Mormon Neon Trees frontman Tyler Glenn has come out as gay. The "Everybody Talks" singer opened up about his sexuality in the new issue of Rolling Stone.
He told the music magazine that he's known about his sexuality for years but kept it a secret. Recent celebrity outings, such as football player Michael Sam, inspired him to come out of the closet.
"I had my crushes on guys throughout high school, but it was never an overwhelming thing until my twenties," he said. "Then I'd be dating girls and in love with my straight friend and it was the worst feeling in the world."
Being a gay man in the entertainment industry and public eye wasn't the only struggle for Glenn; he's also a Mormon, which was never easy for him.
"We were always taught, and I hate this word, 'tolerance,'" he says, regarding his church's stance on homosexuality, which is notoriously fraught. "The only time that felt different was when the Prop 8 thing came up," he said, referencing that the church reportedly spent millions of dollars on anti-gay propaganda.
Despite all that, though, Glenn seems firm in his sense of self. "Yes. I am a happy and healthy Mormon gay pop star. I don't know what it all means, but I'm ok with it," he wrote on his Twitter shortly after the Rolling Stone piece went live.
Glenn's decision to come out publicly follows the singer telling his close friends and family the news. Much of the lyrical content of Neon Trees' upcoming third studio album, Pop Psychology, deals with his life inside the closet.
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