'Glee' Star Darren Criss: I'm 'Culturally Queer' Thanks to San Francisco Upbringing FOX Image Collection via Getty Images

Glee star Darren Criss, who noted that he identifies as a straight, said he is “culturally queer” thanks to his San Francisco upbringing.

“I have been so culturally queer my whole life,” Criss said at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) over the weekend, according to a report by Entertainment Weekly. “Not because I'm trying — actually, I was gonna say 'not because I'm trying to be cool,' but I'm gonna erase that, because I am trying to be cool.”

“The things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from and be inspired by are 100 percent queer as fuck,” the actor added.

Criss reportedly explained that his upbringing in San Francisco helped him to better understand his Glee character, Blaine, who is in a relationship with Kurt, portrayed by Chris Colfer.

“It was in queer communities that I've found people that I idolize, that I want to learn something from,” Criss said. “I grew up in San Francisco in the '90s. I watched men die. There was an awareness of the gay experience that was not a foreign concept to me. So, it was a narrative that I cared deeply about.”
After being asked what it was like playing the groundbreaking relationship on television, Criss replied, “It was fucking awesome.”

“Nowadays, we just call it a relationship on TV. But to contextualize it, a gay relationship on mainstream Fox, that's a pretty cool thing to be a part of,” the actor said.

Criss went on to say, “People of all ages, all spectrums of awareness say, 'I didn't grow up with a show like that and it was a really meaningful thing for me to see,' and I go I didn't grow up with a show like that and that would've been very meaningful for me too.”

“Regardless of the fact that I'm a straight kid. That has value,” he said. “For anyone who's been an underdog, we all know, in any shape or form — sexual, religious, biological — it has value because there's going to be a lot of people who see that and say, 'Okay, I can now understand this in a context that maybe I wasn't able to before.'”

Criss concluded that “It was a fucking privilege” to play Blaine on Glee, adding, “I love talking about it and I'm so grateful I got to do it.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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