When he was forced to come out in 1998, after being charged for lewd behavior in a Beverly Hills bathroom (charges he faced again in London nearly 10 years later), he vehemently stood by his conviction that sex — and how he chose to pursue it — is nothing but totally natural. (He even made a music video about cruising in the men’s room, and cast himself as the cop.)His reasons for staying reticent about his sexuality until that highly publicized incident, as he explained in interviews , were both because he didn’t have a relationship with a man until his late 20s, and because of the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS in the '80s and '90s, a cause for which he became a passionate advocate in his later years."I'd been out to a lot of people since 19. I wish to God it had happened then,” Michael explained in a 2007 radio interview. “I don't think I would have the same career… but I think I would have been a happier man."We may wish he’d felt welcome to come out and be true to himself sooner, the way so many young people, famous and otherwise, do today. But he paved the way and brandished a torch for legions of us who grew up feeding on his attitude, aspiring to his bluster, and subscribing to the all-inclusive sexual fantasy he created with his music. He was there for us before many of us knew we needed him, and for that we’re forever grateful.