Out and Proud in Hollywood
Adam Lambert
American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert confirmed that he was gay in a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone. “I didn’t want the Clay Aiken thing and the celebrity-magazine bulls**t,” he said of another openly gay former Idol contestant whose 2008 announcement was highly publicized. “I need to be able to explain myself in context.” On that note, “I’m proud of my sexuality,” he said. “I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres
Hollywood power couple Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres have been together since de Rossi publicly declared that she’s a lesbian in 2005. (DeGeneres famously came out on her sitcom Ellen in 1997.) The two have been married since 2008, and de Rossi has raved about her talk show host wife in interviews. Her “acceptance of me just the way I am was kind of lovely and surprising and made me rethink how I saw myself,” de Rossi once told AOL. (Photo: Getty Images)
Colton Haynes
Arrow star Colton Haynes, 27, didn’t publicly address his sexuality until January, after a fan commented on a Tumblr post about his “secret gay past.” Haynes offhandedly replied, “Was it a secret?” He sat down with Entertainment Weekly a few months later to explain further. “I should have made a comment or a statement, but I just wasn’t ready,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t feel like I owed anyone anything. I think in due time, everyone has to make those decisions when they’re ready, and I wasn’t yet. But I felt like I was letting people down by not coming forward with the rest of what I should have said.” At the time of the interview, Haynes noted, “I’m happier than I’ve ever been, and healthier than I’ve ever been, and that’s what I care about.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Jodie Foster
After decades in Hollywood and years of speculation, actress and director Jodie Foster confirmed that she’s a lesbian while accepting the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards. “I guess I have a sudden urge to say something that I’ve never been able to air in public that I’m a little nervous about,” Foster said. “But maybe not as nervous as my publicist … So I’m just going to put it out there, loud and proud. I’m going to need your support on this.” She continued jokingly, “I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age….” Later in the speech, Foster was more direct, thanking her “ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life” Cydney Bernard. (Photo: Getty Images)
Jussie Smollet
In 2015, Empire’s Jussie Smollet confirmed to Ellen DeGeneres that he’s gay, but he never considered it a coming out. “There’s never been a closet that I’ve been in,” he told her. Smollet later told Variety that, “It was a bigger deal to everyone than it was for me.” At the same time, he said, “I didn’t talk to Ellen so that people could, be like, ‘Oh my God, let’s see what Jussie does in his bedroom in his private life.’ But I did talk to her so that people understood that they’re not alone. That’s all.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Kristen Stewart
Once part of one of Hollywood’s most popular couples, “Robsten,” with Robert Pattinson, Twilight star Kristen Stewart has since been in relationships with women. Not that she’s openly discussed her bond with her former girlfriend, French singer Soko, or her on-again, off-again love and former assistant Alicia Cargile. “Google me, I’m not hiding,” Stewart told Nylon in August 2015. “I think in three or four years, there are going to be a whole lot more people who don’t think it’s necessary to figure out if you’re gay or straight. It’s like, just do your thing.” As of late, she and Cargile have been photographed holding hands. (Photo: Getty Images)
Andrew Rannells
Actor Andrew Rannells, best known for his turns on Broadway and in HBO’s Girls, casually mentioned the fact that he’s gay in a 2012 interview with Vulture, but don’t call it a coming out. When a reporter asked if his character had been selfish to date Hannah (played by Lena Dunham) when he knew he was more interested in men, Rannells got right to the point. “I am gay in real life, so I definitely get it. But it’s not my story — I wasn’t closeted for any amount of time,” said Rannells, now 37. “I never had a girlfriend who I had that experience with. It’s less that Elijah knew he was gay and continued to date Hannah anyway and more that he wasn’t ready to admit to himself that he was gay. I think that’s probably the more common thing, particularly with young homosexuals. Coming out can be super super complicated, especially when it comes to families and friends — and if you already have a girlfriend, what does that mean for her? I hope that changes over time, but coming is very personal and everybody obviously has to do it in their own time. So, no, I don’t think he did anything bad.” Any questions? (Photo: Getty Images)
Sara Gilbert
