Merv Griffin passes, takes waiting period for outing the dead with him

Michelangelo Signorile has a lot to say about the recent death of television mogul Merv Griffin and the way that his life (and apparent hidden homosexuality) is being discussed in legitimate outlets like The New York Times.

Griffin began his career as a big-band singer (his big hit was "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts"), but made his mark as a talk-show host and television producer, having created long-lasting game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Although personally, I best remember Griffin as "the guy who killed Kathleen Turner with Windex in The Man With Two Brains."

Pretty impressive list of accomplishments, to be sure (especially that last bit). But Signorile's piece focuses on Griffin's oft-rumored hidden gay life, which through the years was the subject of much speculation and several lawsuits. The posthumous outing of deceased gay celebrities is nothing new. In fact, it's an old standby in the biography industry, with noted gay and bisexual celebrities of old being outed in tell-all biopics left and right, years or decades after their deaths. But for an apparently closeted man to be outed in what is essentially his obituary piece compresses any seeming period of respect for the dead and their living wishes to the blink of an eye.

This man obviously had no intention of living as an out gay person. And, as Signorile suggests, his decision to fill a position of such power in the entertainment industry may have caused harm to other gay men (starting with his close relationship to the Reagans and going downhill from there). Does this trump his wishes to live a private life, or has the "glass closet" expanded to the "glass coffin" for closeted celebs everywhere, regardless of the power they wielded in life?