In a Wednesday appearance on ABC's The
View, an emotional Ricky Martin received a warm round of applause
when he said he loved gay teens.
Martin is returning to the limelight
after taking a break from his career to devote time to his twin boys,
Valentino and Matteo.
The Livin' la Vida Loca singer,
who came out gay on his website in March, is hitting the talk show
circuit to promote his memoir Me!, which is also available in
Spanish, and an upcoming studio album.
His
first stop was an appearance Tuesday on the Oprah Winfrey Show,
where he told Winfrey that
holding his sons in his arms gave him the courage to come out of the
closet.
When Whoopi Goldberg asked the singer
his thoughts on the recent spate of gay teens bullied to death,
Martin replied the issue was about self esteem.
“As parents we must be constantly
telling our children how important they are for their family and for
society,” he said.
“If you are out there and you are
struggling with your sexuality – I love you.”
“You are very important to me,” an
emotional Martin added. “You are very important to this society.
God doesn't make mistakes.” (The video is embedded in the right
panel of this page.)