Desperate Housewives’ Charlie Carver was scared ‘something terrible’ would happen to him because of his sexuality

Teen Wolf star Charlie Carver has opened up about growing up gay and in the closet.

The actor, who found fame alongside his straight twin brother Max Carver in shows including Desperate Housewives, came out as gay in an Instagram post in 2016.

He opened up about the experience as he virtually accepted the Gamechanger Award from LGBT+ educational charity GLSEN.

Carver explained: “Part of why I decided to come out in 2016 is I always knew I wanted to do something with my life that might help young people in their relationship to shame.

“I didn’t want spectacle. I just wanted to reveal this part of myself in a kind of way I wish I’d been able to share all those years ago in school – as a simple wonderful fact of who I was.

“It was my hope that by writing this post and sharing why I’d arrived at the decision to come out professionally, that some young person out there could feel the change that I felt was coming, and had been coming, and would be coming… the change we all hope for and work for and wait for in our lives as LGBT+ folks.”

Charlie Carver: ‘I was running from my own shame.’

The TV star continued: “I remember my time at school as feeling incredible difficult.

“There was just this abiding sense that school wasn’t safe or, more than anything, if I let my guard down and if I fully relaxed into a state of belonging that something swift and terrible would come and find me, and I recognise now that that thing I was so afraid of, the thing I was sort of running from and trying to manage, was my own shame.”

Carver added: “LGBT+ kids really suffer from the shaming they interject on the internet, often at school and sadly sometimes at home and it affects them for the rest of their lives.

“But I believe LGBT+ people are resilient and in some ways particularly special. I think we seem inherently capable at thinking compassionately, acting courageously, working creatively and living in community. But those qualities, those essential qualities can really only emerge in an affirmative, safe and encouraging environment.”

Queer students need inclusive and safe education, actor says.

Paying tribute to the work of GLSEN, the actor added: “When LGBT+ students learn in affirming environments, are offered an inclusive curriculum and are protected and supported by comprehensive policies against bullying and harassment, they are free to develop into these loving, courageous, creative, conscientious citizens that the world so desperately needs.”

The award was presented virtually by Carver’s out castmates from The Boys in the Band, including Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Zachary Quinto, Michael Benjamin Washington, Brian Hutchison, Robin de Jesús, Andrew Rannells, and Tuc Watkins.

Ryan Murphy is currently developing a Netflix film adaptation starring the cast of the queer Broadway show.