Colton Haynes reveals he was told his dad killed himself after he came out as gay
Arrow and Teen Wolf star Colton Haynes has revealed that he was told his father killed himself because he came out as gay.
Haynes, who came out publicly earlier this year, has opened up in a new interview with OUT Magazine about his early life and struggles around being gay.
Growing up in Andale, Kansas, Haynes says: “You just couldn’t be gay”.
He adds that “though he’d known he liked boys since he was in first grade, everything changed when he came out to classmates and family at age 14. The bullying escalated to the point that Haynes’s older brother Clinton would meet him outside of class to protect him.”
Going on, he says he “rebelled”, taking drugs and ran away from home.
As he stayed at a friend’s house, he found out his father had killed himself by swallowing 40 oxycodone pills.
Despite there being no specific evidence to link the suicide to his coming out, Haynes says: “I was told that my dad killed himself because he found out I was gay.”
Going on, he talks about becoming a famed actor after growing up in the town which has a population of less than a thousand.
Haynes’ fellow Arrow star John Barrowman last year said it was time for an openly gay superhero to get their own TV show.
The actor – who has a role as antihero Malcolm Merlyn in CW’s superhero drama – called for a gay hero to get a slice of the genre in some form.
When asked by the Advocate whether audiences would be ready for a gay hero, Barrowman said: “Personally, I don’t care if they are, or not. It’s time we had one.”
