Kelly McGillis, who famously played Tom Cruise‘s flight instructor/love interest in Top Gun, is finally opening up and coming out about who she is. In a new interview with Girl Rock!, Kelly proudly announced that she is gay and is no longer interested in doing “the man thing” now that she is finally able to be “true to [herself]“:

Kelly McGillis, best known as Tom Cruise’s girlfriend in 1986′s Top Gun, has revealed to the Internet show Girl Rock! that she is single but no longer searching for a male companion. Asked if she’s looking to date a man or woman, the actress, 51, replied, “Definitely a woman.” The twice-divorced mother of two daughters – her movies also include 1985′s Witness, with Harrison Ford, and 1988′s The Accused, with Jodie Foster – said she’s “done with the man thing. I did that. I need to move on in life. It’s a part of being true to yourself. That’s been a challenge for me.” The difficulty of coming out as a lesbian led to “an ongoing process from the time I was probably 12. I had a lot of things happen that convinced me that God was punishing me because I was gay,” said McGillis, who in 1982 was assaulted by an escaped rapist who had gotten into her apartment. Now gray-haired and in rehearsals for The Little Foxes on stage in Pasadena, Calif., McGillis also told the show that she would like to jump back onto the big screen – except for one thing. “Whenever I get an offer, they ask me to dye my hair,” she says. “And I just won’t.”

Yay! I am so happy for her!! Coming out is never easy and I imagine that it is especially difficult to come out later in life. I suspect that Kelly prolly always knew who she was on the inside and struggled with her identity for some time. Now that she is comfortable talking about who she really is, she is well on her way to finding true and blissful happiness. It really sounds like Kelly McGillis is very sure of who she is as a woman and is happy with who she is … it’s surprising how many people out there cannot say the same about themselves.

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