he was married to Georges LeBar, his partner of over 20 years. Realizing he'd let the cat out of the bag, he paused and said "I don't think I've ever set that on television before. We're married". That gave his interviewer a bigger story than they were expecting that day!
Jodie Foster is another big star who's had to put up with years of speculation about her sexuality during a time when it would have been less socially acceptable to be publicly gay. Rumors about her started as early as 1991, when rights activists took exception to what they saw as homophobic themes in her hit movie 'Silence of the Lambs' and tried to paint her as a hypocrite for appearing in the film. She never publicly responded to the claims, only acknowledging that she was in a relationship with a woman for the first time during a speech at a charity event in 2007.
Foster was in a relationship with Cydney Bernard for years, a relationship that led to the birth of two sons, but it ended only a year after she came out. She's since found happiness with photographer and fellow actress Alexandra Hedison, who she started dating in 2011 and went on to marry in the April of 2014.
A huge number of romantic relationships begin at work, and that was the case for actress Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli. Wiley is best known for her starring role as Poussey Washington in the Netflix smash hit 'Orange Is the New Black'. Morelli isn't quite as a big a household name, but there would be no 'Orange Is the New Black' without her; she's one of the show's most senior writers.
Wiley comes from a religious family. Both of her parents are pastors, but they're thankfully open-minded, and both of them have been hailed as outstanding examples of pro-LGBT voices among religious people. Having a gay daughter will surely have helped to inform them of that perspective. Wiley and Morelli married in March of 2017. Later that year, Out Magazine honored her as one of the 100 icons of that year for her work as a campaigner and a visible mainstream gay presence.
The road to acceptance has been a difficult one for 'Teen Wolf' star Colton Haynes. He was effectively outed by the press as having a 'secret gay past' on the basis of some old comments he'd made in a Tumblr account before he became famous. The subsequent press speculation forced him to take three months off work with severe anxiety, but he gained the confidence to overcome it, and publicly came out in May 2016.
Shortly afterwards he started a relationship with celebrity florist Jeff Leathem. It was Jeff who popped the question with a little help from a superstar friend; he asked Cher to record a video to help him with the proposal and had it played on a big screen at a fireworks party in 2017. Colton said yes! The road to true love has been difficult; they filed for divorce in mid-2018 but were able to reconcile before their first anniversary.
Celebrity same-sex married couples don't come much better known than Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. They've been together - and married - for more than a decade now. They held their ceremony at their home in Los Angeles in 2008 and then had to watch as California wrestled for years over whether it legally recognized such unions or not. Happily enough, the final ruling came down on their side.
The relationship between DeGeneres and de Rossi - who we should really also call 'DeGeneres' after she legally petitioned to have her name changed to reflect her marriage in 2010 - looks to be one of the happiest in Hollywood. They've even tried to go vegan together, although de Rossi later reverted back to vegetarianism because she couldn't fully commit to it. They don't have any children and don't plan to, but they do share their home with a small zoo of rescue animals.
Matt Bomer and Simon Halls actually got in ahead of the crowd but kept a lid on it for a long time while they waited for the law to catch up with them! The two were wed in 2011 but didn't make their marriage public knowledge until Bomer gave an interview to Details Magazine in April 2014. Not only are they married, but they have three sons together; namely Henry, Walker and Kit.
Keeping quiet about the marriage must have gone against nature for Halls; he's a professional publisher, so telling people all the latest and most exciting news is what he does for a living! Discussing the wedding in an interview, Bomer describes it as a small event in New York, deliberately scaled down to close friends and family because the couple wanted to maintain a feeling of intimacy. As with many others on this list, Bomer has been recognized by the LGBT community for his work as an activist.
News just in, Jenna Wolfe and Stephanie Gosk are married! The two NBC news presenters have been together for a long time, having met because of their jobs and ended up working for the same company. The sporty couple are well known for covering the Olympics and other major events, and given their interests and the shape they're in we bet they've got a home gym that's better than the one that most people pay to visit.
