Truth rating: 10
4:34 pm, April 11th, 2012
Paul Iacono, the star of MTV’s “The Hard Times of RJ Berger,” has come out of the closet.
“Yes I’m gay,” tweeted the actor on Wednesday, “And yes, it does get better.”
Iacono, who elaborated in an interview with The Village Voice, reveals, “I tried coming out a couple of times as a kid, from 13-14 on, and was always squashed on.”
He recalls, “I went to the Professional Performing Arts school in Manhattan. My father found an email correspondence of me planning a date with another male student, very innocent. I had to deny it.”
“I was just coming to terms with the fact that I was bisexual, which culturally I do identify with as a gay man — I am attracted to girls, I’m just attracted to guys much more. My father quickly stomped that. He wanted to pull me from the school.”
Iacono says after the incident with his father, “I had to feign heterosexuality for a couple of years. It messed with my head. It took me a longer time to be OK with it. It was not until I was 18 that I came out with my mom and 20 with my dad.”
Now the actor, starring in the new MTV show, “Kenzie’s Scale,” in which he plays a gay character, is happy to be a role model “so kids won’t have to grow up and be afraid of their sexuality.”
Iacono says he’s coming out now because “it’s not about me, it’s about change and the work.”
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