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Billy Porter
“None of this was easy ... The world has caught up with me, and I’m a living witness that dreams do come true, even if they aren’t the ones you start out with,” Billy Porter wrote in a 2017 op-ed for The New York Times, referring to a journey that included homelessness and bankruptcy. But the actor is proof that things get better.
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Elliot Page
“I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life,” the Umbrella Academy star wrote after coming out as trans in an open letter to fans in December 2020. “I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive.”
Laverne Cox
“I’m sexy and I’m going to own that because I think trans women are sexy,” the Orange Is the New Black star told Self magazine in 2018. “A lot of us are sexy not despite our transness, but because of our transness. That’s just the truth.”
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Troye Sivan
“Realizing who you are and your identity — once you’ve gotten past that process — make sure you’re in a safe environment,” Troye Sivan said in a 2016 interview with Dazed magazine, adding that the hardest part of coming out is coming out to yourself. “And if you feel it is a safe environment, I would highly, highly recommend coming out. I can speak from personal experience and say it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.”
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Lil Nas X
The 22-year-old rapper proved to be an inspiration when he came out at the height of his “Old Town Road” success. “If you’re doing this while you’re at the top, you know it’s for real and it’s showing it doesn't really matter,” he said on HBO’s The Shop. The musician never planned on coming out, but in a 2020 interview with The Guardian, he ultimately had a change of heart: “I 100% want to represent the LGBT community.”
In a June 2021 tweet featured on Universal Music’s Pride hub, recording artist Rina Sawayama wrote these important reminders:
“Reminder that it is also totally OK to be:
—not out! take ur time.
—not proud! feeling shame...is normal.
—fluid! we r ever changing.
—not feeling accepted! we love u and are proud of u and we WILL work hard on inclusiveness always.
happy pride”
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Colton Underwood
“I’m emotional, but I’m emotional in such a good, happy, positive way. I’m like the happiest and healthiest I’ve ever been in my life and that means the world to me,” the former Bachelor star and former NFL player said when he came out as gay during an emotional interview on Good Morning America in April 2021.
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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-*ss motherf*cker," Monáe said in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone. The singer previously thought she was bisexual, but later realized that she identified more with the term pansexual: “I’m open to learning more about who I am.”
Halsey
“I’m a young, bisexual woman, and I’ve spent a large part of my life trying to validate myself — to my friends, to my family, to myself — trying to prove that who I love and how I feel is not a phase,” Halsey said at the 2018 GLAAD Media Awards. “It’s not part of some confusion that’s going to change or could be manipulated.”
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Miley Cyrus
“A big part of my pride and my identity is being a queer person,” Cyrus told Vanity Fair in 2019. “What I preach is: People fall in love with people, not gender, not looks, not whatever. What I’m in love with exists on almost a spiritual level. It has nothing to do with sexuality.”
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Kehlani
“I’ve seen how people reacted to my song ‘Honey,’ or when I’ve used the correct pronouns and put women in my music videos,” Kehlani, who came out as a lesbian on TikTok this past April, said in a 2018 interview with The Fader. She’s long been vocal about representing the LGBTQ+ community in her music. “Just seeing how much people felt like they needed that representation or how much it inspired them definitely encouraged me to step into this new phase of making music.”
Dan Levy
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live in 2020, the Schitt’s Creek star revealed that came out to his parents when he was 18. But alas, his mom totally anticipated it. “She almost knew,” Levy said. “My mom and I have a very close relationship in that sense and it almost felt like she knew that I was ready.” A year prior, the actor let his Twitter followers know how much he loved playing David Rose on the hit series. “Proud to play a proud pansexual,” he wrote. “Happy #PansexualVisibilityDay.”
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Sam Smith
“After a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out,” said the “Too Good at Goodbyes” crooner, who revealed on social media that they use “they/them” pronouns. “I am at no stage just yet to eloquently speak at length about what it means to be non-binary, but I can’t wait for the day that I am. So for now I just want to be VISIBLE and open.”
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Demi Lovato
“I think love is love,” Lovato told InStyle in 2018. “You can find it in any gender.” Earlier this year, the singer revealed more about their own sexuality, telling Glamour that they’re “too queer” to date a cis man. “When I started getting older, I started realizing how queer I really am,” they said. “This past year I was engaged to a man, and when it didn’t work, I was like, This is a huge sign. I thought I was going to spend my life with someone. Now that I wasn’t going to, I felt this sense of relief that I could live my truth.”
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Jim Parsons
The Big Bang Theory star couldn’t be prouder of his sexuality, even in the face of so much bigotry. “Once it was out in the public, I was like, ‘Well, f*ck you! If you still have a problem with gay people, you directly have a problem with me,’” he told Variety in 2019. “Being a full-fledged member of it and claiming it, there was just an elation there, and there still is! I still feel it. It's a huge relief.”