They've done a good job of keeping details of their marriage out of the public eye. We know they're married, but we don't know when it happened. We presume it occurred before 2013, as that's when Wolfe first came out, referring to Gosk as her wife in the process. What we can say for sure is that they have two daughters; Harper Estelle was born in August 2013, and Quinn Lily was born in February 2015.
Daniel Franzese may have been waiting for the laws around gay marriage to be relaxed before he finally felt comfortable telling the world who he really was. The 'Mean Girls' star and stand-up comedian came out in 2014 and revealed that he'd been in a long-term relationship with stylist Joseph Bradley Phillips for years. They didn't immediately get engaged though; that moment didn't arrive until a full two years later, when Franzese excitedly confirmed the news in a post on Instagram. Once upon a time you announced a wedding with a small advert in the local press; now social media does it all for you!
Not every engagement has a happy ending, sadly. Franzese and Phillips were engaged for two years, but never made it as far as their wedding day. Their engagement was broken off in July 2018. We wish them nothing but the best for the future and hope they both meet their 'forever' match soon.
It was a case of Same-Sex in the City when star actress Cynthia Nixon and wife Christine Marinoni committed themselves to each other in New York in May 2012. They'd already chosen the perfect place to get engaged, doing it publicly in the middle of a same-sex marriage support rally in 2009 which also happened in New York.
The couple has one son together named Max, who joins Cynthia's son and daughter from her previous relationship with Danny Mozes. Nixon never officially 'came out' citing the fact that she thinks sexual orientation is no longer relevant. In her own words, she went from being in love with a man to being in love with a woman, and it felt the same both times. As well as lending her voice to pro LGBT causes and hosting fundraisers for them, she's also a passionate cancer awareness campaigner, having personally suffered with breast cancer in the past.
British Olympic diver turned TV star Tom Daley had had to put up with speculation about his sexuality long before it was appropriate or the press to be asking those kinds of questions - he first found fame in his mid-teens due to his exceptional athletic abilities. In 2013 he met screenwriter Lance Dustin Black and the two began dating; Daley has since said that this was the first time he realized he was bisexual.
Taking the old-school route to announce his engagement, Daley had an advert placed in the Times of London newspaper in his home city in 2015. They married at the beautiful Bovey Castle in Devon, England in May 2017, and have since welcomed the birth of their first child through surrogacy; a son they've named Robert Black-Daley. Daley has stated in interviews that he doesn't consider himself to be gay, and still experiences 'sexual feelings' towards women. We hope he doesn't act on them!
US Soccer star Abby Wambach is one of the most prolific and successful players ever to represent her country at the sport. Between 2001 and 2015 she pulled on the US jersey 256 times, scoring an incredible 184 goals. She's also no stranger to the idea of same-sex marriage. In fact, she's tied the knot twice! She was an early adopter of the idea, marrying long term partner and fellow soccer player Sarah Huffman in 2013. That marriage ended in 2016 when she met Glennon Doyle Melton, a Christian novelist and activist.
Melton was also married previously, to a former model named Craig Melton with whom she had three children. Wambach and Melton fell in love quickly and intensely and went from confirming their relationship in November 2016 to being married by May 2017. They're still together, which we'll take as evidence that whirlwind romances sometimes can last.
Wanda Sykes, a longtime writer for Chris Rock, has been recognized numerous times as one of the funniest women in America. She's also something of an icon for gay women. Sykes was raised in a traditional household and struggled with her identity for some time, marrying and having two children with a man in the 1990s. After her divorce she felt it was important to come out as gay after California passed Proposition 8, which she felt was unacceptable.
The decision to come out was difficult for her parents to take, and after Sykes married her French girlfriend Alex Niedbalski in 2009 there was a period of estrangement. The birth of the couple's twin son and daughter in 2011 helped to build bridges, and we're happy to report that the relationship has been rebuilt. Sykes continues to be a loud and proud campaigner for gay rights.
