Can we get a ‘love is love’ up in here?
This year, various celebrities, politicians, and influencers lived their truths by coming out as part of the LGBTQ community.
Here, we round up everyone who has proudly and publicly joined our community to inspire a whole new generation of LGBTQ youth.
Abbi Jacobson
“I kind of go both ways; I date men and women. They have to be funny, doing something they love.”
Read the full story here.
Abrahm DeVine
“I’m a gay athlete. There aren’t too many of us, so when I came out to my college team, that was a really tough time for me.”
Read the full story here.
Alyson Stoner
“I, Alyson, am attracted to men, women, and people who identify in other ways. I can love people of every gender identity and expression. It is the soul that captivates me. It is the love we can build and the goodness we can contribute to the world by supporting each other’s best journeys.”
Read the full story here.
Amandla Stenberg
“I’m grateful for how being gay has afforded me this ability to experience and understand love and sex, and therefore life, in an expansive and infinite way.”
Read the full story here.
Anna Akana
“I’m not only a woman of colour, but I’m also a queer woman.”
Read the full story here.
Andrea Russett
“You are not any less of a person because of who you may choose to love.”
Read the full story here.
Anne-Marie
“I’ve never ever just been attracted to men. I’ve never just been attracted to women. I’ve never felt the need to tell anyone that I’m bisexual. I don’t feel like I am. I just feel like I’m attracted to who I like. I honestly feel like everyone is like that.”
Read the full story here.
Brendon Urie
“I just like good people, if your heart’s in the right place. I’m definitely attracted to men. It’s just people that I am attracted to. I guess this is me coming out as pansexual.”
Read the full story here.
Brigette Lundy-Paine
“I feel grateful to be part of such an expanding queer community. And there’s something about Atypical that feels part of that.”
Read the full story here.
Cecil Clarke
“I’m not going to go forward and announce my intentions about the Progressive Conservative Party leadership race having people think that they are going to shame me, or hold something over me, or make it negative that, in this day and age, that being gay is somehow a bad thing.”
Read the full story here.
Collin Martin
“I have played Major League Soccer for 6 seasons: 4 seasons with DC United and 2 seasons with Minnesota United. Today, I’m proud that my entire team and the management of Minnesota United know that I am gay.”
Read the full story here.
Cory Michael Smith
“This story, a story about AIDS and stripping away politics, stripping away activism, stripping away the medical drama of it, what you’re left with is something so personal about family and connecting with family and keeping secrets with family. It just overwhelmed me.”
Read the full story here.
Daya
“I’m proud to be a bisexual member of the LGBTQ community.”
Read the full story here.
Donna Missal
“Being with a man doesn’t make me less bi read: it’s not a phase.”
Read the full story here.
Felix Jaehn
“Now I dream of finding the person I want to share my life with, man or woman.”
Read the full story here.
Garrett Clayton
“I have personally dealt with suicide within my own family, intense bullying in high school, and – on top of it all – myself and the man I’ve been in a relationship with for a long time (@hrhblakeknight) have both experienced shootings within our hometown school systems.”
Read the full story here.
Hurley Haywood
“The racing community has been extremely supportive. I’ve never not gotten a ride because I was gay.”
Read the full story here.
Indy Yelich-O’Connor
“Plot twist (I like boys and girls).”
Read the full story here.
Jake Atlas
“Last, I am proud to fulfill my promise of coming out publicly about my sexuality to be a voice for those that struggle with this issue like I have for many, many years; to be a voice that reminds everyone in the same shoes that there is nothing you cannot achieve. I made history. And I plan to make more. This is only the beginning of many “firsts” left to come in my career. Thank you.”
Read the full story here.
Jake Borelli
“This is exactly the kind of story I craved as a young gay kid growing up in Ohio, and it blows my mind that I’m able to bring life to Dr. Levi Schmitt as he begins to grapple with his own sexuality this season on Grey’s Anatomy.”
Read the full story here.
Jake Choi
“When I shot the movie I identified as straight – that’s how I was conditioned. Now, I identify as fluid.”
Read the full story here.
Janelle Monáe
“Being a queer black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker. I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too’. I’m open to learning more about who I am.”
Read the full story here.
Joey Pollari
“I think all my friends and family knew on some level. I think maybe two people were shocked. The only part that was difficult was me coming out to myself. And I think that is the most difficult coming out.”
Read the full story here.
Josie Totah
“I knew that this was what I had to do. I looked over at [my mother] in the middle of the show and said, ‘This is me. I’m transgender. And I need to go through this.’”
Read the full story here.
Karina Manta
“I’ve spent the past year as two different people, bags under each of their eyes for different reasons. Neither side of the pillow feels safe. I grow more exhausted every day.”
Read the full story here.
Kehlani
“not bi, not straight. i’m attracted to women, men, REALLY attracted to queer men, non binary people, intersex people, trans people. lil poly pansexual papi hello good morning. does that answer your questions?”
Read the full story here.
Kevin Laroy / Babyface Killa
“Where you like it or not, I’m going to be me. The fact of the matter is… I am a gay black male.”
