Actor Stephen Guarino, who came out at
the age of 15, says he was a popular gay teen.
Guarino, who turned 36 last Monday, is
best known as a cast member of all-gay cabler Logo's The Big Gay
Sketch Show. He also provided comic relief in the 2009 film
BearCity and its upcoming sequel BearCity2, to
be released next summer.
(Related: BearCity
sequel has the gang partying in Provincetown.)
Guarino also plays the recurring role
of Derek, a screaming, over-the-top gay man, on the ABC comedy Happy
Endings.
The comic actor told gay glossy The
Advocate that he got lucky coming out in the early 90s “when
it was suddenly fashionable to be alternative.”
“Grunge was on the scene so anything
different was hip,” Guarino said. “It was popular for jocks to
have boyfriends, which sounds insane. We had a group called the Lake
Mary Fags and it consisted of skaters who took pride in being
bisexual. They'd have boyfriends to impress their girlfriends. It
was very in vogue.”
He added that having a popular best
friend who looked like Mariah Carey didn't hurt.
“She was my prom date, so we lucked
out. I had no childhood problems at all. My parents were
overeducated, WASPy, bored Bostonians. They didn't blink an eye,”
he said.