People who have publically denied being gay (this list includes both heterosexuals and homosexuals):
- Carrot Top (NY Post, 23 Oct 2003, after claims that he had "turned heads" at a popular gay bar with his muscle shirt and "incredibly ripped arms")
- Tom Cruise (Vanity Fair 1994)
- Troy Donahue (People magazine, 1984)
- Jason Donovan, Australian actor and entertainer, successfully sued in England.
- Matt Drudge - in a call-in show on C-SPAN September 1999
- Edward, Prince of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (comments after being linked in tabloid press to a popular actor)
- Boy George (London newspaper, 1984: "I'm not gay, and I'm not a transvestite.") (at other times he has characterized himself as "bisexual", "very confused", "not confused", and "not really all that keen on sex". He has also stated "I have never penetrated a woman in my life."
- Rock Hudson (repeatedly. His spokeswoman, announcing his impending death from AIDS, said Hudson had "no idea how he contracted it.")
- Michael Jackson (singer) (national press conference 1984, which also denied cheekbone surgery and cosmetic eye surgery)
- Magic Johnson (press conference following announcement he was HIV positive)
- Sandy Koufax - Dodger's baseball player
- Lennox Lewis -world champion boxer - 10 July 2000 - London's Daily Telegraph
- Liberace (in sworn testimony in lawsuit vs the London Daily Mirror in 1959)
- Walter Mercado Astrologist, several times
- Pope Paul VI (public speech following allegations made by Tempo magazine, 1976)
- Mike Piazza - New York Met's baseball player 22 May 2002
- Keanu Reeves (Interview magazine (adding "but, ya never know"))
- John Travolta (denying the National Enquirer allegation in 1990 that he had had sex with former Colt model Paul Barresi)
- Randy Travis (denying a 1991 supermarket tabloid report: "It could have been worse. They could've said I wasn't country.")
- Michael Turnbull, Bishop of Durham, September 27, 1994, after the News of the World newspaper reported that Turnbull had been convicted in 1968 of an act of gross indecency with a male farmer in a public lavatory. He was chaplain to the Archbishop of York at the time of the offence.
- Oprah Winfrey, after a Liz Smith blind gossip Item claimed a "large" black television star was "in the closet"
- Sesame Street, a popular children's television show, issued a press release denying that two puppets, Bert and Ernie, who appear as roommates on the show, were gay.
- SpongeBob SquarePants - creator Stephen Hillenburg, says, in the Wall Street Journal: "Not gay!"
- Popeye - the makers of MinuteMaid orange juice, 9 January 2002, denying allegations that their commercial depicted Popeye and Bluto as a gay couple
- Teletubbies Tinky character - February, 1999 article in the National Liberty Journal, published by Jerry Falwell, warned parents that Tinky could be a hidden gay symbol, saying "he is purple -- the gay pride color, and his antenna is shaped like a triangle -- the gay pride symbol."
