Ellen Page Is Gay: Ellen Page Comes Out, Makes Best Valentine’s Day Ever

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Happy Valentine’s Day, ELLEN PAGE IS GAY! While speaking at the HRC “Time to Thrive” conference promoting the welfare of LGBT Youth at Bally’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the 26-year-old actress said that she was “tired of hiding, and tired of lying by omission” because THIS:

“I’m here today because I am gay. And because maybe I can make a difference. To help others have an easier and more hopeful time. Regardless, for me, I feel a personal obligation and a social responsibility… It’s weird because here I am, an actress, representing — at least in some sense — an industry that places crushing standards on all of us. Not just young people, but everyone. Standards of beauty. Of a good life. Of success. Standards that, I hate to admit, have affected me. You have ideas planted in your head, thoughts you never had before, that tell you how you have to act, how you have to dress and who you have to be. I have been trying to push back, to be authentic, to follow my heart, but it can be hard.”

Ellen-Page-Whip-It-Promotional-Photoshoot-HQ-ellen-page-10097197-2560-1706

The HRC has wished her congratulations and consequently their website has crashed.

Obviously her queerness isn’t a big surprise to us, but the fact that she has decided to come out is a BIG FUCKING DEAL. Seriously, I just had to get this post up so we could celebrate together as a family, but needless to say there will be much processing to come.

UPDATE: Here’s the video of her speech at the conference. It’s really beautiful and touching, and she really opens right up and lets you see how she has struggled with this revelation, and the expectations placed upon her by her work, and we really get to see her whole heart in a way we don’t get to see in magazine stories about coming out.  It’s moving, it’s awesome, and it’s LOVE.

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Riese

Riese is the 39-year-old Co-Founder and CEO of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, blogger, fictionist, copywriter, video-maker and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and then headed West. Her work has appeared in nine books including "The Bigger the Better The Tighter The Sweater: 21 Funny Women on Beauty, Body Image & Other Hazards Of Being Female," magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

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259 Comments

  25. Not even the slightest bit shocked because I think we all pretty much knew but holy crap I was starting to think she would never come out and even think maybe she was a mis-blip on the radar. But no. I love seeing more openly gay mainstream actresses, seems to be more of a trend of gay mainstream actors coming out lately than actresses.

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  31. I really appreciate how she acknowledges all the systems and social forces that have influenced her not to come out and feel free to be authentic until now. It is a nice reminder not to forget that. Yet also, now she is free to be free! Babely queer Canadian. CONGRATULATIONS ELLEN. I just tweeted her and am thrilled that she might actually read it.

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    • *what* of all the changes on this website and I still can’t edit my comment.

      But yes I hate the “we already knew” attitude. I’m cool with the “I had suspicions because of the stereotypical aesthetic you’ve got going on” but the “lol and water is wet” attitude makes me stabby.

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  61. OMGOMGOMG Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Happy Valentines indeed!

    ….aaand that video made me cry.

    “I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered and my relationships suffered.” THIS A THOUSAND TIMES

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  67. Oh my god this is just perfect. I was already having an amazing valentines day vacation with friends, drinking beer and listening to live music and this is just the best. Can’t wait to get back to the hotel and watch the video. And I’m so grateful to have this community to bring me super relevant breaking news and celebrate together. <3

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  68. Y’ALL. My horoscope earlier this week said I would have a “meaningful dream” and on my way to work (teaching), I was telling my girlfriend that actually I didn’t have a “meaningful dream” because my whole dream was Ellen Page coming into my classes and being like “I’m the teacher now! Sit down, you’re a student” to me, BUT it turns out that it was a meaningful dream because Ellen Page is gaaaay and horoscopes are reeeeal!!!!

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  71. Oh the video, you can tell she was so nervous, it’s so sweet. She’s so brave- I could barely get the words to come out when I was talking to one of my siblings, I can’t even imagine coming out in front of a room full of listeners.

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  76. Facebook exchange:

    person a That sound you just heard was 23,453 lesbians swooning to the floor at once.
    23 minutes ago · Like · 2

    person b LOL true dat; she is a LOOKER.
    23 minutes ago · Like · 1

    Robin 23,453 lesbians *and bisexual and queer women!* don’t forget us. Also swooning. *fans face*
    about a minute ago · Like · 1

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  82. I really wasn’t expecting her to come out this year even though I’m totally not shocked at the news. Congrats to her! And I should totally feel bad for want to gloat in the faces of all the straight people who didn’t believe me when I said Ellen was one of us but I don’t. IN YOUR FUCKING FACE!!!!

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  84. I’m so proud of her for feeling like the time was right and coming out. Who didn’t want to give her a hug during her fantastic speech, she looked so nervous at times. Can we just have loads of group hugs right now?

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  86. I was more moved by this than I anticipated, because the video adds this whole other layer of emotion; her nervousness is so palpable and familiar. You can practically hear her heart threatening to beat out of her chest when she’s building up to finally say the words, it was a very visceral reminder of the first time I ever came out to someone.

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  89. In all seriousness though y’all, I just burst into tears listening to her speech because she said everything I still want to tell my parents after years (and some of what I did say when I came out to them last year). I know I been joking for years about her being gay, as have others, but her comments really resonate with me in a way that I both appreciate and hate. It took me seven years to come out to my parents, and I hid so much from them and other folks during that time. I’m happy she came out for her sake, but it also makes my heart ping to hear my own thoughts and feelings come from an awesome mainstream actress whose work I love. In the large scheme of things, her coming out is just a step, but it’s a step along side so many other amazing folks coming out as their full selves in the public eye. And that makes it easier for other people, young and old. So really, I’m happy about this in more than just a “yay, we were right!” and a “my crush!” way.

    …ok, done now.

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    • Yeah, she pretty much articulated all the reasons I stayed closeted for so long and also the damage that being closeted does to a person. I was second-hand nervous all through the video, her words hit so close to home it could have been me up there.

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  97. That was really spectacular!! I never saw Juno though, now I really feel like I need to go back and see it.

    One other thing it brings up in my mind though: X-2 was actually one of the things that played a role in gradually encouraging me to come out as trans and have the courage to transition and not be afraid of openly being who I really am. It honestly helped me to understand that if someone saw me as a freak, it didn’t mean there was something wrong with me, it meant there was something fucked up in their minds.

    That having been said, X-3 (where I think they first introduced Kitty Pryde?) was a huge let-down for me… now that I see Ellen has come out, I just really, really hope they bring Bryan Singer back to direct the future movies again and get the series back to where it started, when it wasn’t just throwing comic book characters at a movie, but it actually told a story and had a message that went with that.

    Sorry, I realize I’m going on a slight tangent with that, and I don’t want to take away from the awesomeness(!) of the moment… but it would REALLY be awesome if she was part of a blockbuster movie that had that kind of politics… anyways… feelings…

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    • Okay, so it turns out that this whole next film has been in development and yes with Bryan Singer as director for like well over a year now and I just had no idea.

      In a related development, it turns out I don’t do a very good job of following pop culture.

      It’s scheduled to be released in May and the best part is that we’ll get the honor of seeing it here in Japan about three months after everyone else :)

      trailer, with, like two secs of our friend Lady Page:

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  98. The sound I made when I saw this was inhuman. It is three in the morning and that speech was awesome and moving enough to make me comment on a website I never comment on because I’ve kind of been waiting for this forever and rarely do I have celebrity crushes but dude she is at the top of the freaking list and oh my god I’m so excited I don’t know what even

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