Some of the couples on this list actually married well in advance of the general law changing in their favor and let the way for others, even if their union was destined to fail in the end. That was the case for ice skater and fashion designer Johnny Weir and his former partner Victor Voronov.
Weir, no stranger to controversy, married Voronov in New York in 2011. New York State was an early adopter of gay marriage, which led to many couples travelling there to legitimize their relationships. They filed for and were granted a divorce in 2015 after experiencing what they termed 'domestic difficulties'. Although widely assumed to be gay, Weir only came out just before his marriage, citing a recent spate of suicides among young gay men as the reason why. His hope that if he could even help one person come to terms with their own identity, it would be worth it.
Jillian Michaels and Heidi Rhoades have been a couple for a long, long time. It was no surprise that they became engaged after the laws relaxed enough to allow them to do it; it was more of a shock that they didn't get around to it until 2016! To be fair to Michaels it was a major event for her, and it took her time to work out how she wanted to go about it.
The physical and mental process of working up to the proposal was covered in detail in 'Just Jillian', the E! reality show that follows the daily life of the ultra-fit personal trainer. It was an emotional affair when it finally happened, leaving both Michaels and Rhoades, a Hollywood talent manager, in tears. The proposal looked to bring a sense of completeness to their lives; they'd now be married as well as having their two children together, a son named Phoenix and a daughter named Lu.
Coming out as gay was a decision that country music singer Chely Wright wrestled with from the age of 8 all the way through her adult life. She dated men despite not being attracted to them, because she thought that was what she was supposed to do. She'd been raised in a very religious household and had been taught that homosexuality was immoral and deviant, and so she chose to keep her feelings to herself. After years of struggling, she came out to her family in 2004, and to the public in 2007; despite fearing that it might end her country music career.
LGBT advocate Lauren Blitzer is the lucky woman who she married in 2011, in a private ceremony in Connecticut that was blessed by both a priest and a rabbi. The couple has twin sons together whom Wright carried herself, born in 2013. A film about her experiences with being gay, named 'Wish Me Away' was released in 2011.
Rosie O'Donnell has been a gay icon on a huge scale ever since she came out in 2002, stating proudly that she was a 'dyke', and she had no idea why people make such a huge fuss about sexuality. Since then she's lent her voice to hundreds of pro-gay causes, always making a point to stand up whenever she sees someone being oppressed.
The story of her marriage is a cute one with a sad ending. She met Michelle Rounds in Starbucks and immediately took a liking to her, and they became engaged after only a few months of dating in December 2011. Six months later they married in a private ceremony, going on to adopt a daughter in January 2013. The relationship didn't last, and they separated in 2015. This was O'Donnell's second same-sex marriage; her first came in San Francisco in 2004 but was annulled by the state when it reversed its stance on the issue later in the same year.
The legalization of same-sex marriage in New York State was a big thing for Michael Kors and his long-time partner, Lance LePere. Getting married was important to both of them, but it was made all the more special by the fact that New York's early adoption of gay marriage meant that they could tie the knot in their home state, at a private gathering with their friends and family present.
Their big day came very soon after the law permitted it, taking place in the Hamptons in August 2011. Kors' decision to have a small ceremony surprised some of his closest friends; the super-successful fashion designer is known to have a personal fortune in excess of $1bn, so he could have really pushed the boat out if he felt like it! There's something to be said for retaining an air of privacy and intimacy for a wedding though, even if you are one of the richest and most famous people on the celebrity circuit.
Ryan Murphy, creator of the hit TV show 'Glee', had already been in a relationship with photographer David Miller for years when New York opened the doors to same-sex marriage. The couple got engaged that year but waited a little later to get married, tying the knot in a ceremony in July 2012. They welcomed their first son Logan in 2012, and a second son named Ford in 2014, both via surrogates.
Murphy has been known and respected for years for his work in raising AIDS awareness, donating both time and money to the cause and winning a number of awards for his tireless efforts on the subject. He's managed to reconcile his sexuality with the fact that he was raised Catholic and continues to be a practicing Catholic, still attending church on occasion.
