Latest news with #comingout
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on coming-out tales: from A Boy's Own Story to What It Feels Like for a Girl
'What if I could write about my life exactly as it was?' the teenage narrator of Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story wonders. 'What if I could show it in all its density and tedium and its concealed passion, never divined or expressed?' Published in 1982, A Boy's Own Story was hailed as one of the first coming-out novels, and its author, who died aged 85 last week, as a great pioneer of gay fiction. This auto-fiction relates White's privileged adolescence in 1950s Chicago, his struggles with his sexuality and search for a psychoanalytical 'cure'. In its extraordinary candour about sex – a hallmark of White's prodigious career – the novel remains startling today. It arrived at a pivotal moment in gay history: after the hope of the Stonewall uprising and just before the devastation of Aids, both of which White documented in what became an autobiographical trilogy with The Beautiful Room is Empty (1988) and The Farewell Symphony (1998). Lancashire in the 1970s might seem a world away from the American midwest two decades earlier, but Jeanette Winterson's account of her miserable childhood in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was similarly groundbreaking when it was first published in 1985. Forty years later, plans are under way for an RSC musical version next year. 'Why be happy when you could be normal?' her adoptive mother, Mrs Winterson, an evangelical Pentecostal Christian, demands, when she catches the teenage Jeanette in bed with another girl. It doesn't get much more mainstream than a musical. But, as Winterson told the audience at the Hay literary festival last weekend, the BBC's Bafta-winning 1990 adaptation was a 'very brave' move after Section 28. 'It really shook up TV at that moment,' she said. Now another BBC adaptation is shaking up TV. What It Feels Like for a Girl (the title is a 2000 Madonna song), based on Paris Lees' 2021 memoir, powerfully shows what it meant to be a transgender teenager in the Midlands in the noughties. This personal story has once again landed at a time of intense public reckoning over LGBTQ+ rights. What It Feels Like for a Girl might be recent history, but, with ominous nods to a nascent internet, it is still a period piece. It is pre-social media and what Jonathan Haidt, in his book The Anxious Generation, has called 'the great rewiring of childhood'. Where once young people read to discover they were not alone, now they scroll. Each of these coming-out stories is rooted in a specific time and place. They are about class as well as sex, the salvation of books and music as well as romance. They are about loneliness, desire and a longing for escape – being a teenager, in short. Despite heartbreaking scenes of abuse and pain, they are also bursting with excitement. One of the conditions of youth is that one's 'own story' feels like the only story. This is why the coming-of-age narrative endures. In our digital age of toxic masculinity and intolerance, these memoirs call for truthfulness and compassion. They are reminders of the fragility of progress. 'If gays have gone from invisibility to ubiquity and from self-hatred to self-acceptance,' White wrote in his last book, The Loves of My Life, published in January, 'we should recognize we're still being pushed off cliffs in Yemen – and from the top fronds of Florida palms, for all I know.'
BBC News
5 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Coming out as gay 'daunting' - Armagh All-Ireland winner Shields
Armagh's Mark Shields admits coming out as a gay inter-county footballer was "daunting", but says it was "important to tell my own story" as he publicly discussed his sexuality for the first time. An All-Ireland winner with the Orchard County in 2024, Shields spoke about coming out in the GAA world at the Gaelic Players Association's annual Pride Bunch last weekend. Shields is the first active male inter-county player to speak about being gay since former Cork hurler Donal Og Cusack, while Tyrone club footballer Kevin Penrose spoke about his experience on The GAA Social earlier this says he hopes his story will help young Gaelic games players who are struggling to express their sexuality."I feel it's just important to tell my own story of 12-15 years playing inter-county, my experience of coming through the ranks, being a senior inter-county player in the male GAA environment," said Shields in a video posted on the GPA's Instagram account."It was a daunting task coming out, whenever it was, about 10-12 years. The culture has changed within society, within the group in Armagh. I feel that I can express myself more. The group are more accepting."The language used around the group is changing. There's people standing up for people, for myself in the group, whereas maybe that didn't happen that much before. I think the culture is changing within the GAA itself." 'I hope telling my story will help younger players' Whitecross club-man Shields says some of the language previously used in changing rooms was "hurtful", but that he feels more supported within the GAA now. "It's been excellent to have allyships and people advocating for it in social media, and around GAA set-ups, and the GPA," he said."I hope speaking out and telling my story will help that younger player, be it male or female, non-binary to express themselves in the GAA environment."Shields added that speaking to his sister helped him before he came out. "I had to find someone I trusted in, that was my sister," he said."I spoke to my sister a lot, and would have a close relationship with her, my partner as well. It's finding that someone you trust and you want to express yourself to them."I found that very helpful whenever I was trying to tell my story and trying to come out. They were the ones that stood by me throughout and supported me whenever I felt down or low in the dumps or in a dark place."It doesn't have to be in front of a group; it can be a one-to-one conversation with someone. That's how I found it easier, to have that walk on the beach, in a forest or just chatting to someone over a coffee. That was the easiest way for myself."
