‘Glee’ Alum Kevin McHale Opens up About Sexuality, Confirms He’s Gay

Better out than not, Kevin McHale says. The Glee actor is opening about his sexual orientation after sparking speculation about being gay when he posted a photo of himself cuddling up to actor Austin McKenzie.

Speaking to Marc Malkin during a Facebook Live talk on Thursday, the 29-year-old revealed he is “definitely happy,” explaining, “it’s better out than not” and he “wasn’t obviously shouting it from the mountaintops.”

McHale said that he wasn’t hiding his sexuality on social media. “If somebody was a big fan and following everything I was doing [on social media], like the people I interact with on Twitter on a daily basis, I think there was zero surprise. People knew,” he said.

“The organizations I’ve been supporting and all that sort of work has been apparent, at least to me. I’ve always supported LGBT organizations and things like that because I felt like I had a vested interest in this where I wanted to help out,” he added.

McHale revealed he’s been dating McKenzie for “a little over a year and a half.” He captioned his cuddly photo with McKenzie at Coachella in April as “#mycoachella,” and has posted other photos of McKenzie on social media before, too. In March, McHale shared a photo of the two of them volunteering at a Los Angeles shelter together.

McHale also seemingly alluded to the fact that he was gay in an April tweet about singer Ariana Grande‘s new single, “No Tears Left to Cry.”

“[‘No Tears Left to Cry’] is gayer than me and I ACCEPT,” he wrote. “[Thank you] [Ariana Grande].”

In Thursday’s interview, McHale addressed the tweet, saying he felt that he minimized the song’s significance. Grande’s fans will concur that the song alludes to Grande’s experience following the Manchester bombing at her concert last May that killed 22 people and left 119 injured.

“I honestly feel bad about it because that song is about a lot more. That song is about something really horrible and tragic and something she went through and dealt with beyond anybody’s imaginable expectations,” McHale said. “I just made this passing joke about it and then I was like this is sort of disrespectful to the song and subject matter she was talking about.”

McHale and McKenzie both appeared in When We Rise, Dustin Lance Black’s 2017 eight-part miniseries about LGBT rights.