The Talk’s Sara Gilbert spoke about her sexuality at length for the first time on her show, during a week in which cast members revealed their secrets. The former Roseanne actress, 41, explained that she realized she was gay while coupled up with co-star Johnny Galecki in the '90s. “We started dating and he would come over and we would make out, and then I would start to get depressed,” Gilbert said. “Johnny felt badly, I think, and started to take it personally and didn’t understand what was going on. So I eventually told him that I thought it was about my sexuality, and he was super sweet about it.” Gilbert married music producer Linda Perry in 2014, and the two welcomed a son, Rhodes Emilio, in 2015. (Gilbert also has a son and a daughter from a previous relationship.) (Photo: Getty Images)
Sam Smith
Singer Sam Smith disclosed that his hit debut album, featuring love songs such as “Stay With Me” and “I’m Not the Only One,” was inspired by his feelings for another man. In a May 2014 interview with The Fader magazine, given just a month after his first song was released, Smith was casual when he was asked about his past loves. “I’ve never been in a relationship before,” Smith said. “I’ve only been in unrequited relationships where people haven’t loved me back. In the Lonely Hour is about a guy that I fell in love with last year, and he didn’t love me back.” Smith added that he spoke out about his muse because he wants to “make it a normality because this is a non-issue.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Ellen Page
Juno star Ellen Page announced her status as a gay woman while speaking at the Human Rights Campaign’s Time to Thrive conference to benefit LGBT youth in 2014. “I’m here today because I am gay and because maybe I can make a difference, to help others have an easier and more hopeful time,” she said. “Regardless, for me, I feel a personal obligation and a social responsibility.” She added, “I am tired of hiding and I am tired of lying by omission.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen, 77, has been out since 1988, but feels there’s still pressure for gay stars to stay in the closet. “I don’t think any gay person is going to be happy and bring joy to themselves and other people unless they can be honest about their sexuality,” the LGBT activist said at the Savannah Film Festival in November 2010. “And if other people don’t like that honesty, that’s a comment on them and not on the person who is being honest.” The British star’s push for equal rights includes co-founding the U.K.’s Stonewall lobbying group to protect the rights of people in the LGBT community. (Photo: Getty Images)
Robin Roberts
Good Morning America personality Robin Roberts has long been open about her health, but she only recently opened up about her sexuality. In December 2013, she wrote a Facebook post listing the people for which she was thankful in her recovery from a bone marrow transplant. “I am grateful for my entire family, my longtime girlfriend, Amber, and friends as we prepare to celebrate a glorious new year together,” she shared. Roberts later told Ellen DeGeneres that her lady love simply prefers not to be in the spotlight. (Photo: Getty Images)
David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris
Former How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris once played a womanizer on TV, but in real life he’s a family man — and openly gay. He and David Burtka, his husband since September 2014, are the fathers of a twin daughter and son, Harper Grace and Gideon Scott, born via surrogate in October 2010. (Photo: Getty Images)
Michelle Rodriguez
Never one to mince words, actress Michelle Rodriguez colorfully explained her love life in a 2013 interview. “I’ve gone both ways,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I do as I please. I am too f***ing curious to sit here and not try when I can. Men are intriguing. So are chicks.” Rodriguez was asked the following month by Latina magazine about why she chose then to come out and her response was just as candid. “I’m getting older,” said Rodriguez, who’s now 37. “Eventually it’s going to wrinkle up and I’m not going to be able to use it. I wanted to be honest about who I am and see what happens.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Victor Garber
Stage and screen actor Victor Garber (right) confirmed that he’s gay in 2013, after a blogger pressed him on the question at the TV Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. “I don’t really talk about it but everybody knows,” Garber reportedly said with surprise. “He’s going to be out here with me for the SAG Awards.” Garber and the same man he referenced, artist Rainer Andreeson, married in 2015. (Photo: Instagram)
Anderson Cooper
Blogger Andrew Sullivan prompted his friend Anderson Cooper to come out publicly in 2012, when he asked for a comment on a news story about gay celebrities coming out and how that had changed over the years. Cooper responded in an email that he allowed Sullivan to publish. "The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud,” he wrote, adding that he had kept his personal life private until then because of his position as a journalist. “It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something — something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid,” said Cooper, who’s been in a relationship with Benjamin Maisani since 2009. “This is distressing because it is simply not true. I’ve also been reminded recently that while as a society we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Caitlyn Jenner
