James Randi: Why I Came Out At 81

James Randi talks about his late-in-life 'coming out' experience:



text:

"The point that I came out so late in my life is only due to the fact that I never got around to it. All my friends and family have always known. All of my office people and such have always known about this. And I’ve never made any refusal to discuss it, and if anyone has every asked, I said quite frankly, “Yes, that’s the situation.” And for 25 years now, I’ve had a faithful companion and we get along just fine. We’re very attached to one another, I’m very happy in that relationship and it doesn’t enter into my work at all though."

Maybe his sexuality doesn't have anything to do with his work, but his willingness to talk about it publicly—even this late in the game—is an inspiration to everyone who would hope to see benign orientations of all kinds (not just sexual) publicly accepted.

Good for James Randi. Honestly, whenever I've read his work or watched him perform, his sexual orientation--or the thought that he might even have one--has never occurred to me; Randi has always been more of an asexual Merlin/Gandalf type character in my mind (maybe the long beard is a more stigmatizing feature than sexuality).

At any rate, Mr. Randi is to be admired and emulated. We all probably need to 'come out' as one thing or the other. Owning up to whatever you are...atheist...gay...sci-fi fanatic...embroidery nut...whatever, is always a good thing, and will always encourage more closet cases of every stripe to do the same.

Here's to a world where people are comfortable being who they are.