Former NSYNC star Lance Bass and his husband Michael Turchin must have really enjoyed the romance of getting engaged, because they did it twice! Bass first started dating actor and artist Turchin in 2011 and went on to get engaged in September 2013. For whatever reason, they confirmed they'd got engaged a second time in September 2014 (perhaps there was a brief fall-out!) and proceeded to get married in the December of that year.
In 2018, having been happily married and settled for four years, they decided the time was right to extend their family, and welcomed their first child through a surrogate. Bass and Turchin made history during their wedding ceremony; they exchanged their vows on a specially-filmed reality television show which was broadcast on E! in February 2015. When it was transmitted they became the first same-sex couple to have their marriage recorded and shown on cable television.
Best known for his starring role as the title character in the hit ABC Family show 'Kyle XY', Matt Dallas has been married to his long-term partner, musician Blue Hamilton, since 2015. The couple had been together for five years before deciding to make things formal and have since gone on to adopt two-year-old son Crow, who was announced to the world in late 2015 on the couple's official YouTube channel. That's a sign of the times!
With many of the couples we've seen so far, one of the pairing is more famous than the other, but that isn't necessarily the case for Dallas and Hamilton. Hamilton has a showbusiness career of his own as a singer-songwriter. He got into the music industry the back-to-front way; he was initially a record company executive before he got the musical bug himself and started recording his own tracks in 2012.
We bet that Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent enjoy their married life in the most fabulous home anywhere in West Hollywood. Both Berkus and Brent are interior designers working in the upper echelons of their trade, and so we should expect they both took a personal interest in making sure their forever home was perfect. We wonder who got the final say on design features?
Berkus and Brent were engaged after a year of dating in April 2013 and went on to marry in Manhattan in May 2014. They've since welcomed two children via surrogacy and made a little history when it comes to glossy magazines. When Rolling Stone magazine carried a Banana Republic advert featuring the pair wearing the store's clothing in early 2014, they became the first same-sex couple to appear in an advert within the magazine in its long history.
Actress and talk-show host Sara Gilbert came up with one of the most quirky and charming ideas we've ever heard for a proposal when she asked for the hand of per long-term partner Linda Perry in April 2013. The couple went out to enjoy a picnic, only for Perry to find that they were suddenly surrounded by musicians playing 'Lovesong' by the Cure. Gilbert then put on a series of t-shirts, each one with a word on it. In order, they said 'will', 'you' 'marry' and then 'me'! Obviously, Perry said yes.
The musical proposal would have resonated with Perry, who found fame herself as the lead singer of 4 Non Blondes in the 80s and 90s. Perry and Gilbert have now been married since March 2014 and have welcomed a son named Rhodes during that time.
We're not sure if this counts as using a platform to send a message of strength or hijacking an event, but either way we approve of the style in which Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita announced their engagement! The Modern Family star and his lawyer husband sent a video message of support to the charity foundation Tie the Knot (who support marriage equality) in 2012 and used the opportunity to confirm they were betrothed. They went on to marry in July 2013.
As with many people from conservative backgrounds, Ferguson had to struggle to persuade his parents to accept his sexuality. He recalls having to tell his father he was gay at 17, again at 19, and a third time at 21 before he could finally persuade him to accept it. Ferguson was understanding about this, saying that coming out was an adjustment for both an individual and their family.
Melissa Etheridge has been fighting the good fight for LGBT rights and same-sex marriage for longer than some people reading this will have been alive. The singer-songwriter first came out in 1993 at the Triangle Ball, which was an event set up by the gay community to celebrate Bill Clinton's election as President. Since then she's had many prominent same-sex relationships, including one in the 1990s which resulted in children thanks to a sperm donation from music star David Crosby.
