16 Celebrity Coming Out Stories

Since National Coming Out Day 2013, more celebrities revealed or confirmed they are gay, bi or lesbian in various ways. MadameNoire compiled a list of these celebrities who have shared their inspirational coming out stories since late 2013 and throughout 2014.

Michael Sam

Sam came out earlier this year — breaking down a barrier in the NFL before even being drafted by the St. Louis Rams. Unfortunately, the Rams cut him. But he was later signed to the Dallas Cowboys — remaining the first openly gay player in the NFL. He told ESPN back in February, “I am an openly, proud gay man.” He added,”I understand how big this is,” he said. “It’s a big deal. No one has done this before. And it’s kind of a nervous process, but I know what I want to be … I want to be a football player in the NFL.”

Djuan Trent

Former Miss Kentucky and beauty queen Djuan Trent came out earlier this year as lesbian in a blog post about accepting herself, according to Huffington Post. “I believe that my sexuality is my own … and this is not kindergarten, so I don’t have to share it with anyone if I don’t want to. But it’s nice when you share, right?” she wrote. “I would love to one day live in a society where coming out is no longer necessary because we don’t make assumptions about one another’s sexuality and homophobia is laid to rest. For now, that is more of an ideal than it is a reality. But if you want see that ideal become a reality and you have the courage to change history…if you want to earn some gold stars, then yes, come on out and make your presence known.”

Ellen Page

Page came out earlier this year in February — saying she was tired of denying who she is. She said, “I am tired of hiding and I am tired of lying by omission,” Page said proudly. “I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered and my relationships suffered. And I’m standing here today, with all of you, on the other side of all that pain.”

Pat Patterson

The 73-year-old wrestler kept his sexuality a secret throughout his career as a wrestler, but back in June, he came out in the season finale of “Legends’ House.” He said,”Sitting here tonight I’m going to say something and I would never want to say publicly, but being here with you guys, for once in my life, I’m going to be me now,” he continued. “I survived all this being gay.” The WWE icon said, “For the rest of my life I want to be happy.”

Maria Bello

10 months ago, Bello revealed her gay romance, in a New York Times essay, “Coming Out as a Modern Family.” In the essay, she discussed coming out to her 12-year-old son and revealed her intimate relationship with her best friend Claire Munn. “We had an immediate connection but didn’t think of it as romantic or sexual,” she wrote. “She was one of the most beautiful, charming, brilliant and funny people I had ever met, but it didn’t occur to me, until that soul-searching moment in my garden, that we could perhaps choose to love each other romantically.”

Robin Roberts

While thanking everyone who supported her during her recovery from breast cancer, she made sure to thank her significant other — revealing she is a lesbian. “I am grateful for my entire family, my long time girlfriend, Amber, and friends as we prepare to celebrate a glorious new year together.”

Derrick Gordon

Gordon came out this spring to his University of Massachusetts men’s basketball team. “I was thinking about summer plans and just being around my teammates and how it was going to be,” Gordon told ESPN. “I just thought, ‘Why not now? Why not do it in the offseason when it’s the perfect time to let my teammates know and everybody know my sexuality?'” He added, “It was a rough process, actually, leading up to this. Those guys just helped me get to where I am right now,” Gordon said. “If it wasn’t for them, I’d be stuck. For this to be happening right now, me coming out, it’s an indescribable feeling, honestly. I couldn’t be any happier. I feel like I can fly.”

Bob Harper

Harper truly had an inspirational coming out late last year. He did it to help a contestant on “The Biggest Loser.” “I haven’t talked about my sexuality on this show ever,” Bob said in a confessional. “And now, meeting Bobby, I really do believe this is the right time. I want to show Bobby that he doesn’t have to live in shame.” He added, “when I came out, when I was 17 years old, it was one of those things where I realized that there was going to be so many obstacles, but being gay doesn’t mean being weak,” he told Bobby. “And being gay doesn’t mean that you are less than anybody else. It’s just who you are.”

Maulik Pancholy

The “30 Rock” star was part of Out100 last year, and he revealed he’d been in a longterm relationship with Ryan Corvaia. “I just celebrated my nine-year anniversary with my partner,” he says. “It feels like a nice time to be celebrating something like that, especially on the heels of the DOMA and Prop 8 decisions.”

Lauren Morelli

It was speculated for months Samira Wiley and “Orange is the New Black” writer Morelli were dating. In late August, it was confirmed. Morelli discovered on the set of “OITNB” she was a lesbian after marrying a man. She wrote in an open letter on Mic.com: “Five months after my wedding, I flew to New York to start production on my first episode of “Orange,” and from that moment on my life fell into a parallel rhythm with Piper’s story in a way that went from interesting to terrifying in a matter of months,” she wrote. Morelli added, “I went through it all on set: I fell in love with a woman, and I watched my life play out on screen. And now, as we are gearing up for the release of season 2, it feels liberating and appropriate to live my life in front of you.”

Tom Daley

Daley not only came out in the last year, he’s encouraging other athletes — footballers — to do the same “I think people would be surprised how supported they’d be if they were to come out in a football environment,” he told The Independent. Daley came out in a YouTube video December of 2013. ‘I did it on YouTube because people were constantly digging and asking questions,’ he said, according to Daily Mail.

Ian Thorpe

The swimming champion known as” Thorpedo” was in denial about his sexuality until coming out in an exclusive interview with Sir Michael Parkinson over the summer. “I’ve thought about this for a long time. I’m not straight,” he said, according to The Guardian. “And this is only something that very recently, we’re talking the past two weeks, I’ve been comfortable telling the closest people around me, exactly that. I’ve wanted to [come out] for some time but I couldn’t, I didn’t feel as though I could. What happened was I felt the lie had become so big that I didn’t want people to question my integrity.”

Brian Boitano

The retired Olympic figure skater came out late last year.“When the president named the delegation, and I read in the news what his message was of tolerance and diversity, I thought, I have to take this opportunity,’’ Boitano told Matt Lauer on “TODAY” — referring to President Obama naming him to the Olympic delegation. “I think the message is so strong. I’ve always wanted to represent my country as best I could, and I knew that I had to go past my comfort zone and reveal a private side of my life that I’ve never done before because I felt that the message is so strong.”

Tyler Glenn

The Neon Trees lead singer has been a Mormon his whole life — keeping his gayness a secret since his childhood. Glenn came out back in March in an issue of Rolling Stone. “I had my crushes on guys throughout high school, but it was never an overwhelming thing until my twenties,” he admitted. “Then I’d be dating girls and in love with my straight friend and it was the worst feeling in the world.” He added, “we were always taught, and I hate this word, ‘tolerance,'” he said, regarding his church’s stance on homosexuality. “The only time that felt different was when the Prop 8 thing came up.”

Sam Smith

Smith told Fader his debut album, “In the Lonely Hour,” “is about a guy that I fell in love with last year, and he didn’t love me back.” Smith opened up about his album this spring, according to Rolling Stone — revealing his sexuality and how he expressed it in his music, “It’s about a guy and that’s what I wanted people to know – I want to be clear that that’s what it’s about,” he said in the interview. He later added, “I want to make it a normality because this is a non-issue. People wouldn’t ask a straight person these questions. I’ve tried to be clever with this album, because it’s also important to me that my music reaches everybody. I’ve made my music so that it could be about anything and everybody – whether it’s a guy, a female or a goat – and everybody can relate to that.”