Credit: John Paschal/JPI (3), Don Arnold/Getty Images, Steve Granitz/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesSoaps.com pays tribute to the daytime and primetime stars who are living their truth.
Greg Rikaart
In 2013, the Young & Restless and Days of Our Lives leading man (as Kevin and Leo, respectively) came out following the Supreme Court’s decisions in favor of same-sex marriage and equality. Since 2015, the Emmy winner has been married to writer/producer Robert Sudduth (Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies), with whom he has a son, Montgomery.
Joanna Johnson
Just before Bold & Beautiful revealed that Bill’s sister Karen is a lesbian, her portrayer told TV Guide that she is, too. For years, “I was so worried I wouldn’t be employable as an actress if people knew,” she said, “or that I wouldn’t be believable in romance stories. I had to deal with a lot of self-loathing.” Now a TV producer, Johnson has been married since 2008 to club promoter Michelle Agnew, with whom she has two children.
Mike C. Manning
The Days of Our Lives alum (as wicked Charlie Dale) has been out as bi since his pre-fame stint on The Real World. “For whatever reason — my genes, my makeup, my hormones, whatever you want to blame it on — God made me attracted to both sexes,” he told After Elton in 2010. “That’s just how it is.” In accepting his ’21 Daytime Emmy, Manning made sure to give a special shout-out to his husband, who works in finance.
Neil Patrick Harris
The erstwhile Doogie Howser, who went on to star in the romantic dramedy Uncoupled, said in 2008 that dating Ben Stiller’s future wife Christine Taylor had made him realize the team for which he really played. “She’s an absolute catch, and I thought, ‘If I’m not going to feel the super sparks with her… it probably means I’m gay.'” In 2014, he married actor David Burtka, with whom he has twins.
Midori Francis
Over the course of her two seasons on Grey’s Anatomy, this scene stealer gave lovelorn Taryn Helm her first real on-screen romance as bi surgical resident Mika Yasuda. (And no, we’re not counting Helm’s unrequited crush on Meredith Grey.) In real life, Mika’s portrayer also identifies as queer.
Ricky Martin
At the height of his career, “I could high five God, but I wasn’t living to the fullest,” the General Hospital alum told NBC News in 2020. “I was sad. I was depressed.” So Miguel’s former portrayer publicly disclosed in his 2011 memoir that he is gay. “And I’ve been super happy ever since.” Martin and his former husband, artist Jwan Josef, have four children.
Rafael de la Fuente
The fan fave from Dynasty and Empire told LATV that he came out as gay to a close friend when back in 2007. Her priceless reaction? She said, “‘Oh. Honey, I knew that.’ That felt like the biggest weight lifted off my shoulders,” de la Fuente exclaimed. “Once I opened that gate, it all just kind of naturally happened.”
Cynthia Nixon
The Sex and the City star, who’s reprised her role of Miranda on And Just Like That, identifies as queer. She has two children with her former partner, Danny Mozes, and has been married since 2012 to Christine Marinoni, with whom she has another child.
Thom Bierdz
The Young & Restless vet whose character Phillip played dead for years rather than come out to his family is also gay in real life. Post-daytime, he’s devoted most of his time to painting and, in 2005, was named one of Out Magazine’s Best Emerging Artists.
Tuc Watkins
The One Life to Live scene stealer — now and forever David Vickers to soap fans — announced during a 2013 talk-show appearance not only that he was gay but that he’d become a single father of two. Six years later, the Uncoupled star began a relationship with Book of Mormon Grammy winner Andrew Rannells, with whom he appeared in both the Broadway and Netflix versions of The Boys in the Band.
Cassandra James
Not only is James the only openly trans soap star working in daytime, but her character, General Hospital doc Terry, is the only current trans representation in the genre. “My experience,” she admitted in 2022, “has been pretty lonely and pretty isolated.” Nonetheless, she is determined to keep blazing trails. “I feel a sense of responsibility,” she told People, “and I just want to bring my authentic humanity to what I do.” Mission accomplished!
Jonathan Groff
In 2009, years after his stint on One Life to Live (as troubled Henry), the star of stage (Hamilton) and screens big (Frozen) and small (Looking) came out and embraced the chance to inspire and empower queer youth. In 2017, he was even named Out100‘s Entertainer of the Year.
Jonathan Bailey
The Bridgerton heartthrob came out as gay to his intimates in his 20s but didn’t comment publicly for years after, lest his sexuality be reduced to “a commodity and a currency,” as he put it to the Evening Standard. Nevertheless, the Fellow Travelers leading man is happy to stand up in the name of representation. “If I can fill spaces that I didn’t have growing up,” he told the New York Times, “then I feel like that’s a really brilliant thing.”
Maureen Garrett
Three years after CBS shut off Guiding Light, Holly’s portrayer shared with Out that she is a lesbian and for decades had been with her partner Janet Morgan, with whom she has three grown sons. Of her long-suffering character, Garrett laughed, “She wore far too much makeup… At the end of the day, I almost always washed off the makeup and, with it, Holly’s brand of crazy.”
