[ad_1]
9:00pm PDT, Jul 6, 2023
_
During an interview with The New York Times that hit the Internet on Jan. 11, “The Last of Us” star Bella Ramsey publicly revealed that they identify as non-binary. “I guess my gender has always been very fluid. Someone would call me ‘she’ or ‘her’ and I wouldn’t think about it, but I knew that if someone called me ‘he’ it was a bit exciting. … I’m very much just a person. Being gendered isn’t something that I particularly like, but in terms of pronouns, I really couldn’t care less,” said the “Game of Thrones” alum.
Bella went a step further in May, though, telling British Vogue that “being called ‘they’ is the most truthful thing” for them. “That’s who I am the most,” they said before noting that they’re “not 100% straight.” Explained the 19-year-old actor, “I’m a little bit wavy, you know? That’s what I like to say.”
MORE: Celebs who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community
_
“Stranger Things” star Noah Schnapp publicly came out in a Jan. 5 TikTok video. “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know,'” he wrote across a video of himself lip syncing the popular “it was never that serious” TikTok sound. “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, it will never be that serious,” he mouthed. In the caption, Noah referenced his “Stranger Things” alter ego Will Byers’ sexuality, writing, “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”
MORE: Stars who came out later in their careers
_
Dylan Mulvaney became practically a household name after she took to social media on April 1 to share a funny video of herself promoting a Bud Light contest in honor of March Madness. In the clip, the transgender influencer briefly mentions that the beer brand sent her “possibly the best gift ever” — a single tallboy featuring an image of her face. (Replicas of the can were not available for purchase.) The promotional video sparked immediate backlash, prompting some conservative stars — from Kid Rock and Travis Tritt to John Rich and Ben Shapiro — to boycott the beer brand for being too “woke.”
The blowback was so major that the stock price of Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, plummeted. (By June, it seemed as though Anheuser-Busch had recovered, though Bud Light sales remained lower in America than during the beer’s pre-Dylan partnership days.) In the wake of the scandal, Bud Light essentially ghosted Dylan — in late April, CEO Brendan Whitworth refused to stand by her, instead releasing a statement insisting that Bud Light “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.”
Two months later, Dylan — who debuted the results of her late 2022 facial feminization surgery on the red carpet at the 2023 Grammy Awards in February — addressed the scandal on TikTok: “The way that this ad got blown up, you would have thought I was, like, on a billboard or on a TV commercial or something major, but no,” she said, adding that “what transpired from that video was more bullying and transphobia” than she ever could have imagined. She also noted that she lost the infamous Bud Light tallboy featuring an image of her face: “When I do find it, I feel like it needs to go in a museum — preferably behind bulletproof glass,” she said. After condemning Bud Light’s behavior — “For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want,” she said — she concluded by calling upon her followers to stand with trans people. “There should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us,” she insisted.
_
Mo’Nique came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in her 2023 comedy special “My Name Is Mo’Nique,” which debuted on Netflix on April 4. “I’m not all the way [gay],” the Oscar winner said, later clarifying that she’s never been with a woman and has kept the experience “a fantasy.” She stopped short of specifically labeling her sexuality, explaining that she promised herself she “would never tell anyone” that she’s attracted to women because of the bigotry she witnessed as a child when her late grandmother, whom she loved dearly, failed to accept her lesbian aunt. “I would take that to my grave ’cause I saw how they treated the people in my family with that ‘disease.’ Because they made us believe it was a ‘disease,’ right?” she said, adding that she overcompensated for her sexuality by sleeping with “as many” men as possible. She was also “so scared” to tell her husband of nearly two decades, Sidney Hicks, about her sexuality because she feared he’d “walk away” from her when she told him she wanted “to be with another woman sexually.” Instead, she joked, he fired back, “B****, me too!” Mo’Nique turned 55 in late 2022.
_
On Feb. 5, Kim Petras made history when she became the first openly transgender woman to win a Grammy: The German singer-songwriter and collaborator Sam Smith, who’s non-binary, took home the gramophone for best pop duo/group performance for their hit single “Unholy” during the 2023 Grammys. “I just want to thank all the incredible transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so I could be here tonight,” Kim said during her acceptance speech. (Back in 1970, Wendy Carlos became the first transgender woman to win a Grammy — she won three for her debut album, “Switched-On Bach,” which was released two years earlier under her birth name — but she had only just begun the process of transitioning and still used her birth name professionally at the time.)
_
Alison Brie casually came out as bisexual in a BuzzFeed video with husband Dave Franco that debuted on YouTube on Feb. 17. The duo read “thirst tweets” about themselves including this one: “Listen, I am bisexual for a reason and that reason is strictly to be used in a threesome by Dave Franco and Alison Brie,” a fan wrote, prompting the “Mad Men” and “Community” actress to respond, “That’s also why I’m bisexual.”
_
Although he came out to his friends and family — “to anybody who mattered,” he said — at 19, it would be more than three decades before Richard Armitage publicly addressed his sexuality. During an interview with Radio Times magazine that debuted online on April 11, the “Obsession” actor, who previously starred in the “Hobbit” franchise, said that he didn’t open up about his sexuality sooner because no one ever asked about it: “I was always waiting for that question to punch me in the face, and it never did. I thought, ‘Are people being polite, or is it that they don’t want to know?’ I don’t know that I ever wanted to put myself in front of the work I was doing, anything about my family or personal life. I just thought, ‘Let the work speak for itself,'” he explained.
_
Early in 2023, Rebel Wilson launched Fluid — a dating app on which people looking for love do not specify their gender or sexual orientation. “It’s not just a dating app, it’s a kind of movement. It’s a rejection of categorization and that notion that you have to be one thing. What if there wasn’t a closet? What if everyone is just a person and we are all equal,” the Australian actress told The Hollywood Reporter in June, calling the app, which she co-founded with three friends, “truly the most inclusive” because “you can be anywhere on the sexuality spectrum.”
