Stephen Gately Dies

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Stephen Gately, founder member and co-lead singer of Boyzone, has died in Majorca at the age of just 33. While reports have begun to surface of an eight-hour drinking binge, relatives insist his death was a "tragic accident" and that no foul play was involved.

His remaining band-mates Shane Lynch, Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, and Mikey Graham have since flown to the Spanish island to console his grieving husband Andy and to accompany the body back home to Ireland.

More than for his musical legacy, Gately will be remembered for the dignified way in which he handled the threat of being outed. On hearing that a former member of Boyzone's security was planning to reveal his sexuality to a newspaper, Gately beat him to it by selling his story to The Sun.

This, along with George Michael's outing the previous year, overturned years of outdated thinking that being openly gay was career suicide for a male pop star.

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