9 Celebs Who Were Forced Out Of The Closet And 7 Who Are Still Hiding

In the busyness of celebrity lifestyles, it's hard to keep up with everything that's going on. Plus, we all follow so many different stars that we don't always know who's actually the one who did this or that. We get them all mixed up, naturally. Because it's a time when LGBTQ rights are rising-along with the growing acceptance of these people throughout the country-there seems to be an increase in the number of celebrities coming out, too.

The stereotypes surrounding some categories of intimate preferences may make us question whether or not some celebs are swinging for the other team. Things like hairstyles, outfits, and the roles that actors play on the big screen can easily kick off rumors about one's preference. It's often tricky to decipher between myth and fact, so we're left trying to figure these things out. Rumors can be started so simply, especially with social media. We like to jump to conclusions and overreact about everything, unfortunately.

Let's look at a few celebrities whose lifestyles may have been revealed by the media, and some other celebrities who we're expecting to come out in the near future!

16 Forced Out: Portia de Rossi Surprised Us All

Portia de Rossi-who is now married to Ellen DeGeneres-was pushed into an opportunity to share about her intimate preferencesThe two got hitched back in 2008, but they began their relationship in 2004. Prior to dating DeGeneres, Rossi was with Francesca Gregorini, a singer. They got caught together, which led to lots of pictures being shared and rumors being started.

Rossi refused to speak about these rumors, which kept her then-relationship under wraps. Later-a year after she began dating DeGeneres in 2004-she finally came out as a lesbian. Rossi and DeGeneres appear to be happily married to this day! We're glad that we've got these strong women setting such a positive example for the rest of the LGBTQ community, and we're lucky that Rossi worked up the nerve to come out!

15 Still Hiding: Oprah Winfrey-And Her BFF

For years, we've heard rumors circulating around Oprah Winfrey's sexual orientation. We are trying to find out what's really going on behind the scenes of this celeb's time in the limelight. Is she hiding a boyfriend or a girlfriend? As it turns out, Winfrey actually does have a male partner. His name is Stedman Graham, and they've been in some type of a relationship since 1986.

While this seems like a nice thought, we think there's more to the story than Winfrey simply having Graham as her partner. After seeing Gayle King's close friendship with Winfrey, we naturally suspect that something is going on. Winfrey has denied these claims up to this point, but we are slightly suspicious that she may be lying about this. Plus, 30 years is an awful long time for two people to be dating and not to be discussing marriage. Is Graham simply a cover-up?

14 Forced Out: Neil Patrick Harris-One Hot Doctor

Neil Patrick Harris is one of our all-time favorite LGBTQ community members. He's a good-looking guy with a sweet family. Not to mention, he's also crazy talented! Years ago, he had to make the first jump in publicly announcing being gay. Unfortunately, this was not really his own decision. Of course, the media had to get involved in one way or another.

In 2006, Perez Hilton made a big deal of Harris being gay-which Perez didn't even know about for sure-and Harris had to come out. When he officially opened up about being gay, he said "I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love.”

13 Still Hiding: Hayden Christensen Stays Silent

The star behind Anakin Skywalker-Hayden Christensen-has been met with dozens of rumors about his sexuality. People have assumed he's gay, for one reason or another. He hasn't ever officially come out and said what he thinks about these headlines, but he might not be ready to do that. We understand why he would be anxious to even address the media, because it could be taken the wrong way-even if he doesn't disclose an official yes or no answer to the gay questions.

Though Christensen was dating-and later got engaged to-Rachel Bilson, they split in September of 2017. Could this have something to do with his personal acceptance of his personal preferences? We think it might! The two had been off and on for some time anyway, so it wouldn't be surprising if Christensen has had some feelings for another gender.

12 Forced Out: Lance Bass Didn't Mind Being Outed

Like Neil Patrick Harris, Lance Bass got out-ed by Perez Hilton as well. Hilton must be pretty good at figuring people out and busting them, but we kind of hate that he robbed these celebs the freedom of coming out on their own terms. The rumors began with a report by Hilton in 2005.

