At 25 years old, Rufus Wainwright was a promising new star at the beginning of his career when he appeared on 1998's Out100 list. He had just released his self-titled debut album earlier that year, earning him a GLAAD Media Award and a declaration from Rolling Stone that he was that year's Best New Artist.
His profile in Out aptly described him as a "professional doomed hero," noting the "terminal hunger for the spectacle of heartache" that came across in his music — something he would continue to be known for in the years that followed.
The portrait painted there of a carefree young gay man alternating between anecdotes about partying with drag queens and flippantly saying he doesn't "like gay people and a lot of gay stuff, 'cause they don't dress well" almost feels more authentic to times more recent than 1998. At the very least, it clashes with the backdrop of what was happening in the United States at the time.
That was a dark year in LGBTQ+ history. Progress was being made in the treatment of AIDS, although mortality rates within the Black community were still particularly high. Texas sodomy laws were called into play after two men were arrested for having sex in a private home. This would eventually lead to the landmark Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court case that overturned all such laws — but that wouldn't happen for another five years.
1998 was also the year Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in Wyoming, setting the stage for years of political battles to enact hate crime laws across the country. A month later, the murder of Rita Hester ultimately inspired Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Amidst all of this, there were small wins — Tammy Baldwin became the first out gay candidate elected to Congress, Will & Grace premiered, becoming the first U.S. primetime comedy featuring a gay lead from the very beginning, and The Trevor Project was founded in West Hollywood, California.
Wainwright's candidness about his sexuality in that bleak time period was refreshing, although even he admits it may have hurt his career in the long run. Not that it seems to bother him.
"I think I've taken a hit on many occasions. I think my career could have been a lot bigger. I think I would have, you know, had much more opportunity on sort of, in the mainstream, on MTV," Wainwright said in 2010. But, he admitted, "what I gave up for in sort of mass appeal, I made up in longevity."
That self-titled debut album would become the first of 11 studio albums Wainwright has released as of 2024, with no indication he'll be stopping anytime soon. He's also written two operas, been nominated for three Grammys, and married his partner, Jörn Weisbrodt in 2012 — four years after admitting he wasn't "a huge gay-marriage supporter."
"I wasn't a huge gay marriage supporter before I met Jörn because I love the whole old-school promiscuous Oscar Wilde freak show of what 'being gay' once was," he said in 2010. "But since meeting Jörn that all changed."
Despite the time it took him to come around on fighting for same-sex marriage, Wainwright has shed the disaffected attitude Out highlighted back in 1998 and been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights over the years. And he's continued to forge a career of his own making along the way.
