To check out all the celebrities and public figures who have come out in 2022 (so far..), click here.
R&B singer Tevin Campbell has confirmed that he is gay.
“There are a lot of kids, especially young Black boys, that need to see representation,” Campbell said during a guest spot on a podcast released this week.
Back in March, Tevin Campbell appeared to come out publicly in a quote-tweet, while replying to a fan, which said:
“Tevin is,” accompanied by the rainbow flag and sunglasses emojis.
The tweet was later deleted, although the internet assumed that to be the artist having his ‘coming out moment’.
Now, months later, Campbell has officially confirmed he is gay.
The singer-songwriter appeared on the PEOPLE: Every Day podcast (released August 17), where he told host Janine Rubenstein why he stepped away from his recording career in the late 1990s, “I went on the road of discovering myself,” he said. “I didn’t know who I was.”
Speaking about his ‘child star’ era, he went on to say: “I didn’t hide anything about me. I didn’t try to act a certain way or anything,” but also noted, “You just couldn’t be [gay] back then.”, he said, “I’m glad that’s changing,”
“There are a lot of kids, especially young Black boys, that need to see representation. … They’re not being taught to love themselves because of who they are.”
Discussing his personal journey further, the star said: “When I came out to my family and friends [at] about 19 or 20, that was it for me”, then going on to cite his 2004 Broadway tour of Hairspray as instrumental in gaining some self-acceptance.
“Being around people who were like me, LGBTQ+ people that were living normal lives and had partners. I had never seen that,” he said. “That was a great time in my life.”
“What makes me happiest right now is how far I’ve come in life. You know, there are a lot of child stars that don’t make it. But a lot of us do, and the fact that I’ve embraced me.”
The singer signed his first major label record deal with Warner Music in 1991, and released his debut album T.E.V.I.N. to critical acclaim.
Campbell was just 14 in March 1991 when he landed his first top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 — “Round and Round” – which was written by Prince and produced for the film Graffiti Bridge.
Campbell’s work on the track earned him a Grammy nomination for best R&B vocal performance, male — his first of five Grammy nods.
Despite years of speculation, Campbell has largely kept his personal life private.
When asked about the rainbow tweet in March, which fans suspected was his coming out, he said: “It was a casual thing for me,” adding, “I love my fans, but what they think about my sexuality is of no importance to me.”
To check out all the celebrities and public figures who have come out in 2022 (so far..), click here.