11 LGBTQ Celebrities, Actors, Reality Stars Who Came Out in 2023

Netflix reality star Chloe Veitch came out as bisexual in April in an interview with The Sun.

Veitch said that she felt that she needed to come out after appearing on a new British series called “Big Celebrity Detox.”

“Doing breath work forced me to dig deeper,” Veitch said. “I realized, ‘This is what’s bothering you — you’re bisexual and you haven’t told anyone.’ I’ve definitely been battling it, to be honest. I mean, being in and out of little flings with girls. I felt like it was my dirty little secret so it has taken the weight off my shoulders.”

“Because I’ve been on heterosexual dating shows, I’m just a bit anxious of public opinion,” Veitch continued. “But at the end of the day, if I’m happy, that’s all that matters. I’m itching to go out there and date both guys and girls. It’s really exciting.”

Veitch has appeared in three separate Netflix reality series: “Too Hot To Handle,” “The Circle,” and “The Perfect Match.” While all three series have featured bisexual contestants, “Too Hot To Handle” and “Perfect Match” were mainly geared toward heterosexual relationships.

In the interview with The Sun, Veitch also revealed that her celebrity crush is “Love Island” star Megan Barton Hanson, who also opened up about their bisexuality after leaving the show.

In January, “The Last of Us” star Bella Ramsey came out as nonbinary during an interview with The New York Times.

When asked about her identity, the 19-year-old actor said: “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.”

Ramsey added: “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.”

Although Ramsey said she doesn’t mind what pronouns are used for her, the actor told GQ a month later that she doesn’t like to be referred to as a woman.

“This is what bothers me more than pronouns: being called a ‘young woman’ or a ‘powerful young woman’, ‘young lady,’ but I’m just not [that],” she said. “‘Catherine Called Birdy,’ I was in dresses. ‘Young Elizabeth,’ I was in a corset. And I felt super powerful in that. Playing these more feminine characters is a chance to be something so opposite to myself, and it’s really fun.”

Ramsey became a breakout star after “The Last of Us” season one aired on HBO. Ramsey plays a lesbian character, Ellie.

Lil Nas X had already come out initially as gay in 2019. However, in January, the rapper tweeted that he may be “a little bisexual.”

The full tweet said: “be fr would y’all be mad at me if i thought i was a little bisexual.”

Nas added in a second tweet: “that was my last time coming out the closet i promise.”

Nas has not said anything about his sexual identity since January but has received lots of support from fans.

In April,  an image of the rapper kissing up-and-coming singer PinkPantheress went viral. The “Montero (Call Me Be Your Name)” artist responded, saying: “she had food on her lip ! i was getting it off!”

Noah Schnapp was another big star who came out in January.

The “Stranger Things” actor shared a video on TikTok joking about his friends’ reaction to him coming out to them.

“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,'” the caption said.

He then added, referring to his “Stranger Things” character Will Byers, “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”

Last year, Schnapp confirmed in an interview with Variety that Will is gay and in love with his friend Mike (Finn Wolfhard). Schnapp added that he didn’t know about Will’s sexuality until season four.

Schnapp received support from fans and his “Stranger Things” costars after coming out.

Wolfhard told GQ in February that he was “just really proud” of Schnapp. “When I saw it, I just had a big smile on my face,” he told the publication.

Alison Brie seemingly came out during an episode of the BuzzFeed YouTube series “Celebs Read Thirst Tweets.”

While promoting her new film “Somebody I Used To Know” with her husband Dave Franco, the pair read out NSFW tweets from fans.

“Listen, I am bisexual for a reason and that reason is strictly to be used in a threesome by Dave Franco and Alison Brie,” Brie read at one point before high-fiving Franco.

She then said: “That’s also why I’m bisexual.”

Franco then teased his wife saying: “You’ve been waiting for this tweet from someone you don’t know who they are or what they look like?”

Mo’Nique spoke about her sexuality during her latest Netflix comedy special “My Name Is Mo’Nique” in April.

Toward the end of the set, the comedian explained that her relative, Uncle Tina, was gay and her mother — Mo’Nique’s grandmother — only loved her privately, because she felt that being gay was a sin.

Mo’Nique went on to say that this made it hard for her to open up about her own sexuality growing up, but she eventually told her husband, Sidney Hicks.

“‘Daddy, I want to be with another woman, sexually,'” the comedian said she told him. “And he looked at me, so beautifully and so patient and so loving, and said, ‘Bitch, me too!’ He said, ‘You find that bitch and we will fuck that bitch together!'”