Kevin Spirtas
The Days of Our Lives vet, whose character Craig Wesley came out in 2022, told Logo TV in 2020 that he hadn’t always been forthright about his sexual orientation. “For me, being gay was a dirty word growing up, and now this is my truth. I’m proud of who I am and love who I am.” The Emmy winner even created After Forever, a Web soap in which he plays a gay widower.
Jonathan Bennett
The All My Children grad — he replaced Jesse McCartney as JR Chandler — was for years best known as the dreamboat in Mean Girls. Now, however, he’s earning a reputation for blazing new trails for the LGBTQ+ community. He and his husband, onetime Amazing Race contestant Jaymes Vaughan, became the first gay couple to grace the cover of The Knot. In 2022, Bennett starred in Hallmark Channel’s first LGBTQ+ Christmas movie.
Meredith Baxter
After three failed marriages to men, the TV legend came out as a lesbian in 2009. The Family Ties mom — who also played Nikki’s drinking buddy Maureen on Young & Restless in 2014 — has been married to Nancy Locke since 2013.
Wayne Brady
In 2023, the Let’s Make a Deal host and alum of The Bold and the Beautiful (as Zoe and Paris’ baby-snatching doctor father, Reese Buckingham) came out as pansexual. Or, as the showbiz vet put it to People, “bisexual — with an open mind.”
Darius Rose
When the veteran of RuPaul’s Drag Race was invited to recur on Days of Our Lives as his drag alter ego, Lisa Rinna lookalike Jackie Cox, he was thrilled — and not just because the part of Leo’s ex was so juicy. “I think it’s important to see that other people exist, that their lives are real, and in real life, I am a drag queen who does travel around and perform in drag,” he told Soap Opera Digest in 2023, “so there’s no reason why that kind of person couldn’t exist in Salem as well.”
Matt Bomer
The Guiding Light alum who played disturbed call boy Ben came out during a 2012 award-show speech in which he thanked his husband, publicist Simon Halls, and their children. Years earlier, when he disclosed his sexual orientation to his family in a letter, they refused to speak to him for six months, he told The Guardian, and then engaged him in a fierce argument. Finally, they did accept Bomer for who he is.
Hanako Greensmith
To celebrate Pride in 2023, the Chicago Fire star, who plays Violet, expressed a bit herself. “The signs were always there,” Instagrammed the actress, who is as close off screen as on with castmate Daniel Kyri. (Read more about them here.)
Jake Borelli
Shortly after Grey’s Anatomy doc Levi came out in 2018, so did his portrayer. “As a gay guy, you have to come out all the time,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “People think coming out is the first time [someone] says they’re gay when in reality coming out is a constant process.” Borelli had already been living his truth with those nearest and dearest to him for years. But sharing it with the public was something else altogether. “I’ve forgotten how intense the feelings are and how big a step it is.”
Chrishell Stause
A year after they started dating, boom, they were married! In the spring of 2023, the Days of Our Lives alum — you remember ill-fated Jordan — tied the knot with Australian singer G Flip. “Love doesn’t always go as planned,” Instagrammed Stause, who was previously married to Justin Hartley. “Sometimes it’s immeasurably better.”
Van Hansis
Four years after As the World Turns stopped spinning, the actor who made history as half of daytime’s first gay male kiss came out publicly in an interview with The Fight Magazine. Luke’s former portrayer has been with partner Tyler Hanes since 2007.
Clementine Ford
Cybill Shepherd’s daughter, who played Mac on Young & Restless in the late 2000s, is bi, she told Diva magazine in 2009. The L Word actress and husband Cyrus Wilcox have two children.
Adam Huss
The General Hospital standout (as a recast Nikolas Cassadine) married his partner Adam Bucci in 2020. On their fourth anniversary, the actor said that he remained eternally “grateful I went into that audition for that play where we met, adopted that dog who got your attention in rehearsals and for you saying yes to coming on that camping trip during tech week. Who does that?!”
RuPaul
Arguably history’s most famous drag queen, the LGBTQ+ icon has amassed such a long and varied list of credits — including a Port Charles guest gig as psychic Madame Alicia — that he can make it rain anytime he pleases. As for pronouns, “you can call me he,” the Emmy winner said in his autobiography. “You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee. I don’t care! Just as long as you call me.”
Murray Bartlett
The Australian-born actor who played sly devil Cyrus on Guiding Light in the late 2000s came out decades before The White Lotus made him an especially hot property. “I didn’t feel like I really had an alternative,” he told GQ in 2021. “I just never felt I could ever be anything but myself.”
Sara Ramirez
In 2016, the Grey’s Anatomy favorite (who now stars on And Just Like That) came out as queer and bisexual. Four years later, they announced that they were nonbinary. “In me,” they posted on Instagram, “is the capacity to be girlish boy, boyish girl, boyish boy, girlish girl, all, neither.”
Camryn Grimes
The Young & Restless Emmy winner disclosed on social media in 2020 that conversations with her boyfriend husband Brock Powell, who is bisexual, led her to realize that yep, she is, too. “Honestly,” Mariah’s portrayer said with a laugh, “I feel stupid I didn’t come to the conclusion sooner.”
