16 June 2023

Raven-Symoné thinks that coming out was the “biggest hurdle” of her life.

Raven-Symoné struggled with coming out as a lesbian

The 37-year-old actress announced her sexuality to the world over a decade ago and has been married to Miranda Maday since 2012 but explained that coming to terms with being gay will always be a “mental struggle” and has promised to be there for those who are also battling with their identity.

She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “It’s a journey for everyone. No matter how many laws get passed, no matter how inclusive shows are, it’s a struggle that you’re going to go through with yourself and the people around you. That is the biggest hurdle we have to go through: the shame that your society might put on you or your family might put on you or your thoughts, mentally. It’s getting over your personal struggle. And then once you jump over that hump, we’ll catch you. Just gotta get there yourself.”

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In the joint interview, Raven’s wife urged others to “stay true” to themselves whilst figuring out their identity and promised that if someone chooses to live as their authentic self, everything else will fall into place.

She said: “Stay true to yourself… I think that when people live in their authenticity, the pieces fall into place naturally. It just takes time, and you have to be patient and offer yourself a lot of grace. And just continue, you know. It’s life.”

Raven became known to audiences around the world when she took on the title role of a teenage psychic in ‘That’s So Raven’ – which ran on Disney Channel from 2003 until 2007 – but insisted that when the sitcom was rebooted as ‘Raven’s Home’ in 2017, there was no need for her alter ego to be made into a lesbian when Disney was rebooting the series in 2016 because she and her character are two different people.

Speaking on the ‘Pride’ podcast, she said: “There was a conversation before the series started and I was asked the question, ‘Would you like Raven Baxter to be a lesbian?’ And I said, no. I said no. The reason I said no wasn’t because I wasn’t proud of who I was, or I didn’t want to represent the LGBTQ+ community in any way.

“It was because Raven Baxter is Raven Baxter is Raven Baxter. There was no reason for me to change the human that she was in order to fit the actress that played her. And Raven Baxter is a character that I was proud to play, even if she is straight, cisgender, I don’t mind. Let her have her moment.”