It took 65 years for Caitlyn Jenner to find herself, but better late than never! The former Olympian once known as Bruce Jenner introduced herself to the world on the cover of Vanity Fair in June 2015, and explained that her decision to transition was not an easy one. “The uncomfortableness of being me never leaves all day long,“ she said in the interview. "I wish I were kind of normal. It would be so much more simple… I’m not doing this to be interesting. I’m doing this to live.” Ever since her new identity was revealed, Caitlyn’s been the unofficial poster girl for transgender rights. While she’s rubbed some in the LGBT community the wrong way — she’s a privileged, wealthy, white, right-wing Republican woman who has never encountered the same issues that most trans people do — she has made it her mission to raise awareness about how trans people have long been discriminated against. “People are dying over this issue,” she said in the first episode of her docuseries I Am Cait. “I feel a tremendous responsibility here, because I have a voice, and there are so many trans people out there who do not have a voice." (Photo: Getty Images)
Ricky Martin
Although Ricky Martin (pictured with boyfriend Jwan Yosef) kept mum about his sexuality for years, the "Livin’ La Vida Loca” hunk — who is the proud father of twin boys and the boyfriend of Jwan Yosef — finally came out in March 2010, and couldn’t be happier about his decision. “Today, I’m in touch with who I am and I have the opportunity to be in front of a camera and talk to millions of people,” he said in a January 2011 interview with Parade. “After I wrote [my memoir Me] and went on Oprah Winfrey, so many people have come to me, telling me, 'Ricky, thank you because I understand what acceptance is today.’ 'Ricky, thank you. I feel better about myself because you have a very beautiful family and the words 'dysfunctional family’ don’t exist in your life.’” (Photo: Getty Images)
Melissa Etheridge
In an interview with PopEater, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge spoke openly about gay stereotypes, including the absurdity of being called “not gay enough.” Said Etheridge, “I’ve had the gay community say, 'Why don’t you write a song saying her? Your lyrics are non-gender.’ They’re never happy. And the straight folks, they just assume the lyrics are about a woman, and they assume that if they go to a concert it’s going to be all gay people. There are stereotypes we all have. But there’s no us and them. Good God, we’re all the same.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Matt Bomer
American Horror Story’s Matt Bomer (left) surprised many when he came out publicly by thanking his husband, publicist Simon Halls, and their three children while delivering an acceptance speech at February 2012’s Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards, where he picked up a trophy for his work in the fight against AIDS. “I’d really especially like to thank my beautiful family: Simon, Kit, Walker, Henry,” he shared with the audience. “Thank you for teaching me what unconditional love is. You will always be my proudest accomplishment." (Photo: Getty Images)
Elton John
Singer/AIDS activist Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, entered into a civil partnership in 2005, after a dozen years together. Although supporters of gay marriage were disappointed when the legendary artist failed to get behind the cause at first, John later changed his mind. "As a gay man, I think I have it all,” he said in 2011 at a benefit to oppose California’s measure to ban it. “I have a wonderful career, a wonderful life. I have my health, I have a partner of 17 years and I have a son. And you know what, I don’t have everything, because I don’t have the respect of people like the church, and people like politicians who tell me that I am not worthy or that I am 'less than’ because I am gay.” The couple formally married in December 2014. They have two sons together, Zachary and Elijah, born via surrogate. (Photo: Getty Images)
Cynthia Nixon
Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon took the plunge in May 2012 when she married her longtime partner, Christine Marinoni. In addition to their now 5-year-old son Max, whom Marinoni gave birth to in February 2011, Nixon has two other children — teens Samantha and Charlie — from her 15-year relationship with ex-boyfriend Danny Mozes. Though the actress upset many in the gay community when she said that for her, being gay “is a choice,” she clarified her comments. “I believe we all have different ways we came to the gay community and we can’t and shouldn’t be pigeon-holed into one cultural narrative which can be uninclusive and disempowering,” she said. “While I don’t often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual. I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have ‘chosen’ is to be in a gay relationship,” she continued. “As I said in the Times and will say again here, I do, however, believe that most members of our community — as well as the majority of heterosexuals — cannot and do not choose the gender of the persons with whom they seek to have intimate relationships because, unlike me, they are only attracted to one sex.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Jim Parsons
