After Kal Penn, here's a list of actors who openly spoke about their sexuality

Actor Kal Penn who is known to feature in the sitcom Sunnyside recently came out as bisexual during an interview on CBS on October 31 morning. During the interview, he revealed that he is engaged to his partner Josh, with whom he has been together for 11 years. The actor opened up about his sexuality as a part of his memoir You Can’t Be Serious. Kal met his fiance Josh during his time working in Washington DC and later discovered his own sexuality. 

Now with the actor coming out as gay, let us take a look at all the stars who have come out of the closet. Celebrities like Ellen D Genres, Kristen Stewart, and more have become important figures within the LGBTQ community as they’ve championed equality both on and offscreen.

Cara Delevingne

The Carnival Row star previously dated Michelle Rodriguez, singer St Vincent and Ashley Benson. In 2017, she described she came out and called herself as being "not gay," and told Variety three years later that she's pansexual. However, pansexual means a person is not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity. 

Kristen Stewart

The actor, who shot to fame with Twilight series, revealed in 2017 that she is bisexual. In 2019, Stewart discussed the perceived impact of her sexuality on the success of her career, saying she had been warned not to be public with her girlfriend so that someone could cast her in mainstream roles. Her 2017 appearance at Saturday Night Live and her monologue went viral where people teased her for being ‘gay.’

Jameela Jamil

Jameela who is known for her style statements came out as queer in the middle of a heated Twitter spat in February 2020. She told Variety one month later that she'd known about her sexuality since she was a child and she did not disclose it to anyone until a couple of years ago. She kept quiet because she hails from a South Asian background where they do not have a lot of queer idols. 

Billy Porter

Pose star Billy Porter who came out as bisexual in 1985, told the Gay Times of his "violently homophobic" upbringing in a 2019 interview. He came out at the age of 16 "in the middle of the AIDS Crisis". He then got married to his husband, Adam Smith, on January 14, 2017, after meeting him in 2009 He was very keen to get married "while Obama was still president and before January 20th, 2017" so the two got engaged on December 29, 2016, and married 2 weeks later. 

Ellen DeGeneres

The famous TV personality, came out as a lesbian during her feature on the cover of Time magazine in 1997 with the title, "Yep, I'm Gay," and during an episode of The Ellen Show that same year. In her book Love, Ellen, DeGeneres' mother Betty describes being initially shocked when DeGeneres came out, but she has since become one of her strongest supporters; she is also an active member of PFLAG and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's Coming Out Project. Since 2004, DeGeneres has had a relationship with Portia de Rossi. After the overturn of the same-sex marriage ban in California, DeGeneres, and de Rossi were engaged, and married in August 2008, at their home in Beverly Hills, California, 

Jim Parson

The actor quietly revealed in a May 2012 New York Times profile story that he had been in a ten-year relationship with boyfriend Todd Spiewak. In 2010 and 2014, the actor thanked Spiewak during his Emmy award acceptance speeches. The pair tied the knot in New York in May 2017.

Image: AP