A Question of Courage

I may not be the most well-versed person in sports and popular culture, so I pose the following semi-rhetorical questions:

Is there anybody in the public eye who in the past decade or so has come out as a homosexual, who hasn't been rewarded by at least an increase in celebrity status?

Is this what passes for courage these days? Are their some who are more deserving of recognition?

Except for perhaps a potential decrease in bogus paternity lawsuits, by such an admission, what does a millionaire, mediocre professional athlete have to lose?