The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons, 43, was a celeb who liked to keep his personal life private for a long time. But a May 2012 New York Times profile that announced he was “gay and in a 10-year relationship” with art director Todd Spiewak made it public. The following month, he was one of several celebrities featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s issue called “The New Art of Coming Out.” In it, Mark Harris wrote about how people react very differently in modern times than they once did to the news that a celebrity’s gay. “Fifteen years ago, when Ellen DeGeneres decided to come out of the closet, it was big news,” Harris writes. “Not just big: It was the cover of Time magazine, and a major story on Oprah, Primetime Live, and CNN. Last month, another star of a popular TV comedy went public with his homosexuality. But the news that The Big Bang Theory’s Emmy-winner Jim Parsons is gay was reported with such matter-of-fact understatement that many people’s first reaction was a quick Google search to see if maybe he was out already and we’d all just failed to notice.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Like his character Mitchell Pritchett on ABC’s Modern Family, Jesse Tyler Ferguson is openly gay. He just doesn’t have an adopted Asian baby girl … yet. He does, however, have a husband, actor Justin Mikita, who is 10 years his junior. The duo – who married in 2013 – made their first public appearance as a couple back in January 2011, when they hit the red carpet at Elle magazine’s Women in Television soiree holding hands. (Photo: Getty Images)
Laverne Cox
Before there was Caitlyn Jenner, there was Laverne Cox. Starring in Orange Is the New Black, Cox made history as the first openly transgender actress to receive an Emmy nomination. She was also the first transgender person on the cover of Time magazine. “I realize this is way bigger than me and about a tipping point in our nation’s history where it is no [longer] acceptable for trans lives to be stigmatized, ridiculed, criminalized and disregarded,” she said of the honor. “This is for my trans siblings out there and for anyone who has ever been told that who you know yourself to be at your core is not legitimate. You are who you know yourselves to be." (Photo: WireImage)
George Takei
After steering the Starship Enterprise for almost 40 years, Star Trek’s George Takei announced in 2005 that he was gay and had been in a relationship with a man for 18 years. Later, he told the Associated Press why he had decided to come out. "The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay,” Takei said. “The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young.” Takei and his longtime beau, Brad, finally tied the knot in 2008. (Photo: Getty Images)
Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch landed her is best known for portraying track suit-wearing, androgynous-acting villain Sue Sylvester on Glee. But the openly gay actress never had a coming out moment. “I’m an actor and when people started taking an interest in me, where they wanted to write about me, I didn’t say I wasn’t gay, so — I never had that,” she said during an interview on the Michelangelo Signorile Show on SiriusXM Progress. “And I have to give kudos to people like Melissa Etheridge and k.d lang and Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O’Donnell, all of those people who came before and at the height of their career, when they had a lot to lose, stood up and said this is who I am. And the world kind of went [gasps] … and then, nothing happened. That was really great and they kind of cleared a path for me to just stroll down.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Boy George
When asked by The Hollywood Reporter if he wishes he had been more openly gay earlier in his career, Boy George replied, “I think you do things in your own time. My family knew I was gay when I was 15, long before I got famous. But it’s a very different thing coming out to your family and coming out to the universe. That’s a big step. Maybe without me, there wouldn’t be Adam Lambert. Without Bowie, there wouldn’t be me. Without Quentin Crisp, there wouldn’t have been Bowie. So everything is part of a big daisy chain. A lot of people come up to me all the time and say thank you for helping me be who I am. So my thing wasn’t just about sexuality. It was about anyone who felt different; anyone who felt out of place. Being gay was one part of it.” (Photo: Getty Images)
RuPaul
