Coming out is a rite of passage for LGBTQ+ folks, and that's no different for our favorite celebrities. This Pride Month, a handful of them are sharing their stories with us in an exciting new Audible Original!
Pose star Angelica Ross, The L Word: Generation Q's Rosanny Zayas, Grey's Anatomy star Jake Borelli, Unprotected Sets' Daniel Rugg Web, The Wendy Williams Show's Nicky Paris, and Bears in the Streets' Lisa Dickey will all share their tender, awkward, and hilarious coming out moments from their own experiences on the Coming Out Party: A Pride Celebration, hosted by comedian Nikki Levy and RuPaul's Drag Race icon Shangela!
"Being a gay woman, it's always been important for me to showcase LGBTQ+ stories," Levy, who produced the special, tells PRIDE. "Growing up, so many of us tried to pretzel ourselves into what we were 'supposed to be' that we became amazing performers just to get by. There's a feeling so many of us have of watching the world from the outside and keeping the real stories locked up inside. Well, it's 2020 baby and it's time to let them out."
Levy, who works as the head of scripted content for DreamWorks TV as her day job, believes that our coming out stories can be empowering for our community—and potentially life-saving.
"Sharing our coming out stories in a way that's honest and vulnerable and COMEDIC means that we get to OWN our truths," she says. "Personally, I was always so embarrassed about who I was and where I came from. I was this little gay kid from a hoarder house who fell for every cute, Jewish STRAIGHT girl bestie I had. As I got older, I realized that I could either stand outside my story and hustle for my worthiness or walk into my story and own it. I chose #2. My story is my superpower. And that's true for everybody."
Take Angelica Ross for instance. Did you know the Pose actress was in the military? That revelation was one of Levy's favorite moments. "I love Angelica Ross' story of wanting so badly to be a good, Christian boy that she joined the US Navy in the hopes of it straightening her out. Spoiler alert: it didn't! Thank God!"
Levy is the host of the Don't Tell Your Mother comedy special series and this is her third Pride Month Audible Original. Last year, Levy and Queer Eye's Tan France hosted You Do You: Proud to Be Fabulous, a moving special that she says inspired meaningful conversations between parents and their queer children—and that's just the tip of the iceberg. "Our community is vast, and our stories are all different, but we share that notion of struggling to find ourselves and accept who we are. As queers, we're alchemists: we turn pain into gold. That gift is our superpower."
Coming Out Party: A Pride Celebration premieres June 4 on Audible. In celebration of Pride Month, you can listen to it for free for the entire month of June!
Nikki Levy Photo Credit: Jon Premosch
