With this year’s Pride Month officially here, lots of our favorite LGBTQ+ stars like Jodie Foster, Laverne Cox, Elliot Page, and Neil Patrick Harris might be celebrating. But while some of these stars have been celebrating for many years now, a few stars have just recently opened up to the world about their true selves.
6 Things You Didn’t Know about Kim KardashianReport adRELATED STORY25 LGBTQ Couples on TV That Made Us Believe in Love
To kick off Pride Month, for example, Bridgerton star Jessica Madsen, who plays Cressida Cowper on the show, took the internet by storm as she opened up about her sexuality for the first time. “In Love with a woman, loud about it and proud about it! 🌈” she wrote on Instagram.
Luckily, Madsen hasn’t been the only star this year to open up about being LGBTQ+ just this year. From Sophia Bush to Reneé Rapp, many celebs we know and love are embracing and sharing their true selves. Check out all the stars who came out in 2024 below!
Photo : Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images
Jessica Madsen
While her character may be crazy looking for a husband in Bridgerton, Jessica Madsen revealed she’s dating a woman in an Instagram post celebrating 2024’s Pride Month.
“In Love with a woman, loud about it and proud about it! 🌈” she wrote, adding the hashtags #pride #pridemonth #loveislove #gaypride. In one of the photos, Madsen can be seen rocking rainbow-colored jewels underneath her eyes while wearing a “Love Supreme” bucket hat.
In the comments, many of her hit show co-stars showed their support. “💖💖💖💖💖,” wrote Nicola Coughlan. “Love youuuuuu 💛,” wrote Hannah Dodd. Report ad
Photo : Elyse Jankowski/Variety via Getty Images
Sophia Bush
In addition to explaining how her relationship with Ashlyn Harris began, Sophia Bush also opened up about her sexuality in a candid essay to Glamour in April.
“I sort of hate the notion of having to come out in 2024,” Bush wrote. “But I’m deeply aware that we are having this conversation in a year when we’re seeing the most aggressive attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community in modern history. There were more than 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills proposed in state legislatures in 2023, so for that reason I want to give the act of coming out the respect and honor it deserves.”
“I’ve experienced so much safety, respect, and love in the queer community, as an ally all of my life, that, as I came into myself, I already felt it was my home,” she continued. “I think I’ve always known that my sexuality exists on a spectrum. Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great.”Report ad
Photo : John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images
Jessica Gunning
Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning recently opened up about being gay.
“I came out actually in November ’22,” she said in the Reign With Josh Smith podcast, per E! News. “And that was a mega, mega thing for me.”
“I’m surrounded by gays. Like, all my friends are gay,” the actress explained. “So it wasn’t like I was repressing anything. It was just that I didn’t think I could be, and I still can’t articulate it in the best way. But I realized I was a big old gay. I was like, ‘That’s what it’s been. That’s what it is.’”
“That was a massive moment where everything kind of clicked and I made sense for myself then,” she added. Report ad
Photo : Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images
Reneé Rapp
While “Pretty Girls” singer Reneé Rapp has been open about her bisexuality in the past, she came out as a lesbian earlier this year.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rapp talked about discovering her sexuality when she was playing a lesbian on Sex Lives of College Girls all while in a relationship with her ex-boyfriend.
“Recently, on TikTok, [I watched] this scene in season one, where I come out to another character as a lesbian, and I’m crying, sobbing. And I hadn’t seen that scene in years,” she remembered. “It is so interesting that at the time I wasn’t even aware that what I was experiencing in my own personal life was actually exactly what I was doing onscreen.”
“I was in a relationship with a man, incredibly confused, unsure of myself, feeling so insecure in my acting,” she added. “And I watched the scene the other day, and I was like, ‘Wow, I feel so lucky to have that.’”
