For some famous, secure people, official confirmation of their sexual orientation isn't just a matter of honesty: It's a highly valuable commodity.

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Anderson Cooper has evaded questions about his sexual orientation for years. He may clarify the question soon, though: Rumors swirled recently that the CNN reporter and daytime show host will come out on Anderson in February—and lend his fledgling talk show a ratings boost. While it might seem slightly crass, it's not particularly surprising. Coming out remains a fraught process for many Americans—particularly for young people who still rely on their parents for emotional and financial support—but for some famous, secure people, official confirmation of their sexual orientation isn't just a matter of honesty: It's a highly valuable commodity.

The coming-out process has become yet another celebrity experience to be packaged up for consumption, along with weddings, divorces, weight loss, and first baby pictures. Famous people ranging from Neil Patrick Harris to country singer Chely Wright to boybander Lance Bass have announced their sexual orientations in splashy features in People magazine. Harris is perhaps the only one of those three whose career was sufficiently hot to have landed himself that cover for any other reason. Former American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken pulled a twofer in 2008 when he both came out and introduced the world to his infant son on the cover of People. Even straight guys can get in on the act. This July, former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin landed the cover of Out magazine with an exclusive interview about his gay brother, who died in 2009, and his subsequent work encouraging sports to become more gay-friendly.

It wasn't always this way, of course. Just as the treatment of gay people has evolved in the United States, it's the coming out process itself has changed. It was only a few decades ago that celebrities started to feel comfortable discussing their sexuality publicly. Despite the fact that there are still no out, active athletes in American professional team sports today, athletes actually beat Hollywood in beginning the public coming-out process. Former NFL running back David Kopay came out in an interview with the Washington Star in 1975, and tennis star Martina Navratilova followed six years later after she'd finished the process of becoming an American citizen. But those revelations carried greater personal and professional risk in a time before gay sex had been decriminalized, and as the rise of AIDS stoked anti-gay panics.