Tag: coming out

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YOUNGER Star Dan Amboyer Comes Out & Marries Longtime BF

Dan Amboyer  (via Instagram)

This past Saturday, Younger star Dan Amboyer married his longtime boyfriend Eric P. Berger, and came out in the process.

Amboyer, 31, wed Berger, 37, in New York City surrounded by 115 friends and family members.

Sharing the news on Instagram, the handsome actor broke the news with a simple post that read, “So, we got married today.”

“Being a young actor in the industry, I had a lot of people who strongly advised me to stay quiet,” Amboyer tells PEOPLE. “That was hard to live with. But I’ve never played a gay role before and I didn’t want to be limited by some strange perception.”

“It was a hard decision to figure out how to approach it in a public way,” says Amboyer. “There are some actors out there now who just keep it as an unspoken aspect of their life and never discuss it in public. But then there are men like Matt Bomer and Zachary Quinto. I look up to them and see how them being so open affected other people and the country’s perception of gay people. And Nico Tortorella, who is also on Younger, has inspired me by the way he’s become such an advocate for sexual fluidity. I think the more open actors can be the less stigma there will be attached, which will be a positive thing moving forward.”

Amboyer began dating financial planner Eric P. Berger 10 years ago when they met online, and have been living together for the past nine years.

“Our crazies match,” Berger told PEOPLE. “I think Dan is very different from the roles he gets to play. He’s a sweet quirky guy who loves animals and is creative and brings a different color to everything in my life. I hold that very valuable.”

Amboyer added, “He’s serious and organized. He’s a financial planner, which is the opposite of my actor self. But we compliment each other.”

Congrats to the happy couple!

A post shared by Dan Amboyer (@danamboyer) on Oct 8, 2017 at 8:12am PDT
A post shared by Dan Amboyer (@danamboyer) on Oct 8, 2017 at 12:06am PDT

good morning. one more nightshoot, then day off! #christmashours 🎄A post shared by Dan Amboyer (@danamboyer) on Aug 19, 2017 at 12:31pm PDT

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Pro-Wrestler Anthony Bowens On Coming Out: Bisexual Stigma Was A Big Surprise

(photo via Instagram)

Hunky pro wrestler Anthony Bowen prepped himself for some sort of backlash from the wrestling world when he came out as bisexual earlier this year.

He’s since called the support and good will he experienced coming out as “overwhelming.”

“I was getting messages from literally around the world thanking me,” Bowens recalled, “Saying I was an inspiration.”

What he didn’t expect was to find himself in a debate that questions bisexuality in general.

As he read posts and comments across social media, he was surprised to discover the stigma that questions whether bisexuality is just a cover for gays who aren’t ready to come out completely.

“I thought there would be more negativity around the stigma of [a pro wrestler] being part of the LGBT community, but the negativity came more from people getting in arguments over bisexuality,” he recently shared on the Party Foul Radio podcast with Pollo and Pearl.

“You can date a dude or marry a dude and be with him the rest of your life, and that doesn’t change the attraction. The stimulation doesn’t change,” he said. “That’s the reason why it’s LGBTQ—lesbian, bisexual…The LGBTQ community comes in all shapes and sizes.”

A post shared by Anthony Bowens (@bowens_official) on Aug 2, 2017 at 3:41pm PDT

I'm smiling but those pieces of wood really hurt my feet lol. Photo Cred: Stephen DanielloA post shared by Anthony Bowens (@bowens_official) on Aug 27, 2017 at 9:59am PDT

A post shared by Anthony Bowens (@bowens_official) on Aug 1, 2017 at 5:07pm PDT

(h/t NewNowNext)

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News Round-Up: September 1, 2017

(via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Roberto Caccamo gets a jump start on the weekend. #ThisBeMeIn321

• Four-time Grammy Award winner/out singer-songwriter Sam Smith announces new music due out next week.

• L’Oréal fires transgender model Munroe Bergdorf for speaking out against racism.

• Hollywood is singing the blues as summer comes to an end and the LA Times reports the lowest number of movie tickets sold in the U.S. since 1992.

• Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers says society is getting better about accepting gays in the locker room, but players still have “a fear of job security” if they might come out.

• September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time to connect with those affected by suicide and to share resources to better support individuals to prevent suicide. According to a 2016 study by the Center for Disease Control, 43% of lesbian, gay and bisexual high school students seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, compared to 15 percent of their heterosexual peers. Find more info at the Human Rights Campaign.

• Dance into the weekend with these new remixes of “Carefully Taught” by Tony/Grammy Award winner Billy Porter and India.Arie. The first is by Quentin Harris, the second by John J-C Carr.

