16 Iconic Coming Out Moments to Celebrate on National Coming Out Day

Today is National Coming Out Day, the day we make our lesbianism and gayness and bisexuality and trans-ness and all forms of queerness known to the wider world. Robert Eichberg, who co-founded this day in 1988 with his lesbian activist pal Jean O’Leary, said in 1993 (two years before he died of complications from AIDS), “Most people think they don’t know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact everybody does. It is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes.”

So, with that in mind, let’s celebrate 16 LGBTQ+ celebrities who came out in iconic ways and changed the conversation around equality. This list is, by no means, exhaustive, and I look forward to hearing about some of your favorite, most inspirational, most groundbreaking coming outs in the comments!

Sara Ramirez

Sara Ramirez came out as bisexual in a speech at the True Colors Fund in October 2016, but she was so excited to share her truth with the world that she jumped the gun on the speech being released and posted the coming out portion of it on her Instagram. Ramirez also has the distinction of being the only woman to play two bisexual TV characters who made it into our  “best ever” list.

Janelle Monáe

When Janelle Monáe decided to come out, she came the fuck out. There’d been plenty of speculation about her sexuality over the years, especially her very special friendship with Tessa Thompson, with everyone labeling her sexuality with whatever fit their own narrative. Well, she chose her own label, thank you very much — free-ass motherfucker. She also shared a special message for her fans right before she released her very queer, very critically acclaimed Dirty Computer album: “I want young girls, young boys, non binary, gay, straight, queer people who are having a hard time dealing with their sexuality, dealing with feeling ostracized or bullied for just being heir unique selves, to know that I see you… This album is for you. Be proud.”

Gavin Rayna Russom

LCD Soundsystem’s Gavin Rayna Russom came out  in July 2017, at the age of 42. “There was legitimately something unmanageable for me about living as a cis man,” she told Pitchfork. “I was working so hard just to present this image of myself that ran very deeply counter to who I really am.” Her work hasn’t slowed down since then; she remains one of the most celebrated DJs and synth players in the industry.

Gloria Carter

Gloria Carter came out last June in the song “Smile” on Jay-Z’s 4:44 album. Early in the track, Jay-Z raps, “Mama had four kids, but she a lesbian. Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian.” Ms. Carter, herself, gave a speech at this year’s GLAAD Media Awards — to a standing ovation — in which she talked about her decision to come out to Jay-Z. “For me, this was the first time that I spoke to anyone about who I really am. My son cried, and said, ‘It must have been horrible to live that way for so long.’ My life wasn’t horrible. I chose to protect my family from ignorance. I was happy, but I was not free.” She encouraged everyone in the banquet hall to find a way — like her — to find their freedom.

Stephanie Beatriz

Stephanie Beatriz came out in the most chill way imaginable. She retweeted an interview in which Aubrey Plaza said, “I fall in love with girls and guys. I can’t help it” and simply commented, “Yup.” Since then she has spoken openly and often about her bisexuality, even penning an essay about it for GQ. She also responded very lovingly to the news that she swept our inaugural Gay Emmys.

Hayley Kiyoko

Everything you need to know about Hayley Kiyoko you will find it in the Nylon magazine profile Riese wrote for their Pride issue this summer. If you just want to know about her coming out, though, that dates back to December 2016 when she told Paper magazine that she loved filming the video for “Girls Like Girls” because she is, in fact, a girl who likes Girls.

Amandla Stenberg

Amandla Stenberg came out on Teen Vogue‘s Snapchat in January 2016, when she was only 17. At the time Stenberg came out as bisexual, but has since said, “I realised that I’m gay – not bi, not pan, but gay.” Riese also noted when she first wrote about Stenberg that she inadvertently also came out as “a perfect human.”

Ellen Page

Ellen Page gave one of the most moving coming out speeches in recent memory at a Human Rights Campaign gala on Valentine’s Day in 2014. She was visibly nervous when she began speaking, and barely able to hold back her tears when she said “I’m here today because I am gay.” She picked up steam as she went along, and hasn’t even flinched back toward the closet since that day. She hosts Vice’s Gaycation, she starred in one of the saddest gay movies of all time with Julianne Moore, and she got herself a wife!

Seimone Augustus

It’s easy to look at the WNBA in 2018 and assume the easiest thing in the world to do is be an out lesbian. But when Seimone Augustus came out in 2012, that was not the case. The league was still two years away from fully embracing its queer women fan base (which it had basically been actively rejecting since its inception), and there were very few openly gay players in any professional sport. It’s hard to overstate Augustus’ impact: At LSU, she won the Naismith and was a two-time All-American. She was the #1 WNBA draft pick in her class. And she was an immediate superstar in the league. She left the closest door open a whole lot wider when she walked out. Augustus wrote an essay about meeting her now-wife, falling in love, and getting married not long after the Supreme Court made marriage equality legal nationwide. It’s called “It is So Ordered” and it’s my favorite essay about love and it will crack your heart wide open.

