When CNN newsman Anderson Cooper acknowledged recently that he is gay, his coming out caused few ripples. That is quite a contrast to 15 years ago when Ellen Degeneres suffered career setbacks for coming out as a lesbian. What has changed in the past decade and a half? Degeneres made waves by announcing she was a lesbian. These days, when hip-hop star Frank Ocean and “Glee’s” Jane Lynch came out of the closet, they caused little controversy. Entertainment Weekly examines what has changed in the past 15 years. The changes involve attitudes of the celebrities involved and the millions of fans who followed them.
