11 Celebrities' Coming Out Stories
Just a few weeks ago, we were celebrating Bisexual Visibility Day, lifting up the B in LGBTQ to combat stigma and biphobia while honoring bi+ identities. Now, on National Coming Out Day, we’re highlighting what the Human Rights Campaign calls "one of our most basic tools … the power of coming out."
While many think of “coming out” as one big moment, it’s actually something LGBTQ people may do many times throughout their lifetimes, whether it’s to their loved ones, employers, new friends, or — in the case of celebrities — the public.
Here are some of our favorite celebrities and their coming out stories.
This post was originally published in 2019, and has been updated to include more celebrities
Getty Images1/11Lauren Jauregui
Right after the 2016 election, Lauren Jauregui, formerly of Fifth Harmony, wrote an incredible open letter in Billboard addressed to Trump supporters. "I am a bisexual Cuban-American woman and I am so proud of it," she wrote.
Since then, she's partnered with Halsey (who has also spoken openly about her bisexuality) on the highly lauded track "Strangers." "My art is just self-explorative,” she told Nylon last year. “I’m gonna talk about whatever it is that I’m going through, so if what I went through, I went through with a girl, you’re gonna hear about it from that perspective. If what I went through, I did with a man, you’re gonna hear it from that perspective, ‘cause I just love souls.”
Getty Images2/11Tyler Blackburn
In April, Pretty Little Liars star Tyler Blackburn publicly came out as queer in an interview with The Advocate. Blackburn said he’s identified as bisexual since his teenage years and that he experienced a lot of bullying in grade school.
"I stopped doing so many of the things that I loved doing because it felt safer,” he said. “That right there is the outcome of oppression. When you literally have to mute who you are in order to feel safe. … I just want to feel powerful in my own skin, and my own mind, and in my own heart.”
Getty Images3/11Colton Haynes
Colton Haynes, known for his roles in Teen Wolf and Arrow, publicly came out as gay in May 2016 during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. After dealing with a wave of internet speculation about his "secret gay past," Haynes told EW: "People who are so judgmental about those who are gay or different don't realize that acting 24 hours a day is the most exhausting thing in the world."
Haynes had been out to his loved ones for most of his life, but someone long the way him to keep his sexuality a secret to benefit his career, he said. "It took me so long to get to this point, but I'm doing so good," Haynes told EW. "I'm happier than I've ever been, and healthier than I've ever been, and that's what I care about."
Getty Images4/11Shannon Purser
Shannon Purser, known for her roles in Riverdale and Stranger Things, came out as bisexual during a heated Twitter fight with Riverdale fans who were upset about the kiss shared between Betty and Veronica. "I've only just recently come out as bisexual to my family and friends," she wrote in 2017. "It's something I am still processing and trying to understand."
A year later, she opened up to People about her decision, saying, "I would love for us to get to a point in society where it doesn't really matter what your sexuality is, but right now there is a lot of turmoil around that issue, a lot of controversy where there shouldn't be. … If somebody can see me and feel less alone and more understood, then that's it."
Getty Images5/11Rowan Blanchard
In January of 2016, the Girl Meets World star came out as queer on Twitter, saying that she's "open to liking any gender in the future" which is "why I identify as queer."
In an interview with Nylon a few months later, Blanchard explained, "I just don’t understand why you’re straight or gay. I don’t understand why you want me to be one of two things. What is the driving force behind binaries?"
Getty Images6/11Bella Thorne
While Bella Thorne originally came out as bisexual in 2016 via Twitter, in July of this year, she shared that she’s actually pansexual in an interview with ABC News. "I realized recently I'm actually pansexual, and I didn't know that," she said. "Somebody explained to me really thoroughly what that is, and I am pan."
When asked what being pansexual means to her, she shared, "You like beings. You like what you like. Doesn't have to be a girl or a guy … It's literally you like personality."
Getty Images7/11Keiynan Lonsdale
In May 2017, The Flash and Love, Simon star Keiynan Lonsdale came out in a since-deleted Instagram post saying: "I like girls, & I like guys (yes)." Just weeks earlier, he had come out to the Love, Simon cast and crew on set, he told The Hollywood Reporter.
"I knew exactly what it felt like to be in the closet," he told The Hollywood Reporter of playing Bram Greenfeld in gay teen romance film Love, Simon. "I knew exactly in that moment what it felt like to play straight … I'd worked on it a lot myself so that I'd never let anyone in."
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Getty Images8/11Auli’i Cravalho
Auli’i Cravalho hasn't spoken much about her coming out, but she did lip sync it. In April, Auli'i posted a video on TikTok mouthing along to an Eminem song, saying "Seriously though, jokes aside, how you doin’? You straight? She said: 'No, I’m bi.' She said: 'Are you drunk?' I said: 'No, I’m high. I’m checkin’ out the chick,' she said: 'So am I.'"
While anyone can sing a song without it saying anything about their identity, Auli'i seemingly confirmed she's bisexual when someone asked her on Twitter "do u like girls?" and she directed them to her TikTok video.
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Getty Images9/11Demi Lovato
In 2018, Demi Lovato said they're open to dating people of any gender, but the singer came out to their parents a year earlier than they told the public. In an interview with Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show "Radio Andy," Demi said telling their parents they're sexually fluid was an emotional experience.
"It was actually, like, emotional but really beautiful," Demi said, according to CNN. "After everything was done, I was, like, shaking and crying, and I just felt overwhelmed."
While it might have been a tough moment for Demi, they said their dad barely batted an eyelash.
"My dad was like, 'Yeah, obviously,'" they said.
This has been updated to reflect Demi's pronouns.
Getty Images10/11Connor Jessup
Locke & Key actor Connor Jessup came out as gay in an Instagram post in 2019.
“I knew I was gay when I was thirteen, but I hid it for years. I folded it and slipped it under the rest of my emotional clutter. Not worth the hassle. No one will care anyway,” he wrote. “If I can just keep making it smaller, smaller, smaller.... My shame took the form of a shrug, but it was shame. I’m a white, cis man from an upper-middle class liberal family. Acceptance was never a question. But still, suspended in all this privilege, I balked. It took me years.”
The post goes on to say that, while he'd been out in his private life, he no longer felt comfortable not saying it explicitly in public. In a more recent interview, Connor said his relationship with fellow actor Miles Heizer inspired his public coming out.
"When you’re happy, you want to be happy publicly, and it made me think about the whole construction of my life in a way that I had been avoiding,” Connor said of his relationship. "I probably wouldn’t have [come out] if that hadn’t happened."
Tory Rust11/11Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black said on a podcast in April that she identifies as queer.
"I made a conscious decision to not, like, 'come out,' but just to ... people started asking and I stopped not responding," she said at the time.
In an interview with Teen Vogue, Rebecca said she never had trouble accepting her own sexuality, but worried about how others would react.
“I’ve had a lot of people in my life tell me, ‘that doesn't sound like a real thing,’ and it is. For me, in my own conversation with myself, it wasn't that hard to accept that I could love a man just as much as a woman or any person, regardless of their gender,” she said. “I can look at my life and have experience of both. I don't question my own [feelings], but it is a difficult conversation at times.”
