Country music star Ty Herndon announced he is "an out, proud, and happy gay man" in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that aired Nov. 20, according to Advocate.com.
The singer's career includes 17 Billboard hits over a span of nearly two decades. ("What Mattered Most," "Living in a Moment" and "It Must Be Love" are his three number-one hits, and released the album Lies I Told Myself in 2013.) Herndon revealed he stayed closeted because he feared public knowledge of his sexuality would have a negative impact on his career.
"Traditionally in country music, we don't see a lot of support for the LGBT community, but that's changing so much," he told Entertainment Tonight. "Nashville is changing so much. I mean, my goodness … Kacey Musgraves won Song of the Year for [the lyrics] 'follow your arrow, wherever it points,' and two amazing songwriters that happened to be gay wrote that song."
Rumors about Herndon's sexuality first surfaced in 1995, when an undercover male police officer alleged the star exposed himself in a park.
Herndon also revealed he has been in "an awesome relationship" with a man "for a good number of years," saying, "[I] love him very much and he loves me."
Interestingly, Herndon's announcement that he is gay has prompted a second country singer—Billy Gilman—to come out on the same day, USA Today reported.
In a five-and-a-half minute video posted to YouTube, Gilman said, " It's difficult for me to make this video, not because I'm ashamed of being a gay male artist, or a gay artist, or a gay person. But it's pretty silly to know that I'm ashamed of doing this knowing that … because I'm in a genre, in an industry that is ashamed of me for being me."
In 2000, Gilman became the youngest singer ever to have a Top 40 hit on Billboard's country singles chart, being just 12 years old when his debut single, "One Voice," hit number 20. Gilman, now 26, premiered a single, "Say You Will" in July, but says he received no interest in his new music from major record labels when he shopped it in Nashville.
