Matt Bomer reflects on having his coming out moment ‘stolen’ by Perez Hilton
Bomer spoke about the experience in a new interview, saying that it "felt kind of unfair" that Hilton outed him before he was ready
By Gary Grimes
Matt Bomer has spoken out about the experience of being outed by celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton early in his career.
In an appearance on the Dinner’s On Me podcast with Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Bomer recalled the rise of blogs like Hilton’s. “It was a time when folks could kind of take over your own personal narrative before you even had a chance to,” he recalled.
“I remember outlets like Perez Hilton talking about my personal life before I had ever had a chance to even do it myself. And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to; I didn’t even have an opportunity to.”
The American Horror Story actor explained that at that time he was not a big enough name for most news outlets to be interested in his personal life. “No media outlet was ever going like ‘Hey!’ I just didn’t have a career that warranted that,” Bomer said. “And so it felt kind of unfair to me, that that was stolen by people who did have a microphone at the time.”
Bomer eventually did come out in a speech he delivered after being honoured for his HIV activism at the 2012 Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards. The actor told Ferguson that it was his family, including husband Simon Halls and their three children, that made him want to come out. “I didn’t want them to feel like they were some kind of shameful secret or something I was sweeping under the rug so I could have a great career,” the father of three said.
The Mid-Century Modern star famously lost out on the titular role in a Superman film after his sexuality became public knowledge.
“The more straight people see that there are gay folks out there, the easier it is for us to achieve change” – Perez Hilton
During his heyday, the blogger was famously instrumental in outing a vast number of celebrities including Neil Patrick Harris, Jonathan Bennett, Queen Latifah, Lindsay Lohan, Lance Bass, Clay Aiken, Anderson Cooper, Kevin Spacey, Jodie Foster, Luke McFarlane and Wentworth Miller.
Speaking to Big Think in 2013, Hilton defended his actions, saying: “It would be infinitely better for the community if Anderson Cooper came out, if Kevin Spacey came out, if Jodie Foster came out. Why? Because visibility is key. The more straight people see that there are gay folks out there, the easier it is for us to achieve change, the easier it will be for us to get marriage equality, the harder it is for people to hate.”