RuPaul Charles changed the world’s perception of the drag community in the early ‘90s when his song and video “Supermodel (You Better Work)” became an international hit. In the decades since, the fabulous entrepreneur has continued to push the envelope while remaining an accessible, mainstream success. In 2009, Ru’s popularity peaked once again with the debut of his campy Logo TV show, RuPaul’s Drag Race, which just finished its eighth season. The reality competition has obviously inspired other TV programs such as Lip Sync Battle, which RuPaul is not a fan of. “ It’s a poor ripoff of our show,” he told Vulture. “Regular, straight pop culture has liberally lifted things from gay culture as long as I can remember. And that’s fine, because guess what? We have so much more where that comes from. Take it!” (Photo: Getty Images)
Rosie O'Donnell
Former TV talk show host Rosie O'Donnell has been an advocate for the adoption rights of gay parents since coming out in 2002. The 50-year-old and her ex-wife, Kelli Carpenter, have four kids (three were adopted), so it’s no surprise that in 2004 the comedian created Rosie’s Family Cruise, where gay families can vacation and feel comfortable being together. O'Donnell went on to marry Michelle Rounds in 2012, with whom she adopted baby girl Dakota. Alas,
they announced their split three years later. (Photo: Getty Images)
Lance Bass
In 2006, former N’ Sync member Lance Bass decided it was time for him to come out. “The thing is, I’m not ashamed,” he told People. “I don’t think it’s wrong, I’m not devastated going through this. I’m more liberated and happy than I’ve been my whole life. I’m just happy.” He went further in 2015, as he and artist Michael Turchin became the first same-sex couple to marry on an American television network in E!'s Lance Loves Michael: The Lance Bass Wedding Special. (Photo: Getty Images)
Jonathan Knight
Another boy bander who happens to be gay is Jonathan Knight. Although he was always the quiet and shy one in New Kids on the Block, Knight definitely spoke up in January 2011 after his ex-girlfriend, pop star Tiffany, mentioned his sexuality on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live. After a sweet Twitter exchange between the former couple, in which she apologized, Knight responded with a statement: “I have never been outed by anyone but myself! I did so almost 20 years ago. I never knew that I would have to do it all over again publicly just because I reunited with NKOTB! I have lived my life very openly and have never hidden the fact that I am gay. Apparently, the prerequisite to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption 'I am gay.’ I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected!" (Photo: Getty Images)
Wanda Sykes
Funny lady Wanda Sykes — who came out in 2008, after the passage of a ban on gay marriage in California — made a bold statement on the show Piers Morgan Tonight when she said that "it’s harder to be gay than black. I’m not talking about the history of black people, of African Americans,” she continued. “I’m talking about at this point right now … I don’t know of organizations and groups like Focus on the Family and such anti-gay organizations who are putting up so much money — millions and millions of dollars — into stopping me from, you know, being black or telling me I can’t exercise my blackness. There’s no equality. There’s no equality for the LGBT community.” The Curb Your Enthusiasm alum married Alex Niedbalski in 2008, and they welcomed twins Olivia and Lucas in 2009. (Photo: Getty Images)
Nathan Lane
Broadway actor Nathan Lane came out to his mother when he was 21. Unfortunately, she responded in a less than accepting way: “I’d rather you were dead.” Somehow, Lane, now 60, was able to keep a sense of humor about the situation. “I knew you’d understand,” he retorted. Lane married his partner of 18 years in 2015. (Photo: Getty Images)
Anne Burrell
TV chef Anne Burrell confirmed in 2012 that she had been in a relationship with a woman for two years, after her fellow Food Network star, Chopped’s Ted Allen, made a reference to her sexuality during a radio interview. Burrell promptly quieted the drama by releasing a statement, via her rep, which said, "Her significant other is a very private woman. They have been together for a couple of years and spend a lot of time together. It is no secret in the culinary world.“ The two were engaged later that year. (Photo: Getty Images)
Cat Cora
Anne Burrell isn’t the only openly gay celebrity chef in this gallery. Cat Cora, known for Iron Chef America, was with her partner, Jennifer, for 17 years and four kids, before they split in 2015. They were married in 2013. By then, news of Cora’s sexuality had already broken in the gossip world, after both she and Jennifer were pregnant at the same time. Three months after Jennifer gave birth to couple’s third son, Thatcher, Cat gave birth to their fourth little boy, Nash, in 2009. The presumably well-fed kids were all born through in vitro fertilization. (Photo: Getty Images)
Sean Hayes
Sean Hayes played the out and proud character Jack McFarland for eight years on hit TV sitcom Will & Grace. However, the actor didn’t confirm his homosexuality until 2010, when The Advocate put him on the cover of its April issue with the headline: "The interview you’ve waited 12 years to read.” In 2014, there was another announcement: Hayes had married Scott Icenogle, his boyfriend of eight years. (Photo: Getty Images)
