Wentworth Miller has a touching message for people struggling to come to terms with their sexuality.
The Prison Break star, 44, covers Attitude magazine's The Award Issue 2016 tells fans and readers that while there's a light at the end of the tunnel, the first steps are to love yourself first.
"I would say what others have said: it gets better one day, you'll find your tribe. You just have to trust that people are out there waiting to love you and celebrate you for who you are," Miller tells the magazine. "In the meantime, the reality is you might have to be your own tribe. You might have to be your own best friend. That's not something they're going to teach you in school. So start the work of loving yourself."
Miller came out as gay in August 2013 while protesting Russia's anti-LGBT propaganda law.
"Thank you for your kind invitation. As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes," Wentworth, 41, wrote in a letter to Maria Averbakh, director of the St. Petersburg International Film Festival. "However, as a gay man, I must decline.
"I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government," he continued in the letter, posted on GLAAD's website. "The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly."
Two years after coming out, Miller told Details he felt "more fully expressed."
"After Prison Break, I came to grips with the fact that my public persona was in misalignment with how I actually felt," he admitted. "I was out to a handful of people in my twenties, and once I hit 30, I was out to family and friends. But professionally, I was feeding a fantasy. I created this air of 'We don't address that thing.'"