Stars and Their Gay Brothers!

Oh, brother! Or — more specifically — gay brother.

More and more celebrities are speaking openly about their gay siblings. Fantastic Four flamer Chris Evans was merely the latest, setting the blogosphere on fire earlier this month when he revealed in the latest issue of The Advocate that his look-alike brother, Scott, is gay. “They’re the funniest people I know,” Chris said of his bro and his gay friends.

But why wouldn’t lots of celebrities have gay brothers? If we’re “everywhere,” wouldn’t that include being part of a family with a famous member?

Not surprisingly, many of these same celebrities are also speaking out in favor of GLBT rights, pointing to their family members as examples of the real people involved in gay-related political debates. Many celebrities cite specific lessons they’ve learned from their queer brothers, about gay matters and other things.

Who exactly is this gay wind rising under the wings of their famous siblings? Let’s find out, shall we?

Scott Evans (Brother of Chris Evans)

Chris’ gay brother Scott is also an actor, with a reoccurring role on One Life to Live and a recent guest spot on Fringe. “He’s a very fit young man,” Chris told The Advocate. “Believe me, he does quite well for himself.”

Scott Evans (left) and Chris Evans

Scott came out to Chris while in his first year at NYU. “I was driving him back to New York City for school,” Chris says. “We spent the whole day together, got to the city, had some beers in my hotel room, got into a really great talk, and he came out. I was so glad that he did. That’s got to be a difficult transition, but I come from the most liberal household you have ever heard of … I think my mother was praying for [both of] us to be gay, so at least she got one of us.”

Scott's guest appearance on Fringe episode 106

Don Smith (Brother of Kevin Smith)

Gay and bisexual viewers have always appreciated the queer sensibility in such Kevin Smith films as Chasing Amy (1997) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008). But then the Clerks (1994) director executive produced the unlikely documentary Small Town Gay Bar (2006) and appeared on the cover of Bear magazine, proud to accept the appreciation of bears and bear-lovers everywhere. So perhaps it’s no surprise to learn that Smith has a gay brother, Don.

“He's married to a dude and that's as gay as it possibly gets,” Kevin said at a 2006 Q&A at WonderCon. And then in typical Smith fashion, he added, “I'm in the gay family. I'm one c*ck and a mouth shy of being gay myself.”

Kevin Smith

Christopher Ciccone (Brother of Madonna)

They seemed so close! Madonna’s gay brother Christopher, one of her five siblings, didn’t just decorate her homes and her concert stages; he also acted as her back-up dancer, assistant, and personal stylist. He’s prominently featured in the 1991 documentary Truth or Dare.

These days? Not so close, not since Christopher published last year’s negative tell-all, Life With My Sister Madonna. Christopher claimed that he and his sis are estranged because of then-hubby Guy Ritchie’s “homophobic” views and wrote a book — about her — to "define myself and separate from my sister at last." But frankly, the very existence of this book makes the explanation from the Madonna camp sound far more plausible: that Christopher is a drug-addicted leech who his famous sis finally decided to stop supporting.

Eamon Farrell (Brother of Colin Farrell)

Eamon and Colin Farrell

When Colin Farrell’s big brother Eamon married his boyfriend Steven, it was only natural that Colin act as the best man. After all, Colin and Eamon are very close, even buying houses together in Sandymount, South Dublin. Colin reportedly also helped Eamon buy a diamond and sapphire engagement ring and paid for the wedding, which took place in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The Farrell brothers with mother, Rita

Eamon, a dance instructor, founded Dublin’s National Performing Arts School back in the 90s.

Daniel O’Donnell (Brother of Rosie O’Donnell)

Rosie O’Donnell’s brother Daniel is a member of the New York State Assembly, representing New York City’s Upper West Side since 2002. Daniel, a Democrat who lives with his partner John Banta, has helped lead the fight for same-sex marriage in New York State.

In 1997, Daniel introduced Rosie to her future wife, Kelli Carpenter-O’Donnell. Recently, he was interviewed by New York governor David Patterson as a possible replacement for Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.

Michael Hathaway (brother of Anne Hathaway)

While promoting her latest movie, Bride Wars, Hathaway told Modern Bride her favorite “wedding” moment: when her older brother Michael married his partner Josh.