Later-in 2006-Bass officially addressed these assumptions. He explained his feelings about his LGBTQ lifestyle and how good it felt for him to be out about his homosexuality.

Bass said, “I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been my whole life. I'm just happy.” We're grateful that Bass is content with his lifestyle, and we hope that his quote helps inspire others who are working on finding acceptance!

11 Still Hiding: Jake Gyllenhaal Fit The Role Too Well

After Jake Gyllenhaal's well-done role as a sheep herder-who happened to be gay-in Brokeback Mountain, we've begun to question his sexual orientation. If we notice that a celebrity is in an incredibly emotional scene in a film, we sometimes wonder if they had some type of emotional experience with the same situation in their real lives. The same curiosity is invoked with Gyllenhaal's stellar role, ready to fool any of us.

We have also noted that in addition to the role of a gay man, Gyllenhaal spends a lot of time with his guy friends. We rarely see him with many women, and naturally that leads us to assume he's hanging with men by choice. Though he has been seen with some female celebrities before, he definitely seems to have some reasons to hang with the guys.

10 Forced Out: Raven Symoné Keeps It On The DL

Raven Symoné has managed to stay out of the spotlight over the past few years. With this, she has also kept her relationships pretty hidden. This can be helpful in Hollywood to prevent the wrong people from getting involved-not to mention the added drama of a partner being shared with the world. As it turns out, Symoné's wishes weren't totally granted.

In 2014-following a plethora of dating rumors-Symoné spoke up about her female partner. While in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Symoné explained how happy she was to be in the relationship. While she didn't get her own chance to publicly announce her being gay to the world on her own time, she addressed the rumors effectively and was able to promote a healthy message about the LGBTQ community!

9 Still Hiding: Queen Latifah Prefers Privacy

As an open supporter of the LGBTQ community, Queen Latifah has seen tons of rumors about her sexual orientation. Again, we see assumptions being made simply based upon one's involvement in a community or organization of their choice.

In a New York Times interview a few years back, Queen Latifah addresses these accusations pretty well. She said, "I don't have a problem discussing the topic of somebody being gay, but I do have a problem discussing my personal life… I don't care if people think I'm gay or not. Assume whatever you want. You do it anyway."

In addition to Queen Latifah's connection with the LGBTQ community, she hasn't been very open about her relationships over the years. This isn't a bad thing at all, but it leaves room for us to question whether or not she could be hiding a partner.

8 Forced Out: Kevin Spacey Is Under Fire

As a result of the recent reports of assault shared by more than a dozen different men, Kevin Spacey has been questioned quite a bit lately. Over the past few decades, these men have allegedly been involved with non consensual relations with Spacey or harassed in some way, and there is some added suspicion because they are all guys.

As it turns out, he didn't discriminate against these victims based on age. Spacey reportedly assaulted 15 different men, of all ages and backgrounds.

Naturally-because of his tendencies toward males-we are beginning to assume that he's homosexual. He has always targeted males in his episodes of assault. It's a shame that he didn't get the chance to come out and say it himself, but we're glad his victims were able to come forward to share about the predator.

7 Still Hiding: Josh Hutcherson Keeps It Fluid

Josh Hutcherson-one of the stars behind the The Hunger Games series-has been questioned numerous times about being potentially gay. We aren't sure if it has anything to do with his personality or the way he dresses. We do think that people may be trying to figure this out because Hutcherson happens to be a LGBTQ community ally. This doesn't make total sense though, because LGBT allies come from a variety of backgrounds.

Hutcherson seems open to whomever catches his eye. He mentions that he considers himself to be “mostly straight.” In an interview with Out magazine, he shared more about his thoughts, saying, “I've met guys all the time that I'm like, 'Damn, that's a good-looking guy, you know?'” He then went on to explain how he likes women but also wants to avoid labeling himself and fully committing to one gender.

6 Forced Out: Matt Bomer's Secret Hubby

While Matt Bomer began speaking openly about being gay in 2012, his most successful homosexual relationship began much earlier. In 2012, Bomer was caught kissing a man. Naturally, the paparazzi got right on it and snapped some pictures to share later. The photos were released, in addition to a variety of gay rumors. Of course, everyone ate these rumors right up.

