“I want to feel free.”
Tyler Blackburn is covering the newest issue of ‘The Advocate,’ and bravely opened up about being Queer to the magazine. The thirty-two year old actor said his biggest goal above everything is “to feel as happy as possible. As free as possible. I don’t just mean happy, like, ‘I’m laughing all day, every day.’ That’s actually insane. That’s impossible. What I mean is, I want to feel free.”
Opening up to the outlet, Tyler opened up about his early life; “I got bullied a lot by other boys growing up, and I just felt like my soul was slowly being taken from me. I ended up eating lunch in my biology classroom in 10th grade, and I had no one to talk to. 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. That’s soul-crushing.” he said.
He continued, “I just want to live my truth and feel OK with experiencing love and experiencing self-love. Yes, there is an element of, I want to feel like it’s OK 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.”
A big congratulations to Tyler and so much props to him for being brave enough to come out and share his emotional, yet touching story. This story hit home a lot to me and it’s beautiful to see that Tyler is using his platform to remind people that it’s okay to be who you are- regardless of what you might identify as.
For more Tyler and his time with the outlet, click here.
XO DIVA D 