Ellen DeGeneres

There’s no coming out more iconic than Ellen DeGeneres’. Three words — Yep, I’m gay — and the whole world caught on fire. Her sitcom was ultimately cancelled; she became the scapegoat of the religious right for almost a decade; and her career almost didn’t recover. Now she’s one of the most beloved women (and definitely the most famous lesbian) in the world. Her name’s on everything, her talk show’s everywhere. She was even awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom during President Obama’s last term.

Kristen Stewart

I couldn’t remember all the gay stuff Kristen Stewart did before she officially came out on SNL last year; luckily, Stef had me covered in the post she wrote about the episode.

In the last year, Stewart has become a fantastic, almost mythical character in gay lady circles. She went from being the fidgety, perpetually uncomfortable focus of constant queer-ish speculation to the real-life Shane our community has always deserved. In the last year alone, the notoriously guarded actress went from dating French actress/singer Soko to moving in with her on-again, off-again love Alicia Cargile, to holding hands at fashion shows with St. Vincent and most recently making out in cars with Victoria’s Secret model and former Miley Cyrus paramour Stella Maxwell. It’s safe to say that at this point in her career, Kristen Stewart doesn’t give a fuck anymore.

Stewart is, to our knowledge, the only person who has come out to — among other things — troll the president of the United States.

Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts’ sexuality was always just kind of… known. She’s the reporter Obama reached out to when he wanted to announce his support of same-sex marriage. She was, as Brittani Nichols noted, once on an episode of Hannah Montana called “Can You See the Real Me” about how hard it is to live a double life. Roberts’ had been with her partner for a decade when she finally, casually mentioned her in a public Facebook post around the holidays in 2013. Since then, she’s been very open about her sexuality and her relationship. She even stopped by Ellen to chat about it.

Mara Wilson

The world really only knew Mara Wilson as Matilda until her memoir, Where Am I Now?, hit shelves in September 2016. Not long after that, she came out on Twitter (and also told us that: yes, she knows Miss Honey made everyone gay, but she had a completely different on-set lady-crush). Since then, she’s been a fierce and vocal advocate of bisexual visibility and a frequent guest at A-Camp.

Megan Rapinoe

It seemed like Megan Rapinoe was waiting for a reporter to ask her if she’s gay, and reporters were waiting for Megan Rapinoe to announce that she’s gay — and finally she just called up Out magazine and put it on the record in 2012. She has been brilliantly, sometimes hilariously vocal about her gayness non-stop since then. These days, she’s dating another Seattle pro sports superstar, Sue Bird, who just won another WNBA championship.

Rebecca Sugar

Former Adventure Time writer/Steven Universe creator and showrunner Rebecca Sugar came out as bisexual at San Diego Comic-Con in 2016, gently answering a question about why she’s so great at writing queer women with, “Well, in large part it’s based on my experience as a bisexual woman.” More recently, Sugar came out as a non-binary woman on NPR, and explained how her identity helps shape those of the Gems on her show.

Tessa Thompson

When Tessa Thompson came out just a few months ago, I legitimately rushed out of a doctor’s appointment so I could celebrate with my co-workers. Somehow Carmen was able to keep a level head and write a beautiful piece about the cultural impact of Thompson’s declaration that she’s queer: “It’s still rare to see a celebrity be this introspective and caring in their coming out, to lead with their heart and be purposeful about the responsibility of their fame, recognizing the huge impact their openness can have on their queer fans.” Thompson didn’t confirm her relationship with Janelle Monáe, but she did confirm that they “vibrate on the same frequency.”

Princess Bubblegum and Marceline Smooch On-Screen, Live Happily Ever After in the “Adventure Time” Series Finale

Adventure Time‘s hour-long finale, “Come Along With Me,” was everything I hoped for (and more) — it was weird and sad and silly and funny and harrowing and so quietly profound I’ll be thinking about it probably forever. Which was really the point of it all. Yes, it was the end of the Ooo (kind of) (twice), and yes there were cameos and Easter eggs galore. Every major character had a moment, a coda, a semicolon ending. But mainly “Come Along With Me” said the thing Adventure Time‘s been saying all along: The stories we love will happen, happening, happened, and will happen again and again.

Nowhere was that theme more evident than in the interactions between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, who — after dancing and laughing and bickering around each other for ten seasons about their past and their present and their past some more — FINALLY KISSED ON-SCREEN!

There are two major battles in Adventure Time‘s finale. The long-awaited Great Gum War between Princess Bubblegum and her Uncle Gumbald, which resolves pretty quickly with a dream-dive into everyone’s anxieties and fears and with Finn pleading for both of them to see the other’s humanity. And the much-alluded-to appearance of the being of pure destruction, GOLB, who starts smashing everything and everyone in sight as soon as he descends onto the planet. Princess Bubblegum is one of the many people (and bananas) who rushes at him, throwing her life on the line to save her friends and her kingdom. When PB gets conked on the noggin Marceline thinks she’s dead, and she goes berserk. She shifts into a raging demon and beats the bjork out of GOLB’s evolving form.

