16 Celebrities Who Proudly Shared Their Coming Out Stories

While being something other than straight and cisgender is becoming more and more accepted, coming out can still be a very hard and scary decision to make. Always being in the spotlight, celebrities can also struggle with revealing their true identity to their fans.

We at Bright Side believe that the best person you can be is yourself. That’s why we want to share with you how these 16 celebs decided to come out and tell the whole world about their identities.

1. Miley Cyrus

The singer and actress revealed in an interview that she struggled with understanding her gender and sexuality pretty much all her life. Miley’s first relationship was with a girl, and after a few visits to a local LGBTQ center, she finally understood that she was pansexual. “My whole life, I didn’t understand my own gender and my own sexuality. I always hated the word ‘bisexual,’ because that’s even putting me in a box.”

2. Lil Nas X

After coming out to his father and siblings during Pride Month in 2019, the rapper also shared a couple of posts on Twitter on the last day of June of the same year. Lil Nas X came out publicly by pointing to his song C7osure, telling his fans “thought I made it obvious”. The lyrics include lines like “Ain’t no more actin’, man that forecast say I should just let me grow/No more red light for me baby, only green, I gotta go.”

3. Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres came out officially on the cover of Time Magazine back in 1997, simply stating ’Yep, I’m gay’. Her character in her sitcom, Ellen Morgan, also came out around the same time in an iconic episode. This made Ellen the first major TV series to have a gay lead character. While some people were shocked, many others supported the TV host and comedian, and celebs like Oprah Winfrey and Demi Moore went on to guest star in the show.

4. Sarah Paulson

When congratulating her then-partner for receiving an award, the actress kissed her on the lips and accidentally outed herself to the public. Sarah didn’t really think about what she was doing, she “just did what was true and honest to me at that moment.” Later, Sarah revealed that she thinks of her sexuality as “a fluid situation” but doesn’t want it to define her.

5. Elton John

While in 1976 the singer and composer came out as bisexual, after being married to and later divorcing a woman, he told Rolling Stone Magazine in 1992 that he was “quite comfortable being gay.” Since then, Elton John has been a huge advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and married David Furnish in 2005, with whom he has 2 sons.

6. Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster publicly came out as gay in 2013 in her speech at the Golden Globes, although she said she has always been very open with her friends and family. While deciding to keep her love life private, the famous actress had been living together with her female partner and their children for years.

7. Tyler Posey

According to the Teen Wolf actor, his girlfriend helped him accept his sexuality. Tyler identifies as sexually fluid, saying that “She’s helped me realize that I fit under the queer umbrella and that I’m sexually fluid.” Tyler describes him coming out to his fans a “split second decision,” but he was glad that he could finally be honest with everyone.

8. Cara Delevingne

“I always will remain, I think, pansexual. However one defines themselves, whether it’s ‘they’ or ‘he’ or ‘she,’ I fall in love with the person — and that’s that. I’m attracted to the person,” Cara told an interviewer back in 2020. She came out to her fans a couple of years earlier, in 2018 and later went on to launch a clothing line with Puma with a portion of the proceeds benefitting LGBTQ+ foundations.

9. Elliot Page

On the 1st of December 2020 Elliot came out as transgender, revealing his name and pronouns, writing on Instagram that “I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey.”

He’s also currently working on his memoir about his experiences, which will be published in 2023.

10. Frank Ocean

In 2012 the singer penned an open letter on his webpage talking about his first love, a man, although he never attached any labels to his sexuality. Frank’s lyrics are often addressed to people of the same sex as well as the opposite.

In an interview in the same year, he described his reluctance to accept labels, saying that “As a writer, as a creator, I’m giving you my experiences. But just take what I give you. You ain’t got to pry beyond that. I’m giving you what I feel like you can feel.”

11. Demi Lovato

After previously coming out as pansexual, the pop star revealed in an Instagram post in 2021 that they’re also non-binary, using the pronouns they/them. Although Demi struggled to fit into a label that represented them well, they finally realized that they are gender non-conforming. “I came out as non-binary in May and ever since then, it’s just felt like my truth has been living my life as loudly as possible without a care in the world,” the singer later added.

12. Sam Smith

Sam also came out as gender fluid a few years ago, asking their fans to use they/them instead of he/his. “I’m not male or female, I think I flow somewhere in between. It’s all on the spectrum,” the famous singer said, describing being non-binary as being “your own special creation”.

13. Matt Bomer

While accepting an award, the actor publicly thanked his long-time partner, Simon Halls and their 3 children, coming out publicly. Before that, Matt was often questioned about his private life and whether he minded the rumors that he was gay, but he replied that “I don’t care about that at all. I’m completely happy and fulfilled in my personal life.”

14. Ruby Rose

Ruby told in an interview that she found the confidence to come out in role models such as Annie Lennox, David Bowie and Madonna. She told her mom about her sexuality at a very young age, when she was 12 years old. And while Ruby was worried about her mom’s reaction, her parent only told her that she had already known since Ruby was 6 years old.

Coming out at a young age, the actress was also unsure about wording, so she just said that “I think I should let you know that when I eventually get a boyfriend, they’ll be a girl.”

15. Charlie Carver

The Teen Wolf star came out in a series of Instagram posts, saying that he always knew that he was somewhat different from other boys and his twin brother. Before revealing his sexuality to the public, Charlie’s family accepted and supported him, but his rising acting career complicated things.

After completely separating his private life from the public, he eventually he wrote in 2016, “so now, let the record show this- I self-identify as gay. And does that really matter anymore? As a young man, I needed a young man in Hollywood to say that.”

16. Kristen Stewart

Although in the past, Kristen was reluctant to share many details about her personal life with her fans, recently she has become much more comfortable with this. The actress publicly came out as bisexual in 2017, then later came out as queer.

And although she felt pressure about revealing her sexuality, Kristen later came to love the openness. “When I was younger, I was being hounded about labeling myself. Now I relish it,” she said in an interview.

Have you ever been in a situation when you had to share something very important with your family and friends? What was your approach?