The woman she's settled down with for life is actress and writer Linda Wallem. The couple were born on the same day, and married in California in 2014, two days after they'd both celebrated their 53rd birthday. Etheridge is still active in the world of music, although working with her wife she now also creates cannabis-infused wine, which has been very popular with buyers since marijuana was legalized in California in the year she was married.
Jonathan Knight's route to becoming known as gay was a strange one; he was rumored to be in a relationship with pop star Tiffany in the early 1990s; the same time he was lighting up the charts as part of New Kids on The Block. He denied the rumor and was 'outed' as gay by the National Enquirer in 2009. Knight responded by saying he'd never denied being gay, it's just that nobody had bothered to ask him directly before!
He's been in a relationship with Harley Rodriguez since 2008; the pair appeared together on the reality TV show 'The Amazing Race' and immediately hit it off. It took until 2016 for Knight to get around to proposing, which he later explained on 'The Jenny McCarthy Show' was a spur-of-the-moment decision while the couple were on holiday in Africa with their parents. It felt like the right time to do it, and so he did. There's no news yet on a date for the wedding, but it's sure to be quite a party!
Elton John and David Furnish are one of the longest-standing same-sex couples anywhere in the celebrity spotlight. They've been together for years and have moved with the times as the laws on same-sex unions have changed in Britain. When civil partnerships were legalized, which were a formal way of recognizing a same-sex relationship that stopped just short of marriage, they bound themselves together that way in 2008.
Pop and rock legend John was never going to miss out on the opportunity to have another big party though, and so when the law changed again and allowed full marriages, they finally had their biggest of big days in December 2014. They're also parents to two sons together; Elijah and Zachary. John is looking to retire from music after one final world tour, so soon they'll be able to put their feet up and focus on the rest of their lives together.
Acting power couple Cheyenne Jackson and Jason Landau have been married since September 2014, having got engaged in the February of that year. That's not a long run-up period to the wedding, so someone must have got very busy with planning during that time! Two years after the wedding they welcomed twins into their family; a boy and a girl.
This is actually Jackson's second same-sex marriage. His first was with physicist Monte Lapka, who he'd been with since 2000. They were married in 2011 but filed for divorce in 2013; the same year Jackson overcame his alcohol addiction and became sober. He announced that he was dating Landau only a month after his divorce was granted, which suggests that he moved on rather quickly! The announcement of the new engagement came via Instagram, as we've seen from so many other stars on this list already.
The star of 'The Big Bang Theory' may be a little awkward about romantic relationships in the show, but in reality, Jim Parsons lives a happy married life with his husband Todd Spiewak. In fact, he's described married life in some of the most relatable terms we've ever seen.
Discussing his marriage to graphic designer Spiewak in an interview, Parsons called it "an act of love, coffee in the morning, going to work, washing the clothes, taking the dogs out-a regular life, boring love". We don't think there's anything boring about that; it's the little things that life is all about. The couple runs Wonderful Productions together and have produced campaigns for huge companies such as Pepsi and Bankmed. When one of you can act and write and the other can create beautiful designs, it's a perfect mix of business and pleasure!
In the time we live in, we're glad to say that most developed countries and industries accept gay people and treat them equally to heterosexuals. Unfortunately though, many sports are lagging behind the times, and boxing is one of them. As a 'macho' sport filled with stereotypical tough guys, even ten years ago it would have been difficult to imagine a prominent boxer publicly declaring they were gay. And then Orlando Cruz happened.
Cruz, a Puerto Rican boxer who has represented his country at the Olympics and won the IBA World Featherweight Championship, came out as gay in 2013, marrying his longtime partner Jose Manuel. He's continued to fight since and was an inaugural entrant into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame when it opened. His impact as a role model for gay people in Puerto Rica has been enormous.
One sport (or form of entertainment, depending on how you look at it) that's had even fewer gay representatives than boxing is professional wrestling. Gay characters have been used in WWE, but in the past the portrayal has tended to be mocking or done for laughs. When WWE superstar Darren Young came out in 2013, that changed.
