Longtime Christian singer Ray Boltz, best known for his award-winning song “Thank You,” announced for the first time publicly this week that he is gay. Although family and friends had kept his homosexuality a secret since Dec. 26, 2004, the singer, who retired from the Christian music industry in 2004, told gay magazine The Washington Blade, “I’d denied it ever since I was a kid. … I had won awards, performed in front of thousands of people and sold millions of records. Still, I believed that if people knew who I really was, I would never be accepted. During the last few years I’ve learned that there are many people who feel the same way I did.” [washingtonblade.com, 9/12/08]