Matt Bomer journey
Coming out of the closet to family members, particularly parents, can sometimes be hard. In an interview with Out Magazine that was published May 1, actor Matt Bomer shares what it was like for him.
“Telling your family is a huge, huge deal,” he shared with the publication.
Indeed, it was. Bomer, who grew up just outside of Houston proper in an area known as Spring, struggled with the disclosure process.
“I really view my life as divided between the time before I told my parents, and the time after. And the decisions I made, and the life I lived, before and after, are vastly different. It’s night and day.”
The year was 1998. Bomer was a young and relatively unknown actor who was performing at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Unsure of the best way to let his parents in about the truth of his sexual orientation, he chose to send a letter.
Telling Out, “I would have lost my sense of direction if I tried to do it in person.”
More: 10 stories about coming out and first experiences
Apparently, the reaction he received from his parents was not as he had hope for. That’s because for nearly half a year, they did not contact him.
“There was radio silence for a long, long time, at least six months,” said Bomer.
“And then I came home and we had the blowup that I’d always feared. But we got that out of the way, and we got down to the business of figuring out how to love each other.”
But it wasn’t instant. The process took time.
“I would say within a matter of years we started to figure it out,” he says.
“It was a struggle. It’s a struggle for anybody to take their paradigms and set of beliefs and understandings and completely flip the script. So I’m empathetic toward everyone.”
That was then. This is now. Today, Bomer is married to the well-known Hollywood publicist, Simon Halls. They have three beautiful children – and two are twins.
“My family is so loving. My mom just asked me, Simon, and the boys to go down and speak to her women’s group in Houston so, you know, I’m here to tell people it can get better. Because I had so many people in my life saying, ‘You need to get rid of all expectations — you need to cut them out.’ But I was like, ‘They’re my family.”
