What was interesting was talking to older gay men about what it was like being gay in the Eighties.
I've heard other gay people say when they were growing up they felt 'foreign.' Growing up, I was able to label these feelings as: 'I'm a Protestant.' It wasn't until I left, I thought: 'Oh, those weren't Protestant feelings.'
Is there something about the gay experience, being gay and the gay experience, that pushes us even more than other people toward competition?
The idea of the gay experience, it feels like a relic. I felt like in the '90s when we were watching the gay characters on 'The Real World,' there was definitely a gay experience that was distinct from a straight experience. If you talk to high schoolers in 2017, I don't know that is as much a part of how they experience a social dynamic.
I don't think there's been many chances for people to see a black, gay, pop experience and that's what I want to have with my shows moving forward.
I went to school in the Bronx. I learned to constantly try to cover up the fact that I was gay. That facade of being somebody I'm really not just to protect myself definitely helped with acting.
That's the biggest thing I struggle with. We could never hope to represent every gay person in America. There will be people who will say, 'Well, my experience of being gay isn't like that,' to which I can only say, 'That's fine.'
I discovered that I was gay when I was about nine or ten. I did go out with girls for a while, but it didn't last.
I wish I had a sad story, but I don't. Too many gay people have a sad story.
I’ve had many, you know, happy ending sleepovers’in my early youth — my period of exploration. I think that’s essential. Anyone who hasn’t had a gay moment is probably trying to avoid some confrontation with a reality in their life.
The thing about gay people is that until we come out of the closet, we're always protecting other people: 'I can't do this, because it's gonna hurt so-and-so.' We're trying to live the lives of other people, and that's the worst thing you can do.
Being gay myself, I'm naturally drawn to the interactions between men rather than men and women.
As a gay man in Hollywood, I certainly understand what it means to be in it but not of it, to be marginalized at times and kept out of certain clubs.
Ang [Lee] gave us a lot of books about cowboys who had been gay or stories about it and all that stuff. And I just talked to a lot of my friends - who [was] their first, particularly same-sex, first situation. That was fascinating to me - trying to learn what that was in a certain period of time. Certain age. The secrecy involved in it. All those things.
I got kicked out of Catholic school, by the way, because I was too feminine. I was too feminine and I had a crush on this boy named Anthony and the nuns were not having it.
I have actually been very fortunate that I've met a lot of really wonderful straight men in my life - and a lot of really wonderful gay men in my life.
I know I can't tell you what it's like to be gay. But I can tell you what it's not. It's not hiding behind words, Mama. Like family and decency and Christianity.
You know, I'm gay and I grew up being aware of that at a very early age, in a fairly repressed family.
I've known I was gay since I was young, I think. And I mean young - like, young - like 5 or 6. I think most gay people or queer people know there's something different about them very early, but I didn't know what to call it.
There is no universal gay experience. All stories are relevant, and all stories are needed.
I think it's interesting: What is the generational effect of the experience of being a gay person in America? For my generation, it was very difficult.
It's insulting when somebody who is not a member of our community feels like they have a great understanding of what it's like to grow up gay in this country.
We've all been watching stories about heterosexuals forever... As a gay kid, you are always having to translate. You are always having to pretend like you are one of the other characters. You're not seeing your life accurately reflected.
When I played Hope in 'Booksmart,' I was like, 'I could see myself with a woman.' Because, literally, I was seeing myself with a woman.
Honestly, when I was a boy and I was out as a gay boy, I never really dealt with anyone bullying me or anything like that.