When Princess Bubblegum wakes up, Marceline rushes to her, wraps her up in the warmest embrace — even cradling her head — and says she was always afraid, when they were apart, that something would happen to Bonnie and she wouldn’t be there to save her. She doesn’t want to live like that anymore. And neither does Bonnibel. And so they smooch right on the lips, right there on the teevee.

I honestly never thought it would happen, and the story of how it finally did is very good. Executive producer Adam Muto talked to TVLine after the finale and said the way it was going to play out was up to story-boarder Hanna K. Nyströmthe. The script said Marcy and PB “have a moment” and when Hanna boarded it, she drew them kissing. The only note she wrote on her boards for the entire finale was one in the margin next to the kiss. It said “COME ON!” with a giant exclamation mark. And so the show finally did the dang thing. (Another great tidbit in that interview is Muto saying Marcy and PB’s relationship wasn’t in the original show pitch, and that Rebecca Sugar nurtured it into existence.)

Everyone ultimately fails at fighting GOLB, except for BMO, of course, who finds Jake curled up in fetal position in the wreckage of the tree house, scoops him up, and says, “How about today you let me be the papa?” and starts singing. They’re joined by Princess Bubblegum and Marceline who immediately sing along. It’s the only thing that hurts GOLB. He’s discord. They’re harmony. “My art is a weapon!” BMO yells, shaking their fist. Everyone joins in on their song, in the end, and as her one final act, Betty sacrifices herself so that Simon (really Simon!) can live.

“Come Along With Me,” itself, is happening, happened. King BMO is telling it to Shermy and Beth the Pup Princess, thousands of years later. I won’t share everyone’s last scene, but I’ll share Princess Bubblegum and Marceline’s — they’re snuggled up in bed together: pajamas, cups of tea, watching a puppet show. I could say they lived happily ever after, but Adventure Time says time is an illusion. The Great Gum War and GOLB’s attack, they were only pretty much the end of Ooo. The end of the Ooo we knew when we first met it. None of the characters on Adventure Time ever felt confined to the stories we saw them in; their journeys and relationships and feelings and failings stretched out behind them and in front of them, past the parameters of our TVs.

Shermy and Beth the Pup Princess want to know what happened to Finn (Phil) and Jake after the end? What happened to Princess Bubblegum? To everyone? BMO taps their fingers together, shrugs. “Well, they kept living their lives.”

Rebecca Sugar is Bisexual: “Steven Universe” Creator Comes Out at Comic-Con

feature image by Franz Xavier Manuel for Animac

Forget the first looks at Daredevil and Luke Cage. The big news out of San Diego Comic Con today is that Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar came out as bisexual!

In this video, at about 46:20, a person takes the microphone at a Steven Universe panel and enthusiastically asks Rebecca what inspired the idea to focus so much on women’s empowerment and LGBTQ themes in her show. Rebecca, being tender as ever, looks a little nervous before saying, “Well, in large part it’s based on my experience as a bisexual woman,” which receives applause and cheers from the audience and her fellow panel members.

https://twitter.com/Yamino/status/756575207599538177

Sugar continued to talk about why it’s important not just for her, but for other LGBTQ people, especially kids, who might be watching.

These things have so much to do with who you are, and there’s this idea that these are themes that should not be shared with kids, but everyone shares stories about love and attraction with kids. So many stories for kids are about love, and it really makes a difference to hear stories about how someone like you can be loved and if you don’t hear those stories it will change who you are. It’s very important to me that we speak to kids about consent and we speak to kids about identity and that we speak to kids about so much. I want to feel like I exist and I want everyone else who wants to feel that way to feel that way too.

The crowd erupted into a well-deserved standing ovation after this amazing answer.

I remember sitting on my couch bawling when Cartoon Network aired the Steven Universe episode “Alone, Together.” The show had been pretty queer before, with the gems Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst each giving vague hints that they weren’t completely straight, but in this episode, all hetero- and cisnormativity were thrown out the window. Steven, and his friend Connie, a girl, fuse and become one androgynous person who is flirted with by both boys and girls. In another groundbreaking episode, “Jailbreak,” we learn that Garnet is actually a fusion of two gems, Ruby and Sapphire, who are so in love that they have decided to always be together. Episodes have gotten even queerer and the subtext has turned into straight up text.

I’ve written before about how important this show is. LGBTQ kids will grow up with this show and will realize from an early age that they are good and normal and that they deserve happiness and respect and love. Kids just want to see themselves in stories, and Steven Universe does that for gay kids and bi kids and trans kids and kids of color, and queer kids of color, and femme kids and gender noncomforming kids. This show is changing and saving people’s lives, and it’s made by an openly bisexual woman. That’s amazing. That’s trailblazing. That’s historic.

Rebecca Sugar, via twitter.

Thank you to Yamino for tweeting about this and Felipe Flores for filming the panel on Periscope. But most of all, thank you to Rebecca Sugar for being who you are and for creating such a magical and wonderful show that means so much to so many of us.