Dove Cameron Reflected on Coming Out as Queer and Learning to Love Herself

In a new interview with the U.K.’s Gay Times, actress and singer Dove Cameron said that after “[hinting] about my sexuality for years,” she’s finally unafraid to “spell it out for everybody.” Cameron came out as queer to her fans via Instagram Live in August 2020, and the “safe space” she and her fans have created has been nothing short of incredible.

“I was never confused about who I was,” Cameron told Gay Times, later adding that she identifies best with the label “queer.” She continued, “I felt like I wouldn’t be accepted and I had this strange narrative that people wouldn’t believe me.”

“It felt like something that I could never talk about,” she said. However, after watching her fellow LGBTQ+ celebrities talk openly about how they identify—specifically, she looked up to Kristen Stewart, Cara Delevingne, and Ben Platt—Cameron decided she, too, could open up and reveal her true self. “I feel like the industry has changed a lot in terms of having room for people with platforms to be human and not to be picked apart,” Cameron said.

I was really nervous to come out, and one day, I dropped it because I was behaving like somebody who was out and I realized I wasn’t.

“I went on Instagram Live and said, ‘Guys, I really needed to explain something to you. Maybe I haven’t said it, but I’m super queer. This is something I want to represent through my music because it’s who I am,'” she continued to Gay Times. “Ever since then, I’ve had such an unbelievable relationship with my fans and we have this very safe space that we’ve created.”

Cameron hopes her talking about her coming out will encourage others to live more authentically. “With the process of coming out, it was about who I am as a whole rather than who I choose to date or sleep with,” she said. “I’m choosing to love myself, to be who I am every day and not edit myself depending on the room that I’m in. I’m making no apologies for who I am.”