'Pretty Little Liars' Star Tyler Blackburn Reveals He's Queer: I Felt the Pressure From All Sides
Instagram
Celebrity

The 'Ravenswood' alum admits he suppressed his attraction to men for years, before allowing himself to 'experience that vulnerability and experience the emotional aspect of what it is to be bisexual' in his late 20s.

AceShowbiz - Tyler Blackburn refuses to be in a box anymore. The "Pretty Little Liars" alum, who was a teen hottie thanks to his role on the then-ABC Family series, has opened up about his sexuality and revealed that he is bisexual and queer.

"I'm queer," he proclaims in an interview with Advocate. "I've identified as bisexual since a teenager." He adds, "I just want to feel powerful in my own skin, and my own mind, and in my own heart."

The 32-year-old, who is best known for his portrayal of Caleb Rivers on "Pretty Little Liars" and its spin-off "Ravenswood", reveals he got bullied by other kids for being effeminate. "I got bullied a lot by other boys, and I just felt like my soul was slowly being taken from me," he recalls. "I ended up eating lunch in my biology classroom in 10th grade, and I had no one to talk to."

Describing the moment as "soul-crushing," he says that he felt "self-hatred and shame" during those dark periods. He shares, "You form a shell around yourself for protection. And you start to make decisions based off of things outside of what you want and who you are. I stopped doing so many of the things that I loved doing because it felt safer. That right there is the outcome of oppression. When you literally have to mute who you are in order to feel safe."

While he had been dating a couple of women in his early 20s, the young actor says he always had an "underlying curiosity" about men. He opens up about the pressure to identify his sexuality, "I heard so many things from within the queer community about bisexuality being a cop-out or bulls**t 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," he reveals. "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."

But Tyler is done caring about what people think and just want to be "as happy as possible, as free as possible." "I'm so tired of caring so much," says the actor, who currently stars on "Roswell, New Mexico". "I just want to live my truth and feel okay with experiencing love and experiencing self-love."

He continues, "Yes, there is an element of, I want to feel like it's okay 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."

Despite coming out as queer, Tyler says his journey of self-discovery still continues. "Just because you decide 'I am this thing' doesn't mean you immediately feel like you fit into that thing," he explains. "That's another part of the journey that I still don't always know how to navigate, but I'm feeling more courageous and fortified to explore."

Follow AceShowbiz.com @ Google News

You can share this post!

You might also like