After weeks of speculation, and after having been spotted vacationing in Provincetown with 32-year old Reichen Lehmkuhl, 27-year old Mississippi-native Lance Bass officially announced today he is gay in an interview with People Magazine.

Said Bass to People, "The thing is, I'm not ashamed--that's the one thing I want to say. I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been my whole life. I'm just happy."

Bass is best known as one of the members of 90's boy-band ‘N Sync. Indeed, it was concern for his band-mates and the band's future that weighed most heavily on Bass as he weighed his decision to come out.

"I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said [that I was gay], it would overpower everything. I didn't know: Could that be the end of ‘N Sync? So I had that weight on me of like, 'Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it's bad.' So I just never did."

There is no word on how long Bass and Lehmkuhl have been a couple, but Bass describes their relationship as “very stable”.

Staying in the closet grew increasingly difficult for Bass as bloggers reported frequent sightings of Lance with reality television star Reichen Lehmkuhl (The Amazing Race). The openly gay Lehmkuhl was partnered with Chip Arndt when they won The Amazing Race 4. Their relationship ended shortly thereafter.

Rumors of an intimate relationship between the two men heated up further when Bass and Lehmkuhl were spotted wearing each others clothes--each wearing what many believed were the same pair of jeans but on different days. Other sightings followed, inciting even more speculation.

That speculation from the bloggers eventually led the mainstream media to start reporting on the story. The New York Post's Page Six was one of the first, reporting Bass had been seen at a gay bar over the Fourth of July weekend. ABC News then published a story that didn't out Bass directly, but questioned how much privacy Bass could expect when visiting a gay bar with a well-known gay celebrity.