"At one point, he and his husband were standing up there, and my mom got up to sing," Hathaway said. "She was just beaming straight love into them, and everyone felt it, and it was just this really beautiful moment. When Mike and Josh booked the place, it was before daylight savings time, and the sun was pretty high up in the sky. Now it was at eye level, and it was blinding! Burn-your-retina bright!”

Michael, who works as Anne’s assistant, made headlines last year when he reportedly made a failed attempt to retrieve some nude photos of the Brokeback Mountain star from the storage locker of her shady financier ex, Raffaello Follieri; the FBI, investigating Follieri for fraud, supposedly beat Michael to the locker by a single day.

Anne Hathaway speech on receiving HRC Award

Marc Matlin (Brother of Marlee Matlin)

When Marlee Matlin took the role of a lesbian on The L Word, she was already very familiar with what it meant to be gay thanks to her brother, Marc. “Nothing surprised me about the issues in the script,” she told Curve magazine. “I know how it feels to be thought of as 'different' as a deaf person, and I also know my brother's experience. No one should tell us who we should be with or shouldn't be with.”

Marc lives in suburban Chicago with his partner Jay.

Marlee Matlin

Curtis Ingraham (Brother of Laura Ingraham)

Many people are surprised to learn that noxious radio talk show host (and regular O’Reilly Factor guest host) Laura Ingraham has a gay brother, Curtis, with whom she is reportedly close. Jeffrey Hart, a faculty advisor who knew Ingraham at Dartmouth, once wrote that back then she held "the most extreme anti-homosexual views imaginable." But after witnessing her brother’s partner’s struggle with HIV, Ingraham wrote about a change of heart in a 1996 essay in the Washington Post.

Laura Ingraham

"In the ten years since I learned my brother Curtis was gay, my views and rhetoric about homosexuality have been tempered, because I have seen him and his companion, Richard, lead their lives with dignity, fidelity and courage," she wrote. Curtis’ struggles to be with his partner in the hospital — he was allowed access only after claiming to be his “caretaker” — even made Ingraham consider the importance of same-sex marriage. "Knowing what they had been through together made it sound antiseptic, almost an insult," Ingraham wrote.

Curtis Ingraham with late lover Ricky Smith

That said, Ingraham’s change of heart doesn’t mean she objects to or challenges most of the incredibly offensive anti-gay rhetoric said by callers to her radio show, nor does it means she’s developed any degree of sympathy for other sexual minorities; GLAAD named her as one of the top Anti-Gay Voices of 2008, in part for her anti-transgender rhetoric.

Like George Will and Charles Krauthammer on disabled issues, and like the Cheney family on gay issues, Ingraham seems to be yet another conservative who develops some small measure of understanding for an issue with which she has had personal experience, while remaining just as ignorant and judgmental in every other area of her life.

David Jones (Brother of Catherine Zeta Jones)

Zeta-Jones’ gay brother David (who also goes by Cameron) is an executive at the Initial Entertainment Group, which has produced a number of Martin Scorsese films. Together, David and Catherine planned to start producing films in Wales, where they were raised. The first film, Coming Out, about a gay cabaret singer who is suddenly expected to lead a rugby team to victory, was to star Alan Cumming and Zeta-Jones, and was all set to film in 2005, though financial problems have since delayed it, apparently indefinitely.

Chris Arnold (Brother of Tom Arnold)

"The only person who's now against gay weddings is my gay brother,” Tom Arnold told the World News Entertainment Network last year. “He said, 'Great. Now I'm going to be alone and broke like you.'”

Tom Arnold

Arnold claims he has always been comfortable around gay people — in part because he always knew that Chris, one of his six siblings, was gay. Arnold told ContactMusic.com, “We lived in Iowa and then I moved out to Los Angeles and kept talking to him, I said, 'Chris just tell me. It's cool because I have a lot of gay friends.' He wouldn't come out with it, and then one time he came to a set with a guy and they had shorts on and the guy put his hand on my brother's leg and he didn't take it off. I remember my heart sank even though I said, 'I'm hip, and I'm cool.' It sank because I was scared that immediately people were going to be mean to him back in our small town and his life was going to be harder.”