Charlie Carver, a 27-year old actor best known for roles on Teen Wolf and The Leftovers, has confirmed that he is gay.
The star made this reveal in a lengthy Instagram post
“As a young boy, I knew I wanted to be an actor. I knew I wanted to be a lot of things! I thought I wanted to be a painter, a soccer player, a stegosaurus… But the acting thing stuck,” Carver wrote.
He then got to the heart of the topic:
“It was around that age that I also knew, however abstractly, that I was different from some of the other boys in my grade.
“Over time, this abstract ‘knowing’ grew and articulated itself through a painful gestation marked by feelings of despair and alienation, ending in a climax of saying three words out loud: ‘I am gay.’
“I said them to myself at first, to see how they felt. They rang true, and I hated myself for them. I was twelve.
“It would take me a few years before I could repeat them to anyone else, in the meantime turning the phrase over and over in my mouth until I felt comfortable and sure enough to let the words pour out again, this time to my family.”
Along with his message, Carver shared a photo on social media of the following quote:
Be who you needed when you were younger.
Carver’s post is long, heartfelt and personal… and it concludes as follows:
“So now, let the record show this – I self-identify as gay. And does that really matter anymore?
“As a young man, I needed a young man in Hollywood to say that – and without being a dick about it, I owe it to myself, more than anything, to be who I needed when I was younger.”
We admire Carver’s courage in coming out and we wish him the best.