Johnny Weir
Three-time U.S. figure skating champion Johnny Weir, 31, once told ESPN.com that “it’s of very little importance to me that I was born gay. It doesn’t make me a better athlete, it doesn’t make me a stronger person, it doesn’t really do anything to enhance my life. It’s just something I was born with, the same as green eyes. So of course it’s a bit disappointing that that’s the first and sometimes the only thing people will focus on. Even if it’s just in my head, I live in a generation where it doesn’t matter.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Zachary Quinto
Former Heroes hottie Zachary Quinto has been an ardent supporter of the LGBT community as a Trevor Project donor, one of the many celebs who participated in the 2010 viral video series “It Gets Better,” and a cast member in productions of both Angels in America and The Laramie Project. However, the actor didn’t publicly come out until the fall of 2011 — a few weeks after the tragic suicide of bullied gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer. “In light of Jamey’s death — it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it — is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality,” Quinto wrote on his blog. The actor has dated model Miles McMillan since 2013. (Photo: Getty Images)
k.d. Lang
In 1992, country singer k.d. Lang broke barriers when she came out the same year her commercial breakthrough album Ingénue hit shelves. Madonna, Cindy Crawford, and Sandra Bernhard were just a few of her famous vocal champions. She became the poster girl for lesbianism. "Oh, I had a ball. But ultimately I realized, in terms of real estate, that the top of the mountain wasn’t where I wanted to live,” she said in a candid 2011 interview. “I actually prefer the plains and the valleys.” She’s now pleased she’s no longer known for just her sexuality. “People now see me as a singer first, and a gay woman second. I knew that if I stayed the course, and patiently answered all the questions, then sooner or later it would come back to the music,” she said. “And it did." (Photo: Getty Images)
David Hyde Pierce
Frasier star David Hyde Pierce, 57, announced he was gay in 2007 after spending more than 20 years in a relationship with TV writer Brian Hargrove. "It wasn’t so much about being uncomfortable being gay, it was about being uncomfortable,” he told AOL in 2010. “Like the bully on the playground was pushing your face in the dirt saying, 'Say it, say it, say it.’” Pierce and Hargrove tied the knot in 2008. (Photo: Getty Images)
George Michael
Pop singer George Michael confirmed he was gay to CNN the same week he was arrested for a “lewd act” in the restroom of a park in Beverly Hills in 1998. He endured arrests for DUI and crack possession over the following decade. But in May 2011, during a press conference about a new album, Michael apologized to the gay community for his past behavior. “I have a serious problem with the fact that every time I made a mistake and every time I let myself down that I was letting young gay kids down,” he said. “Because they would then witness the homophobia that is thrown at me and the language that we use in this country. There are things I want to do with my next album to make up for the damage that I have inadvertently caused by making myself so newsworthy and putting myself on the back foot enough that I couldn’t defend gay children from some of that language.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Nate Berkus
Interior design pro Nate Berkus, 44, was somewhat known as one of the experts on Oprah Winfrey’s daytime talk show, but it was a tragic event that made him a household name. In 2004, he and his partner, Fernando Bengoechea, were vacationing in Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck and killed Bengoechea. Six years later, Berkus got his own Winfrey-produced talk show, The Nate Berkus Show, which made him the first openly gay man to have his own daytime program. It ran for two seasons. He eventually found love again and married interior designer Jeremiah Brent in 2014. They welcomed daughter Poppy via surrogate in 2015. (Photo: Getty Images)
Martina Navratilova
Shortly after becoming a U.S. citizen in the early ‘80s, tennis ace Martina Navratilova came out as bisexual. In the years following her announcement, Navratilova ruled the pro circuit while dating author Rita Mae Brown, then Judy Nelson, her partner of seven years. The nine-time Wimbledon singles champ and Nelson had a highly publicized split in 1991, but Navratilova has since become an activist for gay rights. She has fought discrimination laws in Colorado and was honored with the National Equity Award from the Human Rights Campaign. Also, she got married! The lucky lady in her 2014 wedding was her girlfriend of six years, Julia Lemigova, whom she proposed to at the U.S. Open, natch. (Photo: Getty Images)
Chris Colfer