Washington Post
29-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Student banned from graduation after coming out online, lawsuit says
Days before Morgan Armstrong was set to graduate from Tennessee Christian Preparatory School, she announced on Instagram and Facebook that she is gay and in a relationship with another woman. Armstrong, 18, said the late-April decision to come out online — using the caption 'cats outta the bag' — happened spontaneously.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hollywood mogul Barry Diller who came out as gay now insists he was NEVER 'closeted'
Hollywood mogul Barry Diller, who came out as a gay in his new memoir after decades of marriage to fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, is now insisting that he was never in fact 'closeted.' Diller, 83, who has a net worth of $4.6billion, spilled his juicy showbiz secrets in his autobiography Who Knew, which was published Tuesday. The former Paramount Boss says in the book he knew he was gay from the age of 11, but his older brother was a drug addict and he did not want to inflict the shame of two 'broken' children on his parents. His sexuality was an open secret in Hollywood for decades, but the wealthy entrepreneur is just now confirming it for the general masses. Now in a new interview, he has claimed that the 'door was always open,' saying: 'If I was in a closet, it was made of glass and full of light.' He maintained that he 'wasn't ever lying' and 'never pretended anything' but merely 'never declared,' according to the Hollywood Reporter. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The tycoon discussed the 'casual cruelty' of hearing a Paramount executive making gay jokes in front of him while he, Diller, was head of the company. 'I wasn't closeted - I just never declared,' he stated, adding that he felt the 'reaction' to a viral excerpt of the book in which he came out as gay was 'wild.' The 83-year-old billionaire marveled: 'Suddenly I'm "coming out." At my age! Diane, my wife, and I laughed about it. It was absurd. The door was always open. If I was in a closet, it was made of glass and full of light.' Of the responses to the book, he said: 'People can say what they want. I didn't want to live a hypocritical life. That was the main thing. So I just lived as I lived. But yes, of course it left a mark. Any minority experience does. That's universal.' However he also doubled down on the misgivings he expressed in his memoirs about not having been more candid about his sexuality to the general public. 'I do wish that I had made a declaration,' he acknowledged. 'I wasn't ever lying. I've never pretended anything. I never hid. People in my circle knew about my life with both men and with Diane. The only thing I didn't do was make a declaration. I chose not to for a lot of complicated reasons.' Diller said again: 'I was never hiding. But I didn't issue a press release either. And yes, there were moments, especially early in my career, when I was aware of how people might react. But in practical terms, it didn't hold me back.' Although he never let his sexuality impede him professionally, he observed that the 'internal part - the shame, the concealment - that leaves a mark,' which he explained is 'why I wrote about it' in the autobiography. Diller reflected that in this day and age 'the idea of "coming out" in the old sense - it's mostly obsolete now. Young people may still struggle, but we've come so far. And that momentum can't be stopped, no matter who's in office.' In the book, he gave a a glimpse into who exactly he was messing around with, having revealed his wife was the only woman he could ever love. Diller allegedly had liaisons with Michael Bennett, famous Broadway director and choreographer behind A Chorus Line, as well as Johnny Carson's stepson, according to The New York Times. Columnist Maureen Dowd didn't name the stepson and the book isn't out for another 10 days. But Carson only had one stepson - Joe Holland - who died of AIDS in 1994. Diller's other lover Michael Bennett was also killed by the disease in 1987 aged just 44. And, at the time, the lifestyle choice could have ended his career, telling the outlet that it was 'better to be called a failure than a fairy.' However, that didn't stop Hollywood from nearly outing him over the years. In 1974, he caught wind that People was planning on writing a 'mean and homophobic' piece on him. But when it came out, it mainly criticizing his business acumen, leaving the New Yorker relieved at the time. Twenty years later, while he was working at QVC and was trying to acquire Paramount, a rumor about him having AIDS began circulating. When a Times reporter contacted him to ask him about it, he said he was shocked and told the reporter he was fine. His friend, Michael Eisner, outed him to Disney executives in 1995, writing in an internal board memo that 'the fact that he is homosexual should have no weight' when considering him for the role of CEO of the company, The Times reported. It doomed his chances of getting the job, the publication said. And throughout his marriage to von Furstenberg, they lived separately - him in the Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side, her above her business in the Meatpacking District. The first time he met the 'deliriously glamorous' fashion queen von Furstenberg at a super-smart Manhattan dinner party in 1974, she'd rudely brushed the reserved movie man aside to talk to someone else. As Diller describes it, he was an outsider in her snooty world: 'I was standing alone next to the fireplace feeling I did not belong in this group when "Prince" Egon von Furstenberg [Diane's first husband] walked up to me and said, "Your pants are too short."' But when he and Diane met again a year later at another fabulous soiree, she was suddenly all over him. 'I was instantly bathed in such attention and cozy warmth I couldn't believe it was the same woman I'd been dismissed by a year earlier,' he recalled. Later… 'We stood at the door, and I said, "I want to call you," and she said, "I want you to."' But overall, Diller is ready to tell the truth after all these years in his upcoming book. 'I wanted to tell the story, and I knew if I told the story, I had to tell the truth,' he told The Times. Diller says he knows most people had guesses his sexuality long before he came out and joked that he was in a brightly-lit, glass closet prior to coming out. He said not doing so helped him achieve incredible career success - partly because he believes all his anxiety was centered around being outed, which meant he was a decisive and fearless leader. But Diller says he's also ashamed he didn't come out sooner and wishes he could have served as a role model for gays of his generation who felt ashamed of their sexuality.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Little Sister' Review: Hafsia Herzi Directs a Modest but Empathetic Coming-Out Tale