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“Nurse Jackie” Star Haaz Sleiman Comes Out As Gay

Haaz Sleiman

Haaz Sleiman, a Lebanese-American actor (Nurse Jackie, The State, Of Kings and Prophets) came out as gay this week via Twitter.

“I am a gay, Muslim, Arab-American man. And I’m going to take it even further: Not only am I gay, but I’m also a bottom. Not only am I a bottom, but I’m also a total bottom which means I like it up you know where.”

“And I say this to all the homophobes living in the United States of America and across the globe. If you ever come to me, to kill me just because I’m gay, I will destroy you. I might be gay and I might be a nice guy, but don’t get it twisted because I will fuck you up.”

The 41-year-old actor said he was responding to a recent study finding that more LGBT Americans were murdered so far this year than in all of 2016.

In an Instagram post, Sleiman brought up a 2009 interview with The Advocate where he said he was straight and had a girlfriend after being asked if he was gay.

Sleiman explained on social media that he spoke to the LGBT publication on the condition that he would not answer personal questions.

“At the end of the half hour interview over the phone the idiot interviewer, whom I think was gay, asked me if was gay or straight,” he writes. “I was so shocked. I froze. My body started shaking. And then I lied and said I was straight. Shame on gay people who are not kind to other gay people. He did that on purpose.”

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Former Teen Pop Star Aaron Carter Comes Out As Bisexual

(image via Instagram)

Former teen pop star Aaron Carter came out as bisexual to his fans last night via social media.

“There’s something I’d like to say that I feel is important for myself and my identity that has been weighing on my chest for nearly half of my life,” shared the 29-year-old singer. “This doesn’t bring me shame, just a weight and burden I have held onto for a long time that I would like lifted off me.”

“I grew up in this entertainment industry at a very young age and when I was around 13-years-old I started to find boys and girls attractive,” Carter continues. “There were years that went by that I thought about, but it wasn’t until I was 17-years-old, after a few relationships with girls, I had an experience with a male that I had an attraction to who I also worked with and grew up with.”

Carter has publicly shared his personal battles with eating disorders and substance abuse in the past. He was arrested on July 15 on suspicion of DUI and marijuana possession. He also spent a month in rehab in 2011 for Xanax dependency.

Saying he never wants to be a “figure of disappointment,” Carter concluded his letter with a quote from Boy George: “I’ve never felt as though I didn’t belong, I just acted as though I did.”

Carter shared this at the end of last month:

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YouTube Sensation Greyson Chance: “I Am Happy, I Am Here For You, And I Am Proud Of Who I Am”

You’ll recall the young Mr. Greyson Chance, whose performance at his 6th-grade talent show ended up on YouTube and garnering over 59 million views.

Of course, that’s the same Greyson Chance who Ellen DeGeneres invited onto her TV show and summarily signed him at the age of 12 as the first artist on her new recording label eleveneleven.

Fast forward to today, as a 19-year-old Chance has come out via an expressive and very well-written Facebook post:

The decision to write this came after I received a message from a brave individual. Such message inspired me to shed light on an aspect of my private life which I have kept distant from my career in music.

I came to fully recognize that I was gay when I was sixteen. I decided not to publicize my sexuality largely due to a matter of privacy, as I was still trying to find comfort and confidence within my own skin. Further, I always found conversations regarding music, politics, art, books – and the greatness of Nas’ catalog – to be far more interesting than what type of guy I was into. This is still true today.

While this message is most definitely overdue, I encourage anyone who is navigating their sexuality to devote as much time as they need to the process of finding self-confidence, self-acceptance, and self-love. Hell, for me, it took years to write this message. Nevertheless, I figured now was the time to let a few more friends know that I am happy, I am here for you, and I am proud of who I am.

Cheers
-G

Here’s the spectacular video that started it all for Greyson. The clip now has over 59 million views. What an incredible talent at such a young age.

Congrats, Greyson, on living life loud and proud!

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ESPN: Kansas State Football Player Scott Frantz Comes Out

Scott Frantz

Sophomore Kansas State offensive tackle Scott Frantz has come out as gay in an interview with ESPN.

“I came out to my teammates, and I’ve never felt so loved and so accepted ever in my life than when I did that,” Frantz told ESPN’s Holly Rowe on Wednesday. “And ever since then it’s been great. I’ve grown so much closer to my teammates since. So it’s been an amazing experience.”

