There comes a point in life when constantly worrying about what strangers think starts to feel like a full-time job with terrible benefits. For Lukas Gage, that realization arrived alongside a deeper acceptance of his sexuality—and the freedom that came with it.
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The actor, who recently joked that he is “90 percent gay, 10 percent straight,” has spent years navigating speculation about his personal life. But these days, the conversation feels a lot less complicated.
Lukas Gage Finally Stopped Worrying About the Wrong Audience
While Gage was comfortable with the people who mattered most, the opinions of everyone else carried a different kind of weight.
“I was comfortable with my sexuality with the people that I cared about,” Gage told E! News in an exclusive interview. “It was the people that didn’t know me that I was the most fearful about.”
Lukas Gage reflected on his journey accepting his sexuality, his outlook on relationships today and what inspired his campaign with Healthysexual during an exclusive interview with E! News. https://t.co/sywqTuJZk5 pic.twitter.com/kvNaJWCf6D
— E! News (@enews) June 23, 2026
It’s a feeling many LGBTQ+ people know all too well. Coming out is often less about telling loved ones and more about deciding how much power complete strangers should have over your happiness. Fortunately, that power started to disappear.
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“I don’t know what happened, maybe it’s growing older or maybe it’s just life experience,” he reflected, adding, “if people don’t want to work with me because of how I identify or who I have sex with, they’re probably people I don’t want to work with anyway.”
That’s a remarkably efficient way to filter a contact list. The Overcompensating actor explained that growing older brought with it a welcome side effect: caring less about things that don’t deserve the energy.
“When you’re younger, it feels more intense than it actually is, or more important,” he said, “but ultimately, the right people are going to find you.”
For anyone who spent their twenties treating every social interaction like a final exam, that advice may hit particularly hard.
The Relief of No Longer Carrying a Secret
Gage also described the unexpected peace that came from being fully honest about who he is.
“It was like I could take a deep breath,” he recalled. “At first, having a secret can be fun and it can feel like you’re mysterious. Then it starts to eat away at you and you just can’t keep up with it anymore.”
There’s a reason so many coming-out stories include words like relief, freedom, and breathing room. Hiding parts of yourself may seem manageable for a while, but eventually the emotional math stops adding up. For Gage, authenticity wasn’t just personally rewarding—it improved every other part of his life as well.
“Just being upfront was the thing that allowed me to be more free,” he continued, “allowed my work to be better and allowed me actually to work with the right people. It aligned me in the right way.”
Turns out being yourself is a lot easier than maintaining an elaborate cover story.
Lukas Gage Wants People Talking About Sexual Health
That newfound confidence has also inspired Gage to become more vocal about sexual health education through his partnership with Gilead’s HealthySexual campaign. The initiative focuses on encouraging conversations around testing, prevention, and awareness—topics that remain surprisingly difficult for many people to discuss openly.
“I feel very passionate about getting the message out about sexual health, about preventative options like testing, PrEP,” he told E!. “It was something that I felt really passionate about and wanted to spread awareness about.”
Even for someone comfortable discussing sexuality, Gage admitted there was still plenty to learn.
“I’ve always been pretty open about sexuality as a conversation, but,” he explained, “I felt like I was less informed about the sexual health aspect of it.”
That personal connection made the campaign feel like a natural fit.
“It was something that I felt really important and felt authentic to me.”
For LGBTQ+ communities that have long relied on shared information and mutual education, the message is particularly meaningful. Knowledge isn’t just power—sometimes it’s healthcare.
Forget Love at First Sight, Lukas Gage Wants Something Real
When it comes to romance, Gage is also rethinking some of the stories people love to tell themselves. Speaking with PEOPLE at the premiere of his Netflix romantic comedy Voicemails for Isabelle, he shared a refreshingly practical view of relationships—one that sounds much less like a movie montage and much more like real life.
“You know, a lot of people think that it’s like a very quick, you know, love-at-first-sight kind of situation, and I disagree with that,” Gage said.
Instead, he believes the best relationships are built slowly.
“I think a real rom-com love is something that grows over time, and is something that you have to start with a good foundation, like a friendship, you know? It doesn’t need to be this crazy, love-at-first-sight feeling,” he added.
It’s a perspective that carries extra weight given Gage’s past experiences. The actor was previously married to celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton in 2023 before the pair split seven months later, and he has spoken candidly about losing himself in the relationship too quickly. Maybe that’s why his current outlook feels less interested in fireworks and more interested in foundations.
And honestly, after years of overcompensating, overthinking, and worrying about what everyone else might say, choosing stability over spectacle sounds like a pretty good plot twist.