In reality, Bomer had actually already married his husband-Simon Hall-in 2011. There's a highly probable chance that the duo was dating for some time prior to their marriage's beginning, so the media was actually behind on the news. As a result of the photographs, Bomer felt the need to come out officially. He spoke briefly about being gay and about his husband. The happy couple now has three children together.

5 Still Hiding: John Travolta Has All The Right Moves

As we saw with Kevin Spacey, assault allegations have had the chance to spread more information about one's personal preferences than we may expect. John Travolta isn't much different. Over the years, he has been accused of sexual assault by a few men. This naturally leads to gay rumors, because Travolta has supposedly raped men. It makes sense to us that people would tend to believe these claims and translate them to Travolta's overall lifestyle.

As it turns out, all of these allegations have been denied by Travolta himself. In addition, gay rumors have been circulating about him for more than 30 years. While he has been married to Kelly Preston for the past couple of decades, there is a chance he committed the crimes while he was married to her.

Since all of Travolta's victims who have come forward happen to be males, many assume that he is at least pitching to both teams and just hasn't come out yet. Coming out as gay at this point may end with Travolta being locked up, because it would mean further evidence regarding the allegations.

4 Forced Out: George Michael Had Faith It Would All Work Out

The late George Michael-the front man of the pop band Wham!-was caught up in a sticky situation back in April of 1998. Discovered in the middle of a sexual act, Michael was caught by an undercover cop in a Beverly Hills restroom. This was widely reported on, and many gay rumors were started.

Shortly after the incident took place, Michael took it upon himself to talk about him being gay, publicly. He had figured out he was gay when he was much younger, but even his own mother was not aware of his sexual orientation.

He spoke with friends about it at 19, but he wanted to avoid causing any problems with his parents at that point. Though Michael got busted by the cops, he turned it around by creating a solid platform to speak about LGBTQ individuals and set a good example.

3 Still Hiding: Bruno Mars Would Crush Women All Over The World

Bruno Mars-a current pop singer-has also been targeted with rumors about his sexual orientation. Instead of rumors inquiring about his preferences, one of these rumors actually said that Mars had come out of the closet.

Almost as quickly as the article was published via a CNN iReport, it was removed. It's bad enough that a star has to worry about these things being said about him, but somebody actually made up a whole story about his coming out.

The author behind the article easily could have wanted to start rumors and make big headlines, because this would have been a killer piece of news-that is, if it had been real. Maybe it was believed that Mars is gay because of his sense of style or the fact that he wears a decent amount of jewelry. Regardless, these don't pass as reasons to judge someone's personal preferences.

2 Forced Out: Thomas Dekker Was Forced To Embrace The Truth

Thomas Dekker-a star from Heroes-recently got pushed out of the closet by one of his writers and producers. At an awards ceremony, Bryan Fuller drew attention to Dekker being gay, which had not been disclosed to the public previously. Unfortunately for Dekker, this meant that he was out, and so was his relationship status. We're just guessing, but we don't think anyone would like to be thrown under the bus like that.

For years, Dekker had kept his sexual orientation a secret. He was probably worried about how it would affect his job as an actor, or how close of relationships he would have with his friends.

Shortly following Fuller spilling the beans, Dekker decided to open up and share some information with the public. He's been happily married to Jesse Haddock for several months now.

1 Forced Out: Carrie Brownstein Didn't Have A Choice

Carrie Brownstein-a talented and busy actress-was pushed out of the closet by the media a few years back. To make it even worse, her family saw the article about her preferences before she did. That's an awkward situation!

Spin magazine ended up publishing a piece about Brownstein and one of her female band members being in a relationship at one point in the past. She ended up getting a phone call from her father when he stumbled upon the article. Brownstein was pretty shocked about this, and she realized how much her family didn't know about her and her relationships. That had to be a tricky talk, and we're assuming some of her family members were pretty upset that they didn't know before the rest of the world found out!