Wilson Cruz Quotes

What's it like to figure out you're gay and then begin the process of coming out? Well, for most of my life, I felt doomed. I could imagine no path that would allow me to realize my authentic self. I felt the need to lie, even to myself, insisting: I am straight.

It took me a long time, not necessarily to come out, but to understand how I was feeling. It wasn't planned for me to come out with 'First Girl' or anything. I just so happened to have met my current girlfriend on the set.

I watched pretty much every coming out video on YouTube that has ever been posted; I watched it in between 14 and a half and 15. Those coming out videos, and those people on YouTube, those brave, brave, brave people on YouTube, without them, I don't know where I'd be.

I watched a million coming-out videos, and that was kind of how I accepted it myself.

Before I came out, the thought of someone calling me gay, even when I knew very well that I was, was petrifying.

When I was growing up, I kept hoping that I wasn't really gay because I wanted to have children. I went through a long, tortured period, so the fact that I have been able to be true to myself and have a family has been the nicest surprise of my adulthood.

Someone said to me a long time ago, 'You're a drag queen,' and at the time I was a little like... hello? But then I realized over the years that I actually am.

Over the years I've realised that there's nothing wrong with me. But there was a long way for me to go to get back to this loud and outgoing kid, and to get to the point where I could say, 'Yeah, I'm gay, so what?'

I came out to one or two people in high school and then it wasn't until I was a freshman in college that I was fully out of the closet. It was like the late '90s.

The process of coming out is normally very disappointing. It's not that people react badly to it - they really don't care.

I came to realize, along with being attracted to girls, I had similar feelings for boys. All the people close to me have known for years who I am. Yet it took time to embrace that other part of who I always was.

I think for a long time I wasn't really out to myself growing up in Omaha, Neb., to a Catholic conservative family. It took me a while to come out to myself, and not long after that, I came out to them. I think that it really couldn't have been a better experience. They were all immediately supportive.

I was conveniently bisexual for a long time, and then I went, 'Come on, who am I kidding?' And I have to say, it was the single biggest step I took toward emotional well-being, to stop feeling like I had to hide who I am.

I think it's always good for gay people to come out, but it's also understandable why people might choose not to do so.

Realizing I was gay was a long sort of waking up.

Coming out was painful, but life got so much better for me.

I think also there was a lot of coming to terms with where I am in life, where I fit in as a gay man in America, and getting more comfortable with who I am.

I think one's sexuality can be the center of life, and coming out and discovering your sexuality is something that really can define your existence.

I realize it's a cliche, almost, that coming out of the closet is a very healthy and empowering thing to do, but for me, it really has been a truly wonderful thing.

I was terrified about people knowing I was gay. I'd cringe inside at the idea that they'd be talking behind my back.

I didn't want to be gay. I wanted to be... I wanted an easy life. And you know what? I am gay, and I still have an easy life.

Gay men can sometimes feel ashamed or chastised when the messaging is 'Be out and proud!' or 'Just come out.' It's not that easy. It certainly wasn't for me.

I spent 24 years in the closet wanting to talk so desperately about who I was and what I am but too afraid to.

I've always been someone who's had to compartmentalize my life because I was in the closet, and I was in fear of outing myself. I always had so much going on in my mind and couldn't share it with anyone, so I actually feel like, now that I'm out, I have less to compartmentalize.

My friend's mom said to me, 'honey, I think you're gay.' And I go, 'yeah, I am.' As soon as someone vocalized it to me, gave me permission. I was like, 'yes, yes, yeah!'