Tessa Thompson, Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie, Josie Totah and Amandla Stenberg are among those who publicly shared their sexuality. Read on for the full list.
“Thor: Ragnarok” star Tessa Thompson came out as bisexual — and in a relationship with actress-singer Janelle Monáe — in a June interview in Net-a-Porter. “I’m attracted to men and also to women,” she said.
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jason Mraz came out as bisexual in a poem written for Billboard in June 2018: “We still have a long way to go / But know / I am bi your side.”
“The Hate U Give” star Amandla Stenberg, who had identified as bisexual at age 17, came out as gay in a June 2018 interview in Wonderland: “I was so overcome with this profound sense of relief when I realized that I’m gay — not bi, not pan, but gay — with a romantic love for women.”
Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie told Paper magazine in July that he identifies as pansexual. “I’m married to a woman and I’m very much in love with her but I’m not opposed to a man because to me, I like a person. … I’m definitely attracted to men.”
Josie Totah, the teenage star of Mindy Kaling’s short-lived comedy “Champions,” came out as a transgender woman in an August essay in Time magazine. “I have come to believe that God made me transgender,” she wrote. “I don’t feel like I was put in the wrong body.”
Garrett Clayton, star of Disney Channel’s “Teen Beach Movie” and “Hairspray Live!” came out as gay in an Instagram post in August 2018 — and shared his personal experience with “intense bullying in high school.”
Lucas Hedges, the Oscar-nominated star of “Manchester by the Sea” and “Boy Erased,” identified himself as “not totally straight” in a September 2018 interview with Vulture. Or, as he put it: “I recognize myself as existing on that spectrum: Not totally straight, but also not gay and not necessarily bisexual.”
Brigette Lundy-Paine, who co-stars on the Netflix comedy “Atypical,” came out as queer in a September 2018 interview with The Advocate.
Jake Choi, star of the ABC sitcom “Single Parents,” said he identifies as “fluid” in September 2018 interview with Very Good Light, crediting his role as a gay man in the movie “Front Cover”: “Maybe, s—, I’m attracted to everything. Maybe it’s more feminine or more androgynous. I realized yeah, I’m fluid. It’s not black or white. It’s grey.”
Jake Borelli, who plays a gay doctor on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” came out as gay himself in a November 2018 Instagram post on the night his character had his first onscreen kiss with another man: ““As a gay guy myself, tonight’s episode was so special to me.”
In a November 2018 interview with The Daily Beast, former “Dexter” star Michael C. Hall discussed his “fluid” sexuality while noting that he identifies as straight and has never had sex with another man: “I think there’s a spectrum. I am on it. … I think I have always leaned into any fluidity in terms of my sexuality.”
In a February 2019 tweet, YouTuber Lilly Singh identified herself as “female, coloured and bisexual.”
Ben Platt, Tony-winning star of “Dear Evan Hansen” and the Netflix series “The Politician,” publicly came out in February 2019 with an interview in People and the video for his first single: “I’ve been out since I was 12 years old to my family and anyone in my life. I’ve never sort of hidden that or been ashamed by it. It’s just part of me.”
The Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Sam Smith identified as “genderqueer” and “nonbinary” in a March interview with Jameela Jamil. “I am not male or female. I think I float somewhere in between — somewhat on the spectrum,” said the star, who has dated men.
In March 2019, country singer Cameron Hawthorn came out as gay in an Advocate interview and the video for his single “Dancing in the Living Room.” “Being gay, it’s not as easy to dance as a couple in public together as it is for a straight couple,” he noted.
“Pretty Little Liars” star Tyler Blackburn came out as bisexual in an April 2019 HuffPost interview. “I heard so many things from within the queer community about bisexuality being a cop-out or bulls— or the easy way out or something,” he said. “I felt the pressure from all sides to have (my sexuality) figured out.”
Caitlin Kinnunen, the Tony-nominated star of the Broadway musical “The Prom,” came out in an April 2019 Nylon interview: “I have identified as a straight ally for a very long time, but recently my world has kind of opened up, and I am currently dating a woman.”
Michael D. Cohen, star of Nickelodeon’s live-action sitcom “Henry Danger,” told Time in May 2019 that he was misgendered at birth and transitioned from female to male while already working in the entertainment business nearly 20 years ago: “I identify as male, and I am proud that I have had a transgender experience — a transgender journey.”
