The
coming out gay of country music star Chely Wright has won
GregInHollywood.com's Coming Out Story of the Year.
“No celebrity coming out story moved
me more than that of Chely Wright,” long-time Hollywood
correspondent Greg Hernandez said in awarding Wright his 2010
Greggy Award.
The 40-year-old singer-songwriter came
out gay in an interview with People magazine in May. In that
interview, Wright called her coming out “magical” and revealed
that she once believed she could alter her sexual orientation by
praying it away.
Wright continued to talk about her
coming out in her memoir, titled Like Me: Confessions of a Country
Singer, and in subsequent interviews.
She confessed to Oprah that she
seriously considered suicide in 2006.
“I couldn't find a way to get the
pieces of my life to fit, and [I thought]: 'I'm trapped. I can't
come out because there's never been an openly gay country music
singer. I decided on that night I was done. I was tired. I
couldn't do it anymore. I said a prayer to God to forgive me for
what I was about to do, and I began to cry.”
And
she went on to become an advocate for gay teens.
“Young people in every corner of
America are being told by their churches, and their parents are
echoing what the churches are telling them, that they are damaged
goods. And they are not,” she told Oprah.
Hernandez earlier named Darren Criss
New Star of the Year for his portrayal of an out-and-proud student on
Fox's Glee.