Frantz divulged his sexual orientation to his teammates after his redshirt season in 2015. Wildcats coach Bill Snyder had brought in a motivational speaker who encouraged the players to reveal details about themselves that they had never told anyone else before.

“So the very first time I said those words were in front of, you know, 110, 120 football guys,” Frantz said. “So you can imagine how scared I was, how nervous I was. … This could go either really bad or could go really good. And thankfully my teammates embraced me with open arms, and it was great.”

The sophomore tackle said he knew he was gay in fifth grade but that it took until his junior year of high school to accept it. He said he didn’t tell his family until a week after the locker room announcement and told Rowe he didn’t discuss his sexual orientation with recruiters out of concern it would keep him from getting offers to play in college.

We’ll see if this impacts Frantz’ football career. Last season he started 13 games.

This fall, Frantz and Arizona freshman My-King Johnson will be the first openly gay active college football players in the 2017 season.

Watch Scott speak about his coming out below.

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Out Athlete Simon Dunn: LGBT Community Is “Selfish” To Want Athletes To Come Out

Simon Dunn (via Instagram)

Speaking to the London Evening Standard, retired out Olympic bobsledder Simon Dunn says it’s “selfish” for the LGBT community to want LGBT athletes to come out.

“Everybody’s coming out is personal and in their own time. It is selfish for our community to expect someone to do it because of their public profile. Given the sporting culture, coming out could seriously affect their career.

I myself was already out when I joined the Australian [bobsleigh] team, but from my own experiences I can understand why someone wouldn’t come out, let alone someone earning and risking millions of pounds.”

I wasn’t exactly welcome within my team growing up. It’s not the easiest road to take.

And also growing up I’d learnt to believe gay men have no place in the sporting world and it took me a very long time to dispel those beliefs.”

The 29-year-old Australian was the first out athlete to represent his country at the Olympics.

Since retiring from bobsleigh, he has moved to London where he plays amateur rugby with the LGBT-inclusive team, the King’s Cross Steelers.

Despite Dunn’s concerns, several athletes including UK Olympic diver Tom Daley, Olympic freeskier Gus Kenworthy and rugby league player Keegan Hirst have all come out in recent years and seen no discernible impact on their careers.

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Former NFL Player Ryan O’Callaghan Comes Out

Ryan O’Callaghan

In an deeply personal interview with Outsports, five-season NFL veteran Ryan O’Callaghan (New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs) came out of the closet having conquered years of suicidal thoughts.

O’Callaghan learned very quickly that football was the best place in the world for a gay teenager to hide. The brute, physical nature of the sport went against every stereotype of gay men he knew. At his size, few people would suspect he was gay, and if he was a football player on top of that, he felt his secret would be buried.

“No one is going to assume the big football player is gay,” he said. “It’s why a football team is such a good place to hide.

So he dove into football and made a pact with himself: As long as he put on those pads, he was good to go. Once football was over, he’d take a gun to his head and end it all. That was the deal, and he would hold himself to it.

Watch the video interview below, but make sure you head over to the full article here.

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News Round-Up: June 20, 2017

Lony Pizzaro via Instagram

Some news items you may have missed:

• It’s 112 degrees here in Las Vegas – I can’t imagine grilling in my backyard. So, I’ll just look at fitness model Lony Pizarro tend to his grill 😉

• Virulently anti-LGBT activist Tony Perkins does NOT appreciate the irony that Rep. Steve Scalise, who has attended white nationalist events in the past, was saved at last week’s DC shooting by a married, black lesbian.

• Barbie’s boyfriend Ken got multiple makeovers including seven skin tones, three body types and even a man-bun. I wonder if Barbie knows all the Kens are attending Pride this year…?

Ken gets a makeover

• Ryan Phillippe reflects on playing the first openly gay teenager on TV: “There had never been a gay teenager represented on television up until that point: It’s before Will & Grace, it’s before Ellen came out, it’s before any of that stuff. I remember the fan mail that we would get, my mother and I would get, from gay teenagers or from parents of gay teenagers who found a way in to relate to or talk to their child through the show. Entertainment media can do those things, it can make people think differently or see a different side of something and I do remember and appreciating that — even back then when I was only a teenager myself. But in terms of like the larger view, I didn’t have a full understanding of how important it could have been, but I’m proud to have done it, I’m proud that that’s something I can say was a part of my career.”

• Asked why White House press briefings are becoming less frequent and off-camera, Trump advisor Steve Bannon replied to The Atlantic, “Sean (Spicer) got fatter.”

• The woofy Kilted Coaches show their support for Pride Month via this “rainbow-y” (kilt-less) video: