In today’s pop culture landscape, we have inspiring LGBTQ celebrities who are coming out at younger and younger ages — like YouTube sensation JoJo Siwa who came out as gay in 2021 at age 17, or Zaya Wade, the transgender daughter of Siohvaughn Funches and Dwyane Wade, who came out to her parents at age 12 but (according to dad) has known her gender identity since she was 3 years old. Our current climate has by no means eradicated the homophobia that just a few decades back was as commonplace to sit-com TV as a laugh track, but the progress is undeniable, as we remember the generations of LGBTQ stars who hid their true identity for fear of being blacklisted from the business, jeered in the press, or alienated from their loved ones.
Celebrities like Colton Underwood or Caitlyn Jenner who came out later in life, undergoing some time in the public eye perceived to be heterosexual or cisgender, unilaterally tend to express relief at living more honestly, even as they now grapple with the stigma they’d always feared, as well as the very real discrimination they know they will face from certain individuals and communities. In 2018, Sir Ian McKellen, who came out at 48 years old, tweeted in honor of his three-year anniversary of living as an openly gay man.
“I’ve never met a gay person who regretted coming out — including myself,” he wrote. “Life at last begins to make sense, when you are open and honest.” We commend all these stars’ bravery in trusting the public with who they are and paving the way for others to do the same, whether it’s at 15, 30, 45, or 75 — it’s never too late to start living your truth.
A version of this article was originally published in June 2021.
-
Mo’Nique
During her new Netflix special My Name Is Mo’Nique, Mo’Nique seemingly came out. She detailed how she pushed down her feelings for women due to her religious family, until one day she came out to her father. She recalled: “‘Daddy, I want to be with another woman, sexually,'” the comedian said she told him. “And he looked at me, so beautifully and so patient and so loving, and said, ‘Bitch, me too!'”
-
Alison Brie
While reading Celebrity Thirst Tweets with Buzzfeed, alongside her husband Dave Franco for their new film Somebody I Used To Know, Alison Brie revealed she’s bisexual.
Brie read a tweet saying, “Listen, I am bisexual for a reason, and that reason is strictly to be used in a threesome by Dave Franco and Alison Brie.” To which she then said: “That’s also why I’m bisexual.”
-
Jena Malone
On Aug 20, Jena Malone posted on Instagram that she identifies as pansexual, saying, “I guess It felt like I was a heterosexual man in a woman’s body. I visualized his desires and placed them on to me. But this , was never the whole of the story that was meant for me. So I’ve been learning a new way to tell it. Using words to guide me not define me. That my sexual identity has more to teach and to tell me. Finding words that feel more right to explore in my telling. Pansexuality. Sapiosexuality. Polyamory.”
“I feel like I’m a little bit late to the game in being able to have less shame,” she told Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve been loving the process of learning more about myself and others through different terms that open windows, those windows then turns into doors and then I arrive at a place to find all this cool stuff out there.”
-
Rebel Wilson
On June 9, Rebel Wilson posted a headline-breaking photo of her and her new girlfriend Ramona Agruma, coming out to the public. She posted the beautiful photo to her Instagram, saying, “Verified I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess 💗🌈💗#loveislove.”
-
Chrishell Stause
In May 2022, Chrishell Stause shocked the world when she announced she was in a relationship with non-binary musician G Flip. She confirmed the relationship on the recent Selling Sunset reunion, saying “I recently have been spending a lot of time with someone that’s very important to me. Their name is G Flip. They’re non-binary, so they go by they/them. And they are an extremely talented musician.” She added that they originally met because Stause was set to be in their music video. In an archived Instagram story per The Cut, Stause uploaded a “closet update,” saying “OK, I’m going to come out of [the closet] now.” We’re obsessed with the cheeky double meaning in the video.
-
Carl Nassib
Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first openly gay active NFL player in history when he came out on Instagram in June 2021: “I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” he said in a video. “I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that like one day videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary, but until then I’m going to do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate.”
-
Colton Underwood
Colton Underwood came out as a gay man on Good Morning America two years after appearing as the lead of The Bachelor, opening up about how his religious upbringing had prevented him from accepting his own sexuality.
“I used to wake up in the morning and pray for Him to take the gay away. I used to pray for Him to change me,” he told GMA’s Robin Roberts. “I can now wake up and pray to God and I can have faith and I can go into church and be present and not have it be conditional on this topic of, ‘Take this off my plate and I’ll still worship you and I’ll still be there.’ … That’s helped, to be honest with you.”
-
Elliott Page
In December 2020, Elliott Page came out as transgender at the age of 33, writing on Twitter: “Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life.”
-
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato came out as nonbinary at age 28 after a long career first as a Disney Channel star and then as a successful musician. “I will be officially changing my pronouns to them/them. I feel this best represents the fluidity in my gender expression,” they said in a May 2021 video.
-
Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen came out as a gay man at 48 years old when he went on BBC 3 to protest the passing of a bill that prohibited local authorities from engaging in anything that could be considered a “promotion of homosexuality,” arguing: “I certainly would [like to see it repealed]. It’s offensive to anyone who is — like myself — homosexual, apart from the whole business of what can and cannot be taught to children.”
-
Caitlyn Jenner
In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner came out to the world as a transgender woman at age 65 with an intimate Vanity Fair profile and photo spread by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. “If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life,'” Jenner said at the time. “‘You never dealt with yourself,’ and I don’t want that to happen.”
-
Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes was 44 years old when she came out as a gay woman in 2008 at an LGBTQ rights rally in Las Vegas.
“I don’t really talk about my sexual orientation. I didn’t feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life,” Sykes told the crowd. “Everybody that knows me personally, they know I’m gay. But that’s the way people should be able to live their lives. We took a huge leap forward and then got dragged 12 feet back … Now, I gotta get in their face. I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay.”
-
Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin came out as a gay man at age 38 when he finally addressed years of speculation about his sexuality in a post on his website.
“I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man,” he wrote, via CNN. “I am very blessed to be who I am.”
-
Cynthia Nixon
At age 45, Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon clarified to the world via a letter to The Advocate that she identifies as bisexual after controversially commenting to the New York Times that she was “choosing” to be gay.
“While I don’t often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual,” Nixon wrote, per Huffington Post. “I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have ‘chosen’ is to be in a gay relationship.”
-
Ellen DeGeneres
In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres came out as a gay woman at the age of 39 with a one-two punch of a Time magazine cover announcing her sexuality and a special episode of TV show Ellen in which her sitcom character comes out as gay, after which DeGeneres herself confirmed her own sexuality.
“I never wanted to be ‘the lesbian actress,'” she told Time. “I never wanted to be the spokesperson for the gay community. Ever. I did it for my own truth.”
-
Braunwyn Windham-Burke
Real Housewives of Orange County star Braunwyn Windham-Burke may not have lasted long on the reality series, but her time there had a profound impact on her, as evidenced by her Instagram post coming out shortly after her second season on the series aired.
“I am a lesbian,” the reality star wrote on Instagram. “At 43 years old, I’ve finally been able to accept this part of myself and I’ve realized there are no rules about when someone should come out. This is my time.”
-
Rosie O’Donnell
At 32 years old, Rosie O’Donnell wasn’t sure whether her fans thought she was heterosexual, but she did know that her 1992 confession to Cosmopolitan that she was a lesbian had never made it to print. So, she set the record straight at Caroline’s Comedy Club in 2002, confirming her sexuality to the crowd.
‘Big whoop,” said one attendee, per the New York Times.
Leave a Comment