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Rosie Perez Reveals Junior High Same-Sex Experience

Rosie Perez declared that she had felt confused about her sexual identity, in a speech on TrevorLIVE New York on June 16. The co-host from The View also revealed that she tried a relationship with an...
Rosie Perez Reveals Junior High Same-Sex Experience
Written by Val Powell
  • Rosie Perez declared that she had felt confused about her sexual identity, in a speech on TrevorLIVE New York on June 16.

    The co-host from The View also revealed that she tried a relationship with another girl during junior high in a Catholic school, wrote Carlos Geer for Page Six.

    The host, now in her fifties, initially had a crush on a girl called Michelle. And though she wanted nothing but to “hump her,” she didn’t give in to the urges and instead concealed her desires.

    Perez’ uncertainty in having homosexual feelings, however, made her feel all alone, “until Michelle, one day, started humping on me”, the host revealed through the event by national LGBT youth organization The Trevor Project.

    Regardless of the same-sex relationship that she had in junior high, Perez, now married to artist Eric Haze, announced that she does not consider herself as “gay.”

    The host claimed that she is not confused anymore of her sexuality and that she has arrived at a place of security.

    “I know I’m not lesbian, gay or whatever,” she declared. “I’m a quasi-straight person.”

    Perez further added that she still had that moment when she had a lesbian relationship but admitted that she thought she was all alone, Amanda Mikelberg reported on CBS News.

    The relationship didn’t end well as the two broke up and stopped being friends, which hurt Perez. She admitted she needed someone who could understand her and someone she can talk to.

    But she didn’t have The Trevor Project, and had no community so she kept silent, which she confessed added more to her pain.

    “That silence brought shame,” Perez announced on the show. “I remember that hurt and that hurt kept me silent, and that silence brought shame” Perez said.

    “I didn’t have a community. No, I’m not gay, lesbian, transgender . . . but I’m a human being.” she added.

    And Perez went on about the significance of The Trevor Project’s crisis hotline for teenagers. She acknowledged that she is not the only one that went through this period of confusion on sexuality.

    “I’m not the only one that suppressed those feelings,” Perez said.

    Perez further emphasized the role of adults in a teen’s life. She admitted that if she had some grown-ups to call up to tell her that she was normal and that it will pass, “it would have made all the difference in the world.”

    But Perez says she was fortunate to have some great people in her life, referring to her father and aunt. There were also community leaders who assured her, ‘No, it’s okay to be different and just let your spirit shine.'”

    Perez’ advice for teenagers? Accept the journey and their individuality. “There’s no such thing as normal”, she added. “What is the norm is being different.”

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