"White Collar" hunk Matt Bomer has been praised in both the media and the blogosphere for subtly acknowledging his sexuality, which had been the subject of rampant media speculation, at an awards ceremony in February.
Now, the 34-year-old actor -- who can be seen alongside Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey and Alex Pettyfer in "Magic Mike," which is currently in theaters -- is speaking in greater depth about his admission in an interview with E! Online.
"I never really endeavored to hide anything," Bomer told E! Online host Marc Malkin. "But there were times I chose not to relegate my history to the back page of a magazine, which to me is sort of akin to putting your biography on a bathroom wall."
After noting that he had been moved "to tears" after being approached by a gay military officer who thanked him for coming out, Bomer added:
"What we really have to do is stop the adjective before the job title—whether it's 'black actor,' a 'gay actor' or 'anything actor. Everybody thinks that equality comes from identifying people, and that's not where equality comes from. Equality comes from treating everybody the same regardless of who they are. I hope the media and the press catches on to that because it's time to move out of 1992."
In February, the actor thanked his partner Simon Halls and their three children during the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards, where he received the New Generation Arts and Activism Award for his work in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "I'd really especially like to thank my beautiful family: Simon, Kit, Walker, Henry," he told the crowd. "Thank you for teaching me what unconditional love is. You will always be my proudest accomplishment."
In previous years, Bomer had declined to comment on rumors about his love life. "I don't care about that at all," he told Details in 2010. "I'm completely happy and fulfilled in my personal life."
Take a look at other celebrities who've come out as LGBT below:
