Glee star Darren Criss says he’s “culturally queer”
Darren Criss has described himself as “culturally queer”. The American actor memorably rose to fame on the Fox musical comedy Glee as Blaine Anderson, the openly gay lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers who becomes romantically involved with Chris Colfer’s mainstay Kurt Hummel.
Blaine and Kurt have since been hailed as one of the most iconic queer couples in television history. After playing the title character in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway, Criss went on to star in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace as gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe.
Criss, who identifies as a straight man, recently opened up about his reverence for the queer community at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) and the impact of Blaine and Kurt’s trailblazing relationship on television. “It was f**king awesome,” he told the crowd. “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.” Criss continued to describe himself as “culturally queer” as a result of his San Francisco upbringing, where he was surrounded by “queer communities”. “I have been so culturally queer my whole life,” he explained. “Not because I’m trying — you know, 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.
