Stacy London didn't call herself 'lesbian' or 'gay' for years for fear of judgement
Stacy London identifies as a "lesbian" after years of feeling too afraid to label herself "gay".
The 'What Not To Wear' co-host, 55, came out when she was 48, and is thankful to Gen Z for "breaking all the systemic rules" and allowing the LGBTQ+ community to live without "fear or shame".
She told Us Weekly: “I came out at 48. I love the fact that people can say the words pansexual, bisexual and have it be a spectrum.
“In the ’50s and ’60s, there was none of that. When I was growing up, there were none of those words that made people feel seen.”
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For years, the stylist was made to feel like she had to be "straight and perfect".
She said: “You have Gen Z breaking all the systemic rules and me, Gen X, breathing a sigh of relief that we thought we had to be straight and perfect.
“It was only, ‘Be like a duck, calm where everyone can see and then flail underneath.’ Now I feel like we can own our identities in a universal way without fear and without shame.”
She said of America: “There’s a lot of people in this country who don’t understand that we are most bound by fear and shame when making all of our decisions, and if you take those out of the equation, there’s a lot of love there."
Asked how she identifies, she replied: “I feel like I want to say lesbian because there aren’t enough of us.
“It’s not just about one type of lesbian culture. I want people to see the spectrum, and so I identify as such.”
It was in 2019 that she announced she was in her first serious relationship with a woman, musician Cat Yezbak, and has been with her since 2018.
She wrote at the time: "So I used to date men. Now I date her."