While Mo’Nique did not specify what her sexuality is, she said that she was attracted to women but was “not all the way” a lesbian.

The Oscar-winning comedian is best known for her roles as  Nicole “Nikki” Parker in “The Parkers” and Mary Lee Johnston in “Precious.”

In February, Czech soccer player Jakub Jankto became the first active international men’s players to announce he is gay.

Jankto came out through a video shared on Twitter.

“Like everybody else, I have my strengths, I have my weaknesses; I have a family, I have my friends,” he said. “I have a job, which I have been doing it as best as I can, for years, with seriousness, professionalism, and passion. Like everybody else, I also 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.”

The 27-year-old sports star is a player for the Spanish La Liga team Getafe CF, but he is currently on loan to the Czech First League club Sparta Prague. Both clubs released statements in support of Jankto after he came out.

In recent years, more and more soccer stars have been able to feel comfortable revealing their sexuality.

In March, Jankto told the Financial Times: “Football is a little bit homophobic, but I trust that with my example it’s going to get better. I know many people who work in factories or banks [and are openly gay] but in football it’s always a tough decision.”

Jankto said that FIFA, the international governing body of association football, could “help more” in tackling prejudices within the game but felt the problem is universal.

Jankto also said that he told his close friends and family last year, including his former partner Markéta Ottomanská, with whom he has a 3-year-old son. Ottomanská and Jankto broke up in 2021.

Campbell Johnstone is another athlete who came out as gay this year, and he is the first New Zealand rugby player to do so.

Johnstone, who has since retired from the sport, came out publicly in January during an interview with the Australian news show “Seven Sharp.”

“If I can be the first All Black that comes out as gay and take away the pressure and stigma surrounding the issue, it can actually help other people,” Johnstone said. “Then the public will know that there is one in amongst the All Blacks and it could be one of the final pieces in the puzzle sports-wise that gives everyone closure.”

The former rugby player said that he didn’t come out during his All Blacks career because he was still struggling with his sexual identity.

“Within myself, I was never comfortable with the whole concept and my dream was to be an All Black,” Johnstone said. “I pushed that side of me down deeper and deeper and I’ve been to some interesting places with that. 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.”

“Insecure” star Curtis Hamilton came out during the first episode of MTV’s “The Real Friends of WeHo” in January.

The new series follows the lives of a group of successful LGBTQ celebrities and businessmen.

Hamilton told TV Insider: “I was super scared. I hadn’t told people in close proximity in my life. One of my best friends found out on Twitter and was pissed. He just felt so bad that I didn’t tell him, but that’s just the life I’ve been living.”

The actor continued: “For me to go on a reality show and open up to the world with something I’ve just been telling the people that know me the most about, it was really scary. But I just felt it was time. I’m still scared.”

Soap opera star Alexander Lincoln came out on social media last year.

In November, Lincoln shared an Instagram post to celebrate being shortlisted for breakthrough performance at the British Independent Film Awards for his performance in “In From The Side.” In the movie, the actor plays a rugby player who is gay.

A fan responded to the post writing: “I loved the movie and its actors are still very handsome but I still think that the actors are posing as gay but they are not. Is it my doubt?”

Lincoln then replied: “Thanks so much- really appreciate it!!!! And no, im not straight.”

Lincoln clarified the comment earlier this year in an interview with Attitude magazine.

“I think the bottom line I want to convey is: I’ve been with women, and I’ve been with men, and I don’t prescribe to a label because I’ve never felt that that definition has offered me any clarity,” the “Emmerdale” actor said.

Lincoln added that he wants to be a role model for the next generation.

“I think the main thing that I’ve found in my experience is the need of anyone who finds out about your sexuality to define it for them,” he said. “‘How gay are you then? What do you prefer more?’ Which I’ve always felt [to be] a moot point. Because surely it doesn’t matter.”

Lincoln continued: “I feel that this need for clarity from anyone who comes out as bi, bi-curious, pan or anything where the lines are blurred a little more is damaging and can also exclude those in the LGBTQ+ community from feeling like they are a valued member of it.”

In February, YouTube star Joe Tasker came out in a video shared on the social media platform.

“I’m gay. So there we go. That’s the first bit done,” Tasker said. “There’s so many coming out videos now than when I was younger. When I was younger, you suppressed it and you just got on with your stuff.”

Tasker also revealed his current boyfriend, fellow YouTube star Jack Biggs. He said that they have been dating for “nearly four years.”

“I’ve finally found someone who’s as weird as me,” he said. “And we are in love!”

Tasker received a lot of support from his fans after the video was posted, and he later thanked them in an Instagram post.