Ellen Page on Coming Out: 'I Felt Awkward Around Gay People'
April 30, 2014 — -- Ellen Page came out as gay on Valentine's Day at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s inaugural Time to Thrive conference. More than two months later, Page is opening up about that big night where she said “I am here today because I’m gay.”
"I was very nervous. I was very nervous, yes. Yes. Very, very nervous," she told Flare magazine for its June cover. "Yes. I was emotional, deeply, deeply emotional.”
The 27-year-old "X-Men" star added that her coming out had been eight years in the making, having told her parents when she was just 19.
Read: Ellen Page Gives Emotional ‘Coming Out’ Speech in Front of Hundreds
"You think you’re in a place where you’re all I’m thrilled to be gay, I have no issues about being gay anymore, I don’t feel shame about being gay, but you actually do," she added. "You’re just not fully aware of it. I think I still felt scared about people knowing. I felt awkward around gay people; I felt guilty for not being myself.”
Page said she is currently single and can't wait to meet her future girlfriend.
“You hear things like, ‘People shouldn’t know about your life because you’re creating an illusion on-screen.’ But I don’t see other actresses going to great lengths to hide their heterosexuality. That’s an unfair double standard," she said.
While most of the reception Page received was positive, she recalled one instance that she said was the worst kind of homophobia.
On getting a letter from a pastor while on a flight, "It wasn’t just ‘You deserve to burn in hell.’ It was ‘While God thinks it’s lovely that you stood up for your beliefs, perhaps you’ve never had the loving arms of a father.’”