Chris Colfer, 25, famously played Kurt Hummel on Glee. Although he lives as an openly gay man, he explained to TV’s Piers Morgan Tonight that he often takes photos with lawmakers who vote against gay rights. “It’s more likely they’ll change their mind positively if I give them the picture,” the author and actor said. “It’s great when people come up and they’re like, 'Oh my god, I just love you. Can I have a picture with you?’ And I’ll be like, 'Yeah, sure you don’t believe in me and my rights but you want a picture with me. Sure, sure I’ll take a picture with you’ … it is kind of nice when people believe so strongly against you yet they want proof that they met you. It’s kind of awesome.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Don Lemon
CNN anchor Don Lemon, 50, officially came out in May 2011 in his autobiography, Transparent. Although he had never really hidden his sexuality, he also never made it a point to be open about it until his book, which is meant to be inspirational, was released. “I think it would be great if everybody could be out,” Lemon told the New York Times in 2011. “I think if I had seen more people like me who are out and proud, it wouldn’t have taken me 45 years to say it, to walk in the truth.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Chaz Bono
Chaz Bono (formerly Chastity Bono), 47, came out as a lesbian to parents Sonny and Cher at the tender age of 18, but waited nearly a decade to go public. Once a proud member of the LGBT community, Bono began to write for The Advocate, as well as campaign against the Defense of Marriage Act, and actively support the Human Rights Campaign. In 2008, Bono began the gender transition process chronicled on his documentary, Becoming Chaz. He was also an outspoken contestant on Dancing With the Stars in 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)
Maria Bello
Actress Maria Bello explained her romantic life in a 2013 essay for the New York Times. In a piece for the newspaper’s “Modern Love” series, Bello recounted the conversation that she’d had with her then 12-year-old son, Jackson, about her relationship with her best friend turned girlfriend. He was immediately accepting. “So I would like to consider myself a 'whatever,’ as Jackson said,” Bello wrote. “Whomever I love, however I love them, whether they sleep in my bed or not, or whether I do homework with them or share a child with them, 'love is love.’ And I love our modern family. Maybe, in the end, a modern family is just a more honest family.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Cheyenne Jackson
Broadway actor Cheyenne Jackson has been openly gay as long as he’s been famous. The former 30 Rock star came out to his family at the age of 19, and though his evangelical, born-again Christian parents were initially devastated by his announcement, eventually they came around. “It took awhile, but now it’s great,” Jackson told Metro Weekly in 2009. “After a few years, they started to realize I was the same person. It’s really a testament to their open-mindedness and my patience, and both of those things together.” Jackson married fellow actor Jason Landau in 2014. (Photo: Getty Images)
Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow asks the tough questions on MSNBC, and she’s never been one to shy away from her personal life. While at Stanford University during her freshman year in the early 1990s, Maddow realized she was gay in a class with few out lesbian students. “I put up a public letter in the stalls in my dorm,“ the host of The Rachel Maddow Show told Playboy. "I was a freshman and very cocky and had incredible self-regard, as all good 17-year-olds do. I hadn’t known I was gay for a long time. I was just figuring it out. There were very few openly lesbian students. Once I was sure, I quickly realized that I did not want to be a closeted person — that that was a weak place to be.” She added, “The point is, I stopped thinking of myself as broken when it occurred to me that I might actually not be just a failed heterosexual. I might be this other thing. It was sort of an abstract concept. The first time I consciously thought I might be a lesbian I remember thinking: But I hate softball. Then I went to college and started sleeping with girls and was like, ‘Ah, that’s what my body’s for.’” (Photo: Getty Images)
T.R. Knight
Former Grey’s Anatomy co-star T.R. Knight was essentially forced to come out publicly in 2006 following an on-set spat between Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington, during which Washington allegedly referred to Knight with a gay slur. Once news of this verbal assault made the rounds, Knight issued a statement via People magazine: “I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality, and I’d like to quiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there. While I prefer to keep my personal life private, I hope the fact that I’m gay isn’t the most interesting part of me.” (Photo: Getty Images)
In celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month this June, check out a few of the many talented stars who proud to be part of the LGBT community.
To find out more about the L.A. Pride festivities taking place this weekend (June 10-12), visit lapride.org.