Ellen Page Comes Out

Yesterday at the inaugural HRC sponsored Time to Thrive conference, which is all about promoting safety, inclusion and well-being for LGBTQ youth, actress Ellen Page not only delivered the opening speech, but took that opportunity to publicly come out for the first time. An excerpt of her beautiful speech is below:

"I am here today because I am gay. And because maybe I can make a difference to help others have an easier and more hopeful time. Regardless for me I feel a personal obligation and a social responsibility.  I also do it selfishly because I'm tired of hiding. And I'm tired of lying by omission. I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered.  My mental health suffered and my relationships suffered and I'm standing here with all of you on the other side of this pain. And I am young, yes, but what I have learned is that love, the beauty of it, the joy of it and, yes, even the pain of it is the most incredible gift to give and receive as a human being."

Her entire 8-minute speech is worth to watch. The full video is below.

Page was nominated for an Oscar for her work in Juno and while I've never really been a huge fan of that film, I was a fan of Page. Films of her I like more and highly recommend include Hard Candy and Whip It. She's set to reprise her role as Kitty Pryde in this year's X-Men film and will begin work on Freeheld, the long awaited dream project of hers.