Sophia Bush Shares What Motivated Her to Come Out as Queer: 'You Can Choose Yourself'
Sophia Bush is sharing details about her journey of coming out.
During the July 18 episode of her podcast 'Work in Progress,' the 42-year-old discussed her experience with Nico Tortorella, star of 'The Walking Dead: World Beyond,' who uses they/them pronouns. Bush talked about her decision to publicly come out and stay ahead of any speculation from the world.
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"I didn't appreciate it personally but what really frightened me in terms of the public nature of it was this is so vitriolic and so violent and so ugly, what's this gonna do to a young queer girl in Ohio or Alabama who sees what the internet is doing to people who she perceives to have a lot more power than her?" the actress said.
"Like, you can always take your power back," Bush stated. "That was part of what felt really important to me."
In April, Bush wrote an essay for 'Glamour' magazine, publicly coming out as queer for the first time. She has been in a relationship with former American soccer player Ashlyn Harris for almost a year, with their romance first coming to light in October 2023.
In her essay, Bush discussed dealing with online speculation about her relationship with Harris.
"What felt like seconds after I started to see what was in front of me, the online rumor mill began to spit in the ugliest ways," she said. "There were blatant lies. Violent threats. There were accusations of being a home-wrecker. The ones who said I'd left my ex because I suddenly realized I wanted to be with women — my partners have known what I'm into for as long as I have (so that's not it, y'all, sorry!)."
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"I finally feel like I can breathe," the former 'Chicago P.D.' actress said. "I don't think I can explain how profound that is. I'm gonna take my power back and I'm actually gonna stand up and say the purest and most special thing that's ever happened to me in my life has happened to me and you've treated it like the ugliest because you're looking at optics and not reality."
She further explained that she aims to use her platform to facilitate these conversations because "there are kids out there who don't have platforms at all who are so scared to be who they are."
"I don't care if you're 14 or 41," Bush said. "You can choose yourself."
