Charles Blow: Coming out later in life is a 'restoration of the soul'

Charles Blow, a former columnist at The New York Times and bestselling author, faced those challenges firsthand as someone who only came out as bisexual in his 40s. In Late to the Party, Blow is the glue connecting the different stories explored in the docuspecial.

"I wrote a memoir in which I made sure that I disclosed everything about myself, all of my truth," Blow tells Out. "It was the first time that I had done that to the rest of the world. When I was on tour, signing books, it became a pattern that I'd see someone kind of cagey, walking around, waiting to make sure that they were last in line. I always knew what was happening."

He explains, "It would always be an older person, sometimes married, who would say things like, 'I'm going tell my wife tonight,' or 'I've never told this to anyone.' Last time I was signing books, a guy slipped me a note that read, 'I came out, and my wife and I worked through it, and we're still together. Thank you.'"

"It dawned on me that there were so many of these stories and these people. They all felt alone. They all felt that they were out of time and had missed the window to do this," Blow recalls.

For Blow, Late to the Party is very personal. He says, "I call it a reclamation of honor. This is a personal journey towards that truth for a restoration of the soul. You have to do this because you can't leave this world having never been who you really were."

"The saddest thing that I ever see are people who I know are closeted, and who pass away," he continues. "This idea that everyone comes out when they're teenagers… That's new. Two-thirds of young adults come out when they're teenagers. But when you look at how that chart goes down to the older people, only a quarter of them came out when they were teenagers. It wasn't a thing that happened."

Blow also thinks that younger audiences can learn a lot from these stories, noting that a project like Late to the Party allows them "to see that what you did as a young person did not happen for others, and how complicated that was for them, and how the time in which they came of age is so different from yours."

"The idea of history in the LGBTQ+ community can be complicated," he observes. "We don't always honor that history. Not only of the out people who did amazing things, but also the history of fear and intimidation and isolation that kept people from doing things, kept them from coming out."

Randy Barbato, the Emmy-winning cofounder of World of Wonder (alongside Fenton Bailey), served as a producer in Late to the Party and discussed the project with Out.

"It's a little bit of a cliché, but the value of visibility, particularly now, when we have this dark cloud over Pride Month… It is inspiring," Barbato explains. "There's been so much progress for the past two decades, but here we are, finding ourselves in a moment of fear and uncertainty again."

The producer recalls meeting Blow — and hearing the idea of creating something like this docuspecial — while working on a documentary with musician Big Freedia.

"We put together a pitch document and brought in the Emmy Award-winning director Jeremy Simmons, who's an amazing gay filmmaker. We went out there, and ABC News was super receptive and incredibly supportive throughout the entire process.

"ABC News were partners from the ground up," Barbato explains. "A lot of times, with our docs, we can't find partners. So we make them, and then we find someone later on. But that wasn't the case with this project."

While recognizing that Late to the Party focuses on people who had to wait before coming out of the closet due to a variety of circumstances, Barbato zooms out and outlines how the concept of arriving late to a "party" can be much broader and more universal.

"You're late to the party! Late to the party is such a kind of broad idea," the producer notes. "It's late to