It says less about 'The Little Sister' than it does about a certain entrenched model of queer cinema shaped by past generations that we spend much of Hafsia Herzi's third feature waiting for something terrible to happen. Coming-out stories have long been weighted with expectations of trauma or tragedy, and the stakes in this one are high: Our heroine Fatima is a devout Muslim girl from an Algerian immigrant household in Paris, fearful that her nascent lesbianism will see her cast out of her family and faith. But conflict doesn't arise in quite the ways you'd expect throughout this quiet character study, in which self-acceptance is the most significant narrative hurdle to clear. Sensitive and empathetic but a little timid in storytelling and style, 'The Little Sister' rests considerably on its lead performance by first-time actor Nadia Melliti, an arresting presence who suggests Fatima's vulnerabilities and insecurities from behind a withdrawn exterior — though the film can, at points, feel hemmed in by her emotional range. It's not hard to imagine Herzi herself having taken the role earlier in her career, though as in her last directorial venture, 2021's 'Good Mother,' the actor-turned-filmmaker stays off camera, guiding her cast with palpable care and compassion. A Cannes competition berth arguably places undue pressure on this affecting but modest work, though it's a broadly accessible arthouse prospect. LGBT-oriented programmers and distributors, in particular, are sure to take an interest. More from Variety 'Queen of the South's' Alice Braga to Star in New Carolina Jabor Film, Based on Novel by Cannes Jury Member Leila Slimani (EXCLUSIVE) Eli Roth's 'Ice Cream Man' Sells Distribution Rights in France, U.K., and Other Key Territories to StudioCanal's Sixth Dimension (EXCLUSIVE) Biopic of Turkish-Armenian Photojournalist Ara Güler Becomes First Film to Be Jointly Produced by Historically Hostile Turkey and Armenia (EXCLUSIVE) In the first of the film's season-based chapters, Fatima is introduced as a bright high-school senior, confident in the company of her mouthy friend group, and a cheeky foil to her more staid older sisters and tradition-minded parents at home. Away from those spheres, however, she's less certain of herself, for reasons that become clear when one classmate casually identifies her as a lesbian — her sudden and violent reaction speaks of the terror felt by closeted people when their secret is no longer under their guard. It certainly makes sense of her noncommittal, monosyllabic responses to her longtime boyfriend, a pushy chauvinist keen to marry and start a family as soon as possible. It's not only Fatima's queerness that's in conflict with that plan. She's determined to live a more modern life, enrolling in college to study philosophy, and soon shedding her juvenile school friends to forge her own adult identity. That comes with hesitant sexual explorations too: furtive, app-arranged meetups, under a false identity, with women more experienced and comfortable with their sexuality than she is. In one standout scene, older sensualist Ingrid (a wonderful Sophie Garagnon) gently but frankly talks her through the fundamentals of lesbian lovemaking, stressing to the shy, faintly appalled teen that 'nothing in sex is dirty.' But it's only when Fatima meets Korean nurse Ji-Na (Ji-Min Park, the vibrant star of 'Return to Seoul') that she finally feels ready to be intimate with another woman, and as herself rather than an aloof, baseball-capped alter ego. (She's even coy about her cultural identity in these encounters, routinely telling people she's Egyptian rather than Algerian — one more layer of disguise to hide behind.) The two swiftly enter into an intense, ardent relationship and before long, though she isn't yet out to her family, Fatima feels emboldened enough to attend a Pride parade with her first girlfriend. Yet when Ji-Na's mental health takes a turn for the worse and the two break up, Fatima must learn self-sufficiency in her new life. Supplementing this personal awakening is an ongoing inquiry into her faith. While Fatima remains a believer, her fear that Islam will reject her as a queer woman isn't entirely assuaged by counsel from a local imam (Abdelali Mamoun) — who advises her, with a conflicted mixture of kindness and misogyny, that homosexuality is 'not as serious' a sin in women as it is in men. Herzi's script, adapted from an autobiographical novel by Fatima Daas, is nuanced and perceptive on such matters, never more so than in a lovely scene, rich in unspoken conflicts and understanding, in which Fatima's doting mother (Amina Ben Mohamed) assures her daughter of her unconditional support. Otherwise, 'The Little Sister' feels a little short on such domestic texture and detailing. Despite the title, Fatima's family relations are only superficially explored, and more time spent observing everyday routine and activity outside of our heroine's immediate interior crisis wouldn't go amiss. Herzi treats her protagonist with such tenderness and concern — with DP Jérémie Attard's camera likewise devoted, studying her face in one rapt closeup after another — that the external particulars of her life and environment fall comparatively out of focus. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
