15 Celebrities That Figured Themselves Out and Openly Told the World About Themselves

Hiding in the shadows is not easy, but life instantly changes once a person comes out of the closet. Think about the experience of the actor Sir Ian McKellen. In 2018, he wrote a tweet on the anniversary of his coming out, “I’ve never met a gay person who regretted coming out — including myself. Life, at last, begins to make sense when you are open and honest.”

We at CHEERY decided to find out what other stars showed true courage, trusted the public, and told the truth about themselves.

Drew Barrymore

Few people remember it, but back in 2003, the famous actress openly talked about her orientation in an interview. “I have always considered myself bisexual. When I was younger, I used to go with lots of women. Totally — I love it.”

Cassandra Peterson

70-year-old Cassandra Peterson, whom you might know for the role in the comedy Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, said that she has been in a relationship with a woman for 19 years. Since 2002, she’s lived together with her old friend and ex-coach Teresa Wierson. The women started dating right after Cassandra broke up with her husband she’d been married to for 25 years.

Jena Malone

The 37-year-old star of The Hunger Games publicly came out as pansexual and polyamorous. She wrote an Instagram post, and several days later, she gave an interview and explained, “I love getting to learn more about myself no matter the age or my experience.”

Julian Morris

The 39-year-old actor who portrayed Wren Kingston in Pretty Little Liars shared a moving post on his Instagram page in December 2021. Morris posted photos together with his boyfriend and wrote, “18 years together, and they were the best ones because they were with you. I love you.” This was the first time he officially commented on his orientation.

Lily Cole

In 2021, the 32-year-old British model and actress said she wasn’t straight. “I’ve always been quite private about my private life, consciously, and I want to continue to be, so I don’t feel the need to be explicit. At the same time, I feel the need to acknowledge that I am not straight.”

She explained that she preferred the term queer because it helps her be open and still private, “I like that word because of its openness; because I think all those boundaries are quite rigid. I have lots of friends who identify as bisexual, lesbian or whatever, who also identify as queer.”

Yetide Badaki

The actress, who became famous thanks to the series American Gods, is convinced that it was the show that helped her find herself. The thing is, American Gods features a lot of LGBTQ+ characters, whose stories are developed as the plot progresses. Yetide Badaki announced that she was bisexual last year and shared, “I feel like this show is always willing to have these conversations, and always willing to open it up. I’ve experienced personally how that kind of open discourse allows for personal freedom.”

Tommy Dorfman

The star, who played one of the lead roles in 13 Reasons Why, became a trans woman at the age of 29. In one of the interviews, Tommy said that she used she/her pronouns and had successfully finished a medical transition. The actress said that she was worried about her career because she didn’t want to play male characters anymore. “I’m thinking about how I can infuse my trans body into film and television. Lena Dunham gave me my first role as a girl last year—it was so exciting and validating.”

Alexandra Shipp

Alexandra came out at the age of 28, and she really regrets she hasn’t done it earlier. On her Instagram page, the actress and singer spoke about the difficulties she had to deal with until she admitted her orientation. “I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to get work. I was scared no one would ever love me. Scared. Scared. Scared. It’s exhausting being scared all the time. It’s exhausting chasing other people’s ideas and opinions of who you should be.”

Shipp said that it’s never too late, and it’s important to be able to choose yourself. As soon as she came out, she felt a million times happier.

Mae Whitman

The actress does not only do shows and series but also voices a lesbian witch, called Amity Blight, in the Disney series The Owl House. Thanks to her participation in this project, she spoke about her orientation, “Just taking a moment to say I am SO proud to be even a small part of a show like The Owl House. Being pansexual myself, I wish I had such incredible characters like Amity and Luz in my life when I was growing up. Queer representation is so so so important. Keep it up world!”

Mae Whitman added that the word “pansexual” describes her the best, and she’s happy to be part of the community.

Ezra Furman

At the end of April 2021, musician Ezra Furman announced that she was a trans woman. The singer shared this important event on her Instagram account, “I am very proud to be a trans woman and to have come to know it and be able to say it. This has not been an easy journey.”

34-year-old Furman also told that she’s been a mother for 2 years. The singer explained that she was afraid of talking about parenthood in public, because she wasn’t ready to deal with condemnation.

Luke Baines

The star of Shadowhunters is another example of announcing your orientation through social media. During Pride Month, the actor wrote a post where he told he’d fallen in love twice. His first love was a woman, and his second was a man, “Label that however you like, but all I know is that... love is love.”

Ruby Rose

When Ruby Rose was a child, she thought she was a boy — she didn’t want to have breasts, and she was saving for surgery. But according to her, this thought went away with age. After some time, the actress and model realized she was gender-fluid.

Sam Smith

In 2019, the famous singer opened up about actively researching his gender identity, and realized he was non-binary. Sam Smith commented in a podcast, “When I saw the word non-binary/genderqueer and I read into it and I heard these people speaking, I was like, ‘That is me.’”

Amybeth McNulty

When the star of Anne with an E, announced she was bisexual, the fans of the series were extremely happy and started to come up with theories that the character Amybeth McNulty played was bisexual too. So, they even found a very old video where the actress was holding a banner, “Anne Shirley is bi as hell.” The happy fans said this moment was a “win for girls”.

Megan Fox

Back in 2009, Megan Fox said she was bisexual, “I think people are born bisexual and they make subconscious choices based on the pressures of society. I have no question in my mind about being bisexual.” 1 year ago, she wrote a post on Instagram and reminded us that she proudly represented the “B” in LGBTQ+.

How do you identify yourself? Which pronouns do you use?