The WWE issued a public statement offering Young their support, and he's gone on to be an ambassador for young people struggling with their identity, working in partnership with his husband Nick Villa. Although some wrestlers have come out as gay in the past, they've usually waited until their career was over before making the admission. Young was under contract to WWE when he came out, and continued wrestling for them for some time afterwards. Many of his colleagues Tweeted support for him when he made his announcement, and it's now hoped he may have opened doors for others in the industry to come to terms with who they are.
While we're talking about sportsmen who've broken down boundaries, here's a third in a row! It took an incredible about of courage for Michael Sam to come out as gay before he faced the NFL draft; there had never previously been an openly gay footballer in NFL history, and some believed that making his sexuality public would end his career before it started.
When he made the draft and was picked up by the St. Louis Rams, an emotional Sam kissed his long-term partner Vito Cammisano on live television; the first time a same-sex kiss had been transmitted during a live sports broadcast. They went on to get engaged in January 2015. There was sadly never to be a wedding; they separated in June of the same year; but have remained friends. Sam ultimately had to walk away from football to focus on his mental health, but now works as a motivational speaker.
Denis O'Hare may be one of the most understated actors on television and in film. You'll have seen him in many things but might not recognize his name. To jog your memory, he's been one of the mainstays of the 'American Horror Story' TV franchise, as well as a leading role in 'True Blood' and the movies 'Milk' and 'Dallas Buyer's Club'. 'Milk' in particular is recognized as being a film of vital importance to the LGBT community, managing to strike the right balance between entertainment and social commentary about life for gay people in San Francisco during the time of the film's setting.
O'Hare has been happily married to his husband, interior designer Hugo Redwood, since 2011. The couple married and are resident in New York, where you'll likely see examples of Redwood's work if you're ever lucky enough to be invited to a party at one of the city's fancier apartments. Together they have one son Declan, who they adopted as a baby.
It's difficult to describe Dan Savage's job accurately; he's a journalist and social commentator, but most of us know him best as the purveyor of advice on all matters relating to sex and sexual health in his work as a sex columnist. No matter your tastes, Savage always seems to have a helpful tip for you. His husband Terry Miller once stayed out of the limelight, but Savage's habit of posting pictures of him in Instagram has led him into a new line of work as a male model!
Before same-sex marriages became legal in the US, Savage and Miller had to go to Canada to get married. They had a ceremony in Vancouver in 2005, but when the law changed they went through the process again in Washington State in 2012. They were among the first 11 couples married on the first day that same-sex marriage was permitted within the state, with the mayor of Seattle there as a guest.
There's a powerful combination of stage and screen prowess in this marriage! David Hyde Pierce came out as gay in 2007, confirming something that fans had long since suspected anyway. In the process, he revealed that he'd been in a relationship with screenwriter Brian Hargrove since 1988. Between Pierce's on-screen credits for 'Frasier', 'Hellboy' and 'Wet Hot American Summer', and Hargrove's writing credits for 'Caroline in the City' and 'The Secret World of Alex Mack', we imagine the trophy and award cabinet in their house is quite a sight.
Pierce credits a lot of his success in the acting world to Hargrove; while accepting a Tony Award for 'Curtains', he specifically thanked Hargrove for '24 years of notes' on his acting helping him to become a better performer. The couple married in California in 2008 as an intentional statement of defiance against Proposition 8, which came into force days later.
Mario Cantone is a gifted writer and comedian, with a quick wit and an even quicker delivery, but you may still know him best as Anthony from 'Sex and the City'. The much beloved gay wedding planner from the show wasn't a million miles away from Cantone's real-life self, although we believe the only wedding he's ever planned is his own! When the show ended he returned to his first love; musical theatre. Appropriately enough, that's where he met the love of his life.
Jerry Dixon is a musical theater director who'd worked with Cantone much earlier in his career, and the two forged one of the longest lasting same-sex couples in entertainment. By the time they were married in 2011 they'd already been together for twenty years, meaning they'll soon be celebrating thirty years since their first date. Celebrity pastor Jay Bakker did the honors at their wedding ceremony!
Grant Shaffer may not be famous by name, but you'll definitely have seen his work. He's a graphic designer and artist who's been responsible for the look of many comics, short films and music videos, but we suspect none have been seen by as many people around the world as the iconic video for Beyoncé's Single Ladies'. We can't help but wonder if Shaffer's eye for something artistic and unusual is what first drew him to evergreen character actor Alan Cumming?
British-American Cumming seems to be able to play anything from a hot mess to a King of England on screen effortlessly and has been one of the most recognizable faces on television for years. He and Shaffer married in New York in 2012, five years after they'd entered into a civil partnership while living in London. They have no children; Cumming has stated that while he'd love one, his hectic schedule means he'd be away for too long, and it wouldn't be fair on a child.
There are several couples on this list who work in the same industry. We suppose it helps to have something in common to talk about when you're passing the time at home! Don Roos and Dan Bucatinsky are no different; you'll know Bucatinsky best as the star of 'Scandal', where he plays James Novak, as well as 'The Comeback'. He's also tried his hand as a writer and film director, but it's his husband who has the greater reputation for that.
Roos's greatest professional triumph to date is the title of his best-known work, 'Single White Female', is now a metaphor for a friend displaying excessively needy or psychotic behavior. We hope he didn't base it on personal experience! Roos and Bucatinsky married in 2008 after sixteen years together, and still remember that their first date in 1992 was to see the film 'Love Field'. Together they have a son named Jonah and a daughter called Eliza.
Indie-music icon and all-round musical genius Rufus Wainwright isn't the sort of person who likes to have labels slapped on him. He's described himself as 'a complete libertarian' in the past and has stated that he doesn't believe what goes in anyone's bedroom is the business of the Government. He didn't even want to be openly gay, saying that the 'scandal' era of homosexuality that Oscar Wilde had to endure was more inspiring to him as an artist. That sounds insanely pretentious, so we're glad he mellowed when he met art director Jörn Weisbrodt and fell head over heels in love.
Weisbrodt changed Wainwright's entire perspective on both his sexuality and his outlook on relationships. By 2010 he'd started campaigning for gay marriage to become legal in the United States precisely because he wanted to marry Weisbrodt, and when he got his wish it didn't take him long to act on that wish. They married in 2012 and have one daughter delivered by surrogacy.
Given that being gay is now so accepted in Western society, it's almost unthinkable that so many people had to live in shame and denial for so many years before times and attitudes changed. Barry Manilow was another victim of the era he grew up in not helped by working in the music industry. Women loved Manilow, and his manager warned him that coming out as gay would probably hurt his career.
That advice would seem cynical were his manager not the same person he was in love with and had been in a relationship with for years! Garry Kief has spent almost his whole career looking after Manilow's professional affairs, so it was no shock to find out he was looking after his personal ones too. The happy couple married in April 2014, in a private ceremony surrounded by loving friends and family.
Star Trek legend and long-standing LGBT advocate George Takei has let the whole world in on his relationship with Brad Altman! The very open star makes most of the details of his life public through his Twitter and Instagram accounts, where he has a legion of loving fans. Charming, funny and seemingly always happy, Takei is filled with an infectious energy which presumably drew Altman to him in the first place.
Takei and Altman aren't just one of the longest-standing same-sex married couples in America, they were also among the first. Back in June 2008, when the chance for same-sex couples to marry became legal for the first time, they were the very first couple to gain a license for marriage in West Hollywood. That's a beautiful way to make history! We guess Takei really did achieve the mission laid out for his Star Trek character Captain Sulu: "To boldly go where no man has gone before".
Beth Ditto isn't exactly someone who does things the conventional way. She broke the mold of what a female lead singer in a rock band should look like, and she also broke the mold of conventional marriage. As an outspoken advocate of LGBT lifestyles, she's on record as saying 'Standing in The Way of Control' - the biggest hit of her old band Gossip - was a call-to-action against the Government of the time's legislation against same-sex marriage.
Walking it like she talked it, Ditto married her girlfriend (and best friend since she was 18) Kristin Ogata in Hawaii in 2013. The couple both wore white to the wedding. Seventeen months later their home state of Oregon legalized gay marriage, so a mere seventeen months after their first wedding they walked down the aisle again! We hope they didn't expect all the guests to buy them a fresh set of presents, considering the ceremonies were so close together.
Brad Goreski and Gary Janetti have undoubtedly achieved a lot in their respective fields, but it may be a fictional Instagram account run by Janetti that ends up more famous than both of them. Goreski is a celebrity fashion stylist with a fine eye for a great look and has worked on television as a host of 'Fashion Police'. Janetti is a writer who's worked on 'Family Guy' and 'Will and Grace', as well as being creating the British sitcom 'Vicious'.
More than 700,000 people follow Janetti's Instagram page, where he comments on the latest happenings within the British Royal family via memes, where (usually very sarcastic) thoughts are attributed to the infant Prince George. It's a strange niche, but he's managed to find it! The married couple split their time between homes in Los Angeles and New York City, although Janetti prefers to stay in New York and take care of their dog, Penelope.
To many of our readers Sean Hayes will forever be known as Jack McFarland from 'Will and Grace', the role that brought him fame, acclaim and awards. Although he's always known he was gay, he chose not to say so in public until 2010, as he felt that if an audience knew his sexuality it might affect how they see his portrayal of characters as an actor.
His philosophy on that matter changed of course, and he now modestly believes he has 'contributed monumentally to the success of the gay movement in America', although he added that he's open to debating anyone who wishes to disagree with him. Not much is known about his husband Scott Icenogle beyond the fact that he has an awesome last name, and that they were together for at least eight years before they married in November 2014.
Doctor George O'Malley from 'Grey's Anatomy' was called to attend to matters of the heart when the man who played him on screen, T.R. Knight, married his long-term boyfriend Patrick Leahy in October 2013. By that time Knight had been with Leahy, who is a writer and a ballet dancer, for five years.
There's no chance we'll see Knight's character return to the hit TV show after he died tragically but heroically several seasons ago. Given that he's worked on Broadway (where he was lucky enough to share the stage for an extended run with the legendary Sir Patrick Stewart) both before and since 'Grey's Anatomy', and the fact that Leahy is both a ballet dancer and a writer, perhaps they could create something together that both of them could star in? You have the talent and the contacts, gentlemen. Make it happen!
Meredith Baxter is one of her generation's most accomplished stars of screen. Whether it was in 'Family' or 'Family Ties' she won the hearts of a nation for her performances as complicated but endearing women. Her life at home and her struggle with her sexuality has probably been more complex than that of any character she's ever played, though.
Baxter is now on her fourth marriage. Her previous four have all been to men. During that time, she's struggled with abusive relationships and addictions, all the time wondering why things never felt right in her love life, and why she couldn't settle. Finally, in 2002, she realized she was gay. She felt like she now understood why she'd never been happy in her previous marriages, but still didn't feel sure enough of her new identity to come out until 2009. It all worked out in the end though; she met contractor Nancy Locke in 2005 and dated her for several years, finally marrying in 2013 in LA.
'The love shack is a little old place where we can get together!' For Katie Pierson from the pop-rock band the B52s and her girlfriend Monica Coleman, that love shack turned out to be in Hawaii, where they married in 2015! (It was the B52s who wrote 'Love Shack', by the way, just in case you didn't get the connection).
Pierson was actually in a heterosexual relationship all the way through the peak of the B52s most successful years, dating American artist Tim Rollins. We don't know precisely when she met her wife Monica Coleman, but they were described as being long-term before they tied the knot. They now run a business together, operating two motels with the interesting titles 'Kate's Lazy Desert' and 'Kate's Lazy Meadow', the latter of which would be more accurately described as a rustic modern lodge in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
