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Carson Kressley on being gay: ‘The thing that I thought was my Achilles heel wound up being the thing that made me successful’
Carson Kressley has extended his television career well beyond the successful run of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy which ended its run eight years ago.
He has used his confident and outgoing personality to do such things as host his own show on OWN, compete on Dancing With the Stars and is one of the judges on the new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
But there was a time when Kressley thought being openly gay would derail his hopes of having a successful career.
;I always felt very flawed because I had this big, deep, dark, dirty secret that I was gay,’ Kressley tells the Oprah.com for the web series I Am.
‘I thought that it was going to hold me back and I couldn’t be who I really was. For a long time I wasn’t authentic because I was afraid to be me.’
He was not only afraid of being out professionally, he also feared when he told his family he was gay, ‘they won’t love me anymore.’
But he didn’t let fear hold him back and he remains one of the more in-demand openly gay personalities in all of television.
He says: ‘The thing that I thought was my Achilles heel wound up being the thing that made me successful.’
Comments
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Cool Curt says:
Carson is someone that took what might have been known as: “15 minutes of fame” and turned it into a career that is on fire. Between Carson and Ross from the E network, they are literally making being openly gay and being yourself really cool again. Not that it ever went out of style but it seems that they are two of many OUT personalities that come to mind, who has never compromised or conformed who they were. I’m so thankful that Carson was open about his fear of being open and out because sometimes with fear comes so much courage and he has proven that. I wish him so much successful in his future which looks pretty bright. Remember he was the standout on Queer Eye For The Straight Guy and I do remember Carson would also get so much of the slack (haters were gunning for him) for being openly gay and being his authentic-self on the small screen. It was apparent that the other cast members weren’t as flamboyant as Carson and that isn’t a dig or shade towards Carson but it was the truth. “No T, No Shade!” What actually would transpire would be how Carson being himself and the others trying to butch-up a bit would somehow backfire on them because I don’t see or hear anything the other cast mates from the show and I know they are around but Carson seems to be the relevant one out of the bunch.