‘Teen Wolf’ Actor Charlie Carver Comes Out As Gay

Former “Teen
Wolf” actor Charlie Carver has come out as gay.

The 27-year-old, who
played Ethan on the MTV show, revealed the news in a series of Instagram posts
on Monday night, repeatedly posting a graphic which read, “Be who you
needed when you were younger.”

“As
a young boy, I knew I wanted to be an actor. I knew I wanted to be a lot of
things! I thought I wanted to be a painter, a soccer player, a stegosaurus…
But the acting thing stuck,” he wrote. “It was around that age that I
also knew, however abstractly, that I was different from some of the other boys
in my grade.

PHOTOS: Gay & Lesbian Hollywood

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Pt 1: “Be who you needed when you were younger”. About a year ago, I saw this photo while casually scrolling through my Instagram one morning. I’m not one for inspirational quotes, particularly ones attributed to “Mx Anonymous”- something mean in me rebukes the pithiness of proverbs, choosing to judge them as trite instead of possibly-generally-wise, resonant, or helpful. And in the case of the good ol’ Anonymous kind, I felt that there was something to be said for the missing context. Who wrote or said the damn words? Why? And to/for who in particular? Nonetheless, I screen-capped the picture and saved it. It struck me for some reason, finding itself likeable enough to join the ranks of the “favorites” album on my phone. I’d see it there almost daily, a small version of it next to my other “favorites”; I’d see it every time I checked into the gym, pulled up a picture of my insurance cards, my driver’s license…. Important Documents. And over the course of about-a-year, it became clear why the inspirational photo had called out to me. As a young boy, I knew I wanted to be an actor. I knew I wanted to be a lot of things! I thought I wanted to be a painter, a soccer player, a stegosaurus… But the acting thing stuck. It was around that age that I also knew, however abstractly, that I was different from some of the other boys in my grade. Over time, this abstract “knowing” grew and articulated itself through a painful gestation marked by feelings of despair and alienation, ending in a climax of saying three words out loud: “I am gay”. I said them to myself at first, to see how they felt. They rang true, and I hated myself for them. I was twelve. It would take me a few years before I could repeat them to anyone else, in the meantime turning the phrase over and over in my mouth until I felt comfortable and sure enough to let the words pour out again, this time to my family…

A post shared by Charlie Carver (@charliecarver) on Jan 11, 2016 at 2:14pm PST

Charlie’s family embraced
his coming out, and the actor said he felt “celebrated” and
“safe.” However, he felt conflicted about coming out to the public.

“Sure, I am a proud
gay man, but I don’t identify as a Gay man, or a GAY man, or just gay. I
identify as a lot of things, these various identifications and identities
taking up equal space and making up an ever-fluid sense of Self,” he
explained. “Furthermore, as an actor, I believed that my responsibility to
the craft and the business was to remain benevolently neutral – I was a canvas,
a chameleon, the next character. For the most part I had a duty to stay a
Possibility in the eye of casting, directors, and the public. If I Came Out, I
feared I would be limiting myself to a type, to a perception with limits that I
was not professionally comfortable with. And I created in my imagination an
Industry that was just as rigid in this belief as well.”

Over time, Charlie was
haunted by the phrase “Be who you needed when you were younger,” and
decided that “Honesty is probably a great step in the right
direction.”

“I now believe that
by omitting this part of myself from the record, I am complicit in perpetuating
the suffering, fear, and shame cast upon so many in the world. In my silence,
I’ve helped decide for to you too that to be gay is to be, as a young man (or
young woman, young anyone), inappropriate for a professional career in the Arts
(WHAAA???) So now, let the record show this- I self-identify as gay,” he
wrote,” adding a shout-out to his twin brother, Max Carver. Happy 2016,
and all my best to you and yours in the year ahead.  And let the
record show my twin brother is just as cool for being straight.”

Max offered support for
his twin on Twitter, Tweeting, “my brother has HUEVOS.”

my brother has HUEVOS

— Max Carver (@maxcarver) January 11, 2016

— Erin O’Sullivan