“I’m also so grateful that I was able to have that moment,” she continued. “Not only was it helpful for other people, it was crazy for me; crazy helpful and also crazy hard. Because I’m like, ‘Why am I freaking out all the time?’ I would go home and I would call my friends and I’d be like, ‘I think I’m a lesbian, but I really love my boyfriend. I would want to be with him, but I see him more as a friend.’ So not only was I doing that on the show, publicly, in a big way to so many people, and my family, who had no idea that I was gay, I was also going through it personally.”Report ad
Photo : Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Zoe Lister-Jones
Zoe Lister-Jones revealed her sexuality when she debuted her relationship with nonbinary filmmaker Sammi Cohen at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards in February.
“I’m here, I’m queer, I have some fear but I’m working through it,” Lister-Jones admitted to The Hollywood Reporter.
She then talked about the awards’ new gender-neutral categories. “I’m dating a nonbinary person. I’m friends with so many nonbinary people,” she said. “And I think that without really shifting the paradigm in a larger way, it’s closing a lot of doors for really important voices.”Report ad
Photo : Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images
Lauv
“I Like Me Better” singer Lauv opened up about his gay identity in a candid TikTok with fans in March.
“I feel like I’m gay, okay,” he said. “I’ve said this so many times and still not claimed to actually be, because I’ve not had enough experience to say.”
“I would rather f-cking let it all fly. But instead I hold back,” he said. Luckily, comments are all showing their support for letting his true self fly. Report ad
Photo : Dave Benett/Getty Images for Dr Jart
Bethany Antonia
House of Dragon star Bethany Antonia told her followers she was gay in a not-so-pleasant Instagram Story, per TMZ. In a screenshot, Antonia shared a DM she had recently received from a racist hater saying “It’s a miracle they even included you in the trailer” of the HBO show.
On top, Antonia wrote, “Wait till they find out I’m gay too” followed by a clown emoji. Report ad
Photo : Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images
Madame Cassandra Uzumaki LaQueer
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 4 contestant Madame LaQueer came out as trans earlier this year.
“It’s something I’ve been pondering for myself for years,” she told Entertainment Weekly, adding that she now goes by the name Cassie (short for Cassandra) out of drag.
“It’s now or never,” she continued. “I think this serves for me to be a voice for those that have persuaded themselves into not pursuing their truths and let time take over. It’s never too late to come out and live your true experience and be yourself and be authentic. There’s nothing like feeling loved in your own skin.”Report ad
Photo : Santiago Felipe/Getty Images for MTV
Amanda Tori Meating
After participating in season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Amanda Tori Meating came out as trans.
“I showed up to Drag Race in this space of, I’m going to advocate for myself, I’m going to stand up for myself, I’m not going to allow myself to be victimized in the way that I feel like I have been in the past pre-Drag Race,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “[I was] in this environment for the first time where everyone’s calling me Amanda and not my government name, and realizing how good that felt, and I started to feel a bit more comfortable in the reformation of my identity.”
Then, when she returned home from filming, everything clicked. “It was kind of jarring to go from that environment where everyone is calling me Amanda and she/her-ing me, to being called by my government name again, and he/him,” she remembered. “I was like, this is very much not correct for me. That experience helped push me out of the nest a little bit and crack the egg.”Report ad
Photo : Robert Voets/CBS via Getty Images
Erika Casupanan
In one of the first coming-out moments of the year, Survivor winner Erika Casupanan came out as a lesbian on Instagram.
“Throwback to last New Year’s Eve when I tried to do the ‘eat grapes while sitting under a table at midnight and you’ll get a boyfriend by the end of the year.’ But I didn’t have grapes, so I chugged wine, and instead, that year, I realized I’m a lesbian,” she wrote over a video of herself drinking champagne. “Close enough, right?”Report ad
Photo : Steve Thorne/Redferns
Daniel Bedingfield
In a candid confession during a show in April, singer Daniel Bedingfield opened up about his sexuality.
“In my era, you had to be gay or straight, or f— you,” he said introducing a son, per Daily Mail. “I wrote this song with a man I loved about a girl we both loved.”