Read the full story here.
Kevin McHale
“#NoTearsLeftToCry is gayer than me and I ACCEPT. Ty @ArianaGrande.”
Read the full story here.
Lee Pace
“As a member of the queer community, I understand the importance of living openly, being counted, and happily owning who I am. That’s how I’ve always lived my life just as it’s been important to me to portray queer characters with dignity for my entire career.”
Read the full story here.
Lizzie Marvelly
“Over the last few years, I’ve slowly been going through the process of coming out. First, I came out to my friends, then to my family, then to my colleagues, and now I’m coming out to you. I know it’s 2018 and it shouldn’t be a big deal, but honestly, it hasn’t been easy. I didn’t know I was bi until my early 20s.”
Read the full story here.
Lucas Hedges
“I recognise myself as existing on that spectrum: Not totally straight, but also not gay and not necessarily bisexual.”
Read the full story here.
Luis Sandoval
“Ladies and gentlemen, I, Luis Sandoval, I am gay, I am happy, I am a full person, respected, I think respectable, and I do not live in the closet, my family knows, my friends know, and I have a partner with whom I am happy.”
Read the full story here.
Max Bemis
“I have always been bi-ish or queer or a straight guy who can also like boys. I always talked or joked about it with my friends and found it to be blatantly clear I was.”
Read the full story here.
Mel Reid
“You have one life, so be the best version of yourself and be proud of who you are.”
Read the full story here.
Michael C. Hall
“I think there’s a spectrum. I am on it. I’m heterosexual. But if there was a percentage, I would say I was not all the way heterosexual.”
Read the full story here.
Mounir Mahjoubi
“We are in 2018, I live my life, even public, in a quiet way. But if, on that day, I could pass the message by reinforcing it by my personal experience, I think it had to be done.”
Read the full story here.
Nico Tortorella
“This isn’t actually anything I’ve talked about on a public level quite yet, but I just pretty recently have come to terms with the fact that maybe I’m not fully cisgender.”
Read the full story here.
Nir Rotenburg
“Before I came out I was trying to succeed for me personally. Today it’s more because I want to represent my country and represent my community.”
Read the full story here.
Okkar Min Maung
“I am who I am, I love who I love. I won’t give up.”
Read the full story here.
Paris Jackson
“I’ve been apart of the community for years. I even mentioned having crushes on girls when I was 8 in a magazine before. I’ve been caught kissing girls in public.”
Read the full story here.
Reece King
“I realised that whatever I said, it became a distraction. Anything I did or posted online, people would just ask about who I’m interested in, so I just built up this defence of saying ‘that’s not important’ But I guess it’s stuck with me because it really isn’t important, so now I just say ‘yeah, I am bisexual’.”
Read the full story here.
Rita Ora
“Girls was written to represent my truth and is an accurate account of a very real and honest experience in my life. I have had romantic relationships with women and men throughout my life and this is my personal journey.”
Read the full story here.
Rina Sawayama
“I’ve always written songs about girls. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned a guy in my songs, and that’s why I wanted to talk about it.”
Read the full story here.
Robert Páez
“I understood that this was and would be my truth forever, and my own self-acceptance was only in my hands. It was up to me whether I lived in happiness, or sank and lived in a lie that never would be. I believe that I was born gay. As I got older I became more aware of it, and as I grew – like with so many others – it became my great dilemma.”
Read the full story here.
Ronan Farrow
“Being a part of the LGBT community … which recognised that reporting I was doing early on and elevated it, and has been such a stalwart source of support through the sexual assault reporting I did involving survivors who felt equally invisible … that has been an incredible source of strength for me.”
Read the full story here.
R. O. Kwon
“Hi, all, I’m bisexual.”
Read the full story here.
Shevrin Jones
“Mark my words: Now that I’m living my truth, if I am never elected again, I’m OK with that.”
Read the full story here.
Tessa Thompson
“I’m attracted to men and also to women. If I bring a woman home, [or] a man, we don’t even have to have the discussion.”
Read the full story here.
Tadd Fujikawa
“So…I’m gay. Many of you may have already known that.”
Read the full story here.
Todd Harrity
“I am gay, and I’m ready to live my life as an openly gay man. I have decided to come out because I am convinced that having everyone know this about me is the only way I can truly be content.”
Read the full story here.
Tommy Ahlers
“I thought I was exclusively into men. But then the opposite sex pulled in me again, just as it did when I met my children’s mother.”
Read the full story here.
Zack Leader
“For about six months now, this is how I wanted to start the new year. A fresh start. No more hiding, no more lies. To some of you this won’t be news, but to a lot of you, I imagine it won’t have even crossed your mind. Some of you may have thought about it I imagine. What I’m trying to do is come out and say I’m gay.”
Read the full story here.
Zander Hodgson
“This is something that I thought was important to do for my own growth, for myself, to be unashamed, to connect to others, to connect to you more. I wanted to tell everyone that I am gay, and although that doesn’t change anything for me, and hopefully not for you, I just thought it was a really important thing to share with everyone.”
Read the full story here.
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