In a cover interview with LGBT glossy
The Advocate, actor Tyler Blackburn said that he's identified
as bisexual since he was a teenager.
The 32-year-old Blackburn is best known
for playing Caleb Rivers on the Freedom series Pretty Little Liars
and its spin-off Ravenswood.
“I'm queer,” Blackburn said. “I've
identified as bisexual since a teenager. I just want to feel powerful
in my own skin, and my own mind, and in my own heart.”
“I heard so many things from within
the queer community about bisexuality being a cop-out or bullshit or
the easy way out or something, and that always stuck with me because
I felt the pressure from all sides to have [my sexuality] figured out
and I think for the longest time, I suppressed more of my attraction
to men. It wasn’t until my late 20s, towards the end of Pretty
Little Liars, that I really allowed myself to go there and not
just wonder about it or lust over it, but experience that
vulnerability and experience the emotional aspect of what it is to be
bisexual,” he
said.
Blackburn plays Alex Manes, a gay
military veteran, on the CW's Roswell, New Mexico. He said he
can identify with the character.
“I knew this guy in and out,” he
said. “I understood feeling oppressed. I understood having issues
with my father [wanting to feel] accepted by him. I understood
wanting something but being afraid to have it. I understood
self-doubt.”
Blackburn added that he just wants to
live his own truth.
“I just want to live my truth and
feel OK with experiencing love and experiencing self-love,” he
said. “Yes, there is an element of, I want to feel like it’s OK
to hold my boyfriend’s hand as I’m walking down the street, and
not worry. Is someone going to look and be like, ‘Whoa, is that guy
from that show? I didn’t know that [he was queer.]’ I want to own
my space now.”