Coming out

A teenager who was expelled from her Christian school for celebrating her birthday with a rainbow cake says she was forced to come out by a right-wing magazine editor. The girl celebrated her 15th birthday wearing a jumper with rainbow stripes on it and a multi-coloured rainbow cake. Her mother posted a picture of her birthday celebrations on social media. She then received an email from the school’s principal saying her daughter was being expelled “immediately due to a post on social media”. The picture with the rainbow cake and...

Bisexual Olympic hopeful Jack Woolley has revealed that some of his opponents won’t shake his hand since he came out. The Irish athlete revealed that he was bisexual in 2016 on RTÉ’s Road to Rio documentary when he was just 17-years-old. Four years on, he has become the first Irish person to qualify for the Olympics in Taekwondo. But some athletes in martial arts have refused to shake his hand since he came out. Bisexual Olympic hopeful says his sport can be ‘tough’. “It is tough, my sport,” Woolley told...

Tarana Burke has told Rihanna that her biggest failure in life was not supporting her non-binary child when they came out to her. Burke, a civil rights activist, community organiser and founder of the #MeToo movement, made the confession in an interview for a special issue of Dazed magazine co-curated by Rihanna. Asked what her biggest failure in life is, Burke said that it was when she “did not respond well” to her daughter coming out to her as a young teenager. “My daughter is queer and non-binary, and when...

Nearly a year after coming out as bisexual, the YouTuber and late-night talkshow host Lilly Singh has something to say the people who have a problem with her sexuality. In February 2019, Singh publicly came out with a simple tweet: “ Female  Coloured  Bisexual. Throughout my life these have proven to be obstacles from time to time. But now I’m fully embracing them as my superpowers. No matter how many ‘boxes’ you check, I encourage you to do the same.” She later revealed that the announcement was particularly challenging for her because...

Lebanese-American actor Haaz Sleiman has opened up about his experience of growing up gay and Arab, saying the fear was “debilitating and crippling”. Sleiman is set to star in upcoming Apple TV+ anthology series Little America, which tells stories of immigrant experiences. He will appear in an episode called “The Son” as a gay man from Syria who is forced to flee his family. The actor told Salon that he was perfect for the part because of his own upbringing. “I have similar experiences, where I had to hide and...