Kristen Stewart, Colton Haynes, Shepard
Smith and Sara Ramirez were among the celebrities who came out in
2016.
The 26-year-old Stewart, the star of
the Twilight movie franchise, opened up this year about her
personal life. In a
T
cover story, she said that talking about her personal life as it
relates to dating women “represents something really positive.”
In
his coming out interview, actor Colton Haynes, 28, told
Entertainment Weekly that he was advised to “subdue” his
sexuality when he first arrived in Hollywood.
Fox News anchor Shepard
Smith for the first time publicly acknowledged his sexuality,
telling The Huffington Post that former CEO Roger Ailes had
not prohibited him from coming out.
Director Lilly Wachowski, formerly
Andy, came
out as a transgender woman in March amid threats to out her by
tabloid reporters. She told Chicago's Windy City Times that
she decided to come out to avoid being outed by Britain's Daily
Mail.
Wachowski's sister, Lana Wachowski,
came out publicly as a transgender woman in 2012.
The siblings are best known for
directing The Matrix and its two sequels. More recently, they
created Netflix's Sense8.
(Related: Sense8
returns December 22 with 2-hour Christmas special.)
In October, actress
Sara Ramirez revealed for the first time publicly that she's
bisexual. Ramirez, who is married to husband Ryan DeBolt, is
best known for playing a bisexual woman on Grey's Anatomy for
10 years.
After 27 seasons, the producers of
Fox's animated comedy The Simpson outed Waylon J. Smithers,
Jr. to his boss Charles Montgomery Burns. Smithers' sexuality was a
well-known secret to fans of the show. In one episode, he
rollerskated in rainbow shorts out the Stonewall Bakery.
Trey Pearson, lead singer of the
Christian rock band Everyday Sunday, came out in May. During
an appearance on The
View, Pearson said that his wife, with whom he has two
children, and sister were his biggest supporters.