R.E.M. front man Michael Stipe comes clean about his crystal clear gayness in this month's SPIN Magazine, telling the music rag "Now I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there."
 
It's like Stipe's closet door must keep slamming shut each time he opens it. He was willing to tell the obscure American publication Time Magazine in 2001 that he was a "queer artist" who at that point had been "in a relationship with an amazing man" for three years. Three years later, following an interview in BUTT Magazine, Stipe talked about the value of the pink dollar and the terrific sex he'd had with men (and women) with totally-not-gay-magazine Instinct.

Of course, his stalkers will tell you that he's been preaching the gospel of fluid sexuality for ages. "I've always felt that sexuality is a really slippery thing," Stipe once mused, "In this day and age, it tends to get categorized and labeled, and I think labels are for food. Canned food." Almost-out-of-the-closet-fans are fond of quoting his "I'm not homosexual, I'm not heterosexual, I'm just sexual" admission from even earlier back.

Try as the non-homo might, we suspect he'll have to come out some more before we believe that a butch fella like him could have buttsex. We'll break the news again next year.