R&B singer Tevin Campbell Confirms He Is Gay

The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and R&B star confirmed this week that he is gay and explained why he didn’t come out earlier…

R&B singer Tevin Campbell, who is best known for his classic ’90s tracks “Can We Talk” and “I’m Ready,”  is opening up about his sexuality. Campbell confirmed that he is gay in an interview with the People magazine podcast “People Every Day.”

“When I came out to my family and friends [at] about 19 or 20, that was it for me,” Campbell said. “And then I went on the road of discovering myself. I didn’t know who I was.”

Campbell said in the interview with People that he didn’t necessarily try to hide anything about himself or act “straight,” but acknowledged how difficult it was to be publicly gay in the ’90s. He also said he was “glad he gets to see” queer stars such as Frank Ocean and Lil Nas X and noted how affirming their success is for young Black boys still discovering themselves.

“When we can get to the place in society where somebody can just say, ‘Yeah, I’m gay,’” Campbell said. “Every person in the world isn’t straight. Get over it! When you get to a point in your life where you love yourself so much and you don’t give a damn what people say or think about you, that feels so good.”

“What makes me happiest right now is how far I’ve come in life. You know, there are a lot of child stars that don’t make it. But a lot of us do, and the fact that I’ve embraced me.”

Earlier this year, Campbell fuelled speculation about his sexuality when he tweeted (and then later deleted) “Tevin is [rainbow flag emoji]” in response to a user saying she had heard that he, Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass were all gay. Campbell followed it up by responding “I’ll live” to someone who offered insincere congratulations on his “soon-to-be ban from the state of Florida.”

Campbell is coming out publicly almost 20 years after he declared that he was not gay but he was a “try-sexual” in an interview with Sister 2 Sister magazine.

“I’m not gay, but there are a lot of different things that I do like, sexually,” Campbell said when asked about his sexuality in 2015. “Being in the business, you are introduced to a lot of different things. I’m not gay but I’m a freak and I think a lot of people know what a freak is.”