_
On the June 28 episode of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” Taylor Armstrong revealed that she’s bisexual and was previously in a five-year relationship with a woman. (They dated before the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum married her late first husband, Russell Armstrong, in 2004.) “Most people are surprised to find out that I’m bisexual — probably just because of stereotypes. … I mean, it’s not something I broadcast, but I’m open to all people who have great souls that you can love,” said the reality star, who’s been married to second husband John Bluher since 2014.
_
Greta Van Fleet singer Josh Kiszka publicly came out on Instagram on June 20 while speaking out against anti-LGBTQ legislation in Tennessee, where he lives. “Where I’ve settled a home in Tennessee, legislators are proposing bills that threaten the freedom of love. It’s imperative that I speak my truth for not only myself, but in hopes to change hearts, minds, and laws in Tennessee and beyond. These issues are especially close to my heart as I’ve been in a loving, same-sex relationship with my partner for the past 8 years. Those close to me are well-aware, but it’s important to me to share publicly. Over the years, the outpouring of love for the LGBTQ+ community has been resounding, but there is still work to be done for LGBTQ+ rights in Tennessee, the nation, and the world,” he wrote. Greta Van Fleet won a Grammy back in 2019.
_
Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee made history when they became the first openly non-binary performers to win Tony Awards for acting during the 2023 Tonys on June 11. The “Glee” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” star won the award for best featured actor in a musical for their role in “Shucked,” while the “Raising Dion” star won the award for best lead actor in a musical for their work in “Some Like It Hot.” J. dedicated their big win to “every trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming human who ever was told you couldn’t be [and] you couldn’t be seen.”
_
On March 17, Jeff Molina became the first male UFC fighter to publicly come out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, though it wasn’t exactly on his own terms. “I’m bi,” he wrote in a lengthy statement shared on Twitter after a video in which he could be seen getting intimate with another man hit the Internet. “Not the way I wanted to do this, but the chance to do it when I was ready was taken from me. I’ve tried to keep my dating life private from social media. I’ve dated girls my whole life and suppressed feelings I had throughout high school being on the wrestling team, throughout college pursuing MMA, and even after making part of the dream happen and getting into the UFC,” he wrote, adding that he feared his friends and colleagues would treat him differently if they knew the truth.
“In a sport like this where a majority of the fans [are] homophobic … I didn’t see myself doing this during this part of my career. I wanted to be known for my skills and what I’ve dedicated the last 11 years of my life [and not as] the ‘bi UFC fighter,'” he continued before condemning “the awful, disturbed person” who leaked the video.
_
On Feb. 19, Chicago White Sox minor league player Anderson Comas came out on Instagram: “I’m proudly and happily part of the LGTBQ+ community. I’m also a human with a great soul. I’m respectful, I’m a lover, I love my family and friends and that’s what really matters. I enjoy my work a lot, being a professional baseball player is the best thing that happened to me, so I just wanna say something to those people that say that gay people cannot be someone in this life: Well, look at me. I’m gay and I’m a professional athlete, so that didn’t stop me [from making] my dreams come true. I’m doing this cause I wanna be an inspiration for those like me out there [fighting] for their dreams. Please don’t listen to those stupid things that people say about us. Fight for your dreams, believe in yourself and go for it,” he captioned a photo of himself, adding a hashtag for “gay and proud.”
_
On the March 13 episode of Emily Ratajkowski’s “High Low with EmRata” podcast, Diplo revealed that he lands somewhere on the lower end of the Kinsey Scale: “I think the best answer I have is I’m not not gay,” the three-time Grammy winner said after admitting that, in the past, he’s shared intimate moments with other men. He then admitted that “there’s a couple guys” he “could date.”
_
On Feb. 13, Czech soccer star Jakub Jankto publicly came out on Instagram: “[I] want to live my life in freedom. Without fears. Without prejudice. Without violence. BUT with love. I am homosexual and I no longer want to hide myself,” he said. The professional athlete is the first active senior international men’s soccer player to publicly come out.
_
On Jan. 30, former professional athlete Campbell Johnstone (who’s pictured in 2004 and is practically unrecognizable now) became the first professional rugby player in New Zealand to publicly come out. “If I can be the first that comes out as gay and take away the pressure and stigma surrounding the issue, it can actually help other people,” he told TVNZ’s Seven Sharp. He waited to come out until after he retired, he said, because he wasn’t “comfortable with the whole concept” earlier in his career. “I pushed that side of me down deeper and deeper. … It would come to the surface. I may have had a bad game and I would look at that side of me and blame that side for it. It’s hard living a lie,” he said. In June, Campbell announced his engagement to his love of two years, equestrian Ben Thomson.
_
During a video interview with Jason Lee that debuted online on May 3, Yung Miami made it clear that she identifies as bisexual. (In the past, she’s made loose references to her bisexuality.) “I really do like girls,” said the City Girls rapper while discussing her longtime crush on Megan Thee Stallion. She isn’t interested in taking things with a woman to the next level, though: “Sexually I have been with a woman before. I love it. … [But] I won’t be in a relationship with a girl,” she said. Yung Miami has been in a long-term, off-and-on open relationship with Diddy for years now.
[ad_2]
Source link
Jarastyle – #Taylor #Swift #cast #trans #actor #play #love #interest #biggest #LGBTQ #news #Gallery
Courtesy : https://www.wonderwall.com/celebrity/year-in-review/a-grammy-winner-cast-a-trans-actor-to-play-her-love-interest-in-a-major-music-video-the-biggest-lgbtq-moments-of-2023-757509.gallery