Wayne Brady shares the “biggest misconception” about pansexuality.
While attending the 2024 GLAAD Media Awards on Thursday night in Los Angeles, Whose line is that anyway? star, 51, told PEOPLE that he understands why some people are confused by the term — and that he even had to “research” the topic himself.
“I had to explore and find out what I was,” says Brady, who came out in August 2023 as pansexual. “I think the biggest misconception — and I’m even joking about it on stage tonight — is that people think you’re an undecided bisexual. It’s like, no, no, no, no, no. Let me explain.”
“What the definition basically boils down to is, regardless of gender, regardless,” he continues. “So that means I’m happily free to fall in love with anyone here. If you’re gay, if you’re straight, if you’re non-binary, trans, I don’t care.”
Brady explains that it’s about “a person who, in my opinion, is the ultimate in acceptance and love — so I win.”
Wayne Brady attends the 2024 GLAAD Media Awards on March 14, 2024.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
See Reneé Rapp, Niecy Nash-Betts, Orville Peck and more LGBTQ+ stars at the 35th GLAAD Awards
After coming out last year, Brady described his pansexuality as “bisexual — open-minded” to PEOPLE. At the time, he said that the death of Robin Williams in 2014 deeply affected him and set him on a surprising path of self-discovery.
In addition to undergoing therapy to try to understand why he wasn’t feeling joy in certain aspects of his life and why he was being treated for “love addiction,” he found himself asking the question, “Wayne, um, are you gay?”
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“And the answer was no because despite being in all these failed relationships and now dealing with what I know can be diagnosed as love addiction, I started saying, ‘Okay, I feel something, but I just don’t know how. get to it,’ the actor and TV host recalled to PEOPLE.
He said he had thought about the fact that he had been attracted to certain men in his life, but “I always pushed that aside because of how I was raised and because I live in today’s world.”
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Wayne Brady. Arturo Holmes/WireImage
Brady told PEOPLE that he is very “ashamed” and worried that people will find out, despite having a “wonderful community” of friends in the LGBTQ+ community.
“I always felt like a fraud because I wasn’t open about myself,” he said. “You can pretend to be an ally, but until the day you can truly say, ‘This is me and I want to stand with you,’ it’s not… I’ve always wanted that day to come.”
Wayne Brady opens up about coming out as pansexual: ‘It’s never too late to embrace your story
When that day finally came, Brady said the response was overwhelmingly positive. “I’ve gotten so many DMs and emails and texts from people who are in the middle of their lives wanting to express themselves, whether they’re changing jobs or coming,” Brady told Yahoo Entertainment in December 2023.
He said he hopes his story will inspire others. “It’s never too late to embrace your story … for teenagers, young adults, theater students and young black men who are questioning the idea of masculinity and what it means,” he said, adding, “We’ve passed a certain point, life gets too short to lived in the dark all the time.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education