Brandon Flynn Opens Up About Coming Out & Speculation Around His Dating Life

Brandon Flynn opens up in a Q&A on Variety‘s Power of Pride issue, out now.

Here’s what the 25-year-old 13 Reasons Why star had to say…

On not really coming out and the ‘buzz’ around his sexual orientation: “I try to keep my head down because it really doesn’t do me any benefit, but there is always this buzz around sexuality, and it’s hard not to look at it as judgment. One example is me coming out. I came out to my family and my friends around 10 years ago. So even when the industry caught wind of me being bisexual or gay or whichever one they choose to go with, it didn’t feel like it was my own, and I think that’s a bit frustrating for me and that’s where I feel a bit judged that I didn’t get to do that, nor did I really want to. It didn’t seem that it would make a difference whether I came out or not because it’s just my life, and if people were watching my life, they would just know that. But it did feel like I had to come out — even though I didn’t ever come out to the public, in a weird way, I just one day read an article where I came out in the terms that they wanted me to come out.”

On the speculation around his dating life: “It’s hard not to feel like something in my personal life is not being scandalized because that’s kind of the way it feels when you read headlines about yourself, especially when you read headlines that have this big bang to them, and then you read the article and you’re like, ‘Why did you write that article? There is actually nothing there.’ It’s all just something to egg on some sort of rumor cycle that will just keep going around until you finally get something that will actually just make it all true or false. So, it’s hard not to feel scandalized.”

On the double standard of dating as a queer man in Hollywood: “I think the media and the press and a lot of people who have interest in actors or any people in front of the camera, there’s this sense of — and I’m speaking very candidly — ‘let’s see them fail.’ That’s where it’s hard not to read these headlines and feel like that’s what is wanted, that it’s wanted to see me fail. It feels like a slight. But no one wants to write that article or read that article that would be like, ‘Oh! Brandon is with this person and we are so happy for them!’ There’s always something behind it and there’s always some sort of scandal that wants to be revealed, and that’s frustrating. And in fact, it wouldn’t be there if I was with a woman.”

For more from Brandon, head to Variety.com.