Marc Anthony Samuel
Art imitates life for the General Hospital fave — here with Felix’s former love interests Parry Shen (Brad) and Ryan Carnes (ex-Lucas): Samuel is also out in real life.
Paul Anthony Stewart
In 2018, the veteran of Loving (as Casey) and Guiding Light (as Danny) married Michael Cook, his boyfriend of eight years. The couple had caught one another’s eye at “a lesbian bar at 4 a.m.,” Stewart told The Cut. “Isn’t that how we all meet our husbands?” He tied the knot with Cook, who is a stylist and fashion editor, in in a backyard ceremony at their Catskills house.
Ronen Rubinstein
The Israeli-born actor, who plays T.K. Strand on 9-1-1: Lone Star, came out 2021. “I fully identify as bisexual,” he shared, adding, “I literally just got goosebumps saying that. It feels so good to talk about it. It feels so good to finally be comfortable with it.” A year later, he tied the knot with The Flash alum Jessica Parker Kennedy.
Joe Locke and Kit Connor
When Heartstopper cast its superlative teenage leads, Locke was already out as gay. Connor, however, had not made his sexual orientation public — a fact that the public just couldn’t handle. So “fans” badgered and bullied him until he finally revealed that he is bi. “How could you watch the show and then do that to him? Truly idiotic,” said series creator Alice Oseman. Despite that shameful incident, Connor has risen to the occasion and continues to stand up for the LGBTQ+ community. “Queer people,” he said in a 2023 BAFTA Kids & Teens interview, “need the representation that we sorely miss a lot of time.”
T.R. Knight
The Grey’s Anatomy vet’s coming-out wasn’t exactly the easiest: His sexual orientation was made known after castmate Isaiah Washington used a gay slur on set, leading to a widely reported altercation. “I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality,” Knight told People in 2006, “and I’d like to quiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there. While I prefer to keep my personal life private, I hope the fact that I’m gay isn’t the most interesting part of me.” Since 2013, the actor has been married to ballet dancer/writer Patrick B. Leahy.
Queen Latifah
Though the rap icon and Equalizer star told the New York Times as recently as 2008 that “I don’t feel like I need to share my personal life, and I don’t care if people think I’m gay or not,” she finally ended all the speculation at the 2021 BET Awards when, in accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award, she thanked partner Eboni Nichols and the son that they share.
Peter Porte
The soap-hopper, who’s gone from playing Ricky on Young & Restless to Dimitri on Days of Our Lives, married Jacob Jules Villere in 2018. In addition to his daytime roles, he starred in 2020’s Dashing in December, one of the first mainstream TV movies to make Christmas a gay old time.
Lea DeLaria
From 1999-2011, the first openly gay comic to appear on The Arsenio Hall Show recurred on One Life to Live as psychic Madame Delphina. Well known for her role of Boo Boo Black on Orange Is the New Black, DeLaria is credited as the originator of the U-Haul joke. As in, “What does a lesbian bring on a second date? A U-Haul.”
Christian Jules LeBlanc
During a 2021 episode of State of Mind, the Young & Restless Emmy winner lamented that having grown up at a time when sexuality wasn’t even discussed and anything other than straight was considered a sickness had had a lasting effect on him. “I still live with the legacy of that as a gay man,” said the actor, who’s played Michael Baldwin since 1991. “I still don’t hold my husband’s hand in public. Can’t do it.”
Rafael L. Silva
Half of 9-1-1: Lone Star supercouple “Tarlos,” the Brazilian-American actor came out as gay when he was in college, he told Folie magazine in 2022. “It is not necessary to hate someone to feel better about yourself,” he said. “There is room for everyone in this world.” Amen to that!
Yasmin Finney
The Heartstopper leading lady is, like her character Elle, openly trans — and brave enough to stand up to transphobes. During a speech at Trans+ Pride in the summer of 2022, she called out England’s then-prime minister Boris Johnson. “Boris,” she said, “I hope you see Heartstopper. Because I exist. And I know you know I exist. We all exist. And we’re not going anywhere. Period.” Good on you, Yas!
Colman Domingo
The charismatic actor, who you’ve seen on everything from Euphoria to Fear the Walking Dead, has been married to husband Raúl since 2014. And though it was love at first sight, they nearly blew their chance to meet, as Raúl and his friend left the drugstore in which he and his future spouse locked eyes before they could say hello. Luckily, he later wrote up a Missed Connections post on Craigslist, and Domingo… well, “I literally jumped out of my chair when I saw the post,” he told GQ.
Lachlan Buchanan
After Young & Restless, the Australian-born actor who played Kyle went on to bring to life a Station 19 coming-out story. In real life, Buchanan, who also recurred on Dynasty, said in a 2020 interview with Queerty that he was queer, too.
Adelaide Kane
Back in 2021, before Grey’s Anatomy doc Jules Millin was even a glint in a writer’s eye, her future portrayer came out as bi via a TikTok video.
Scott Evans
The brother of movie star Chris Evans — beloved to soap fans for playing Oliver, half of One Life to Live’s “Kish” in the late 2000s — came out as gay when he was 19. In 2022, the actor appeared as singer Darren Hayes’ romantic interest in the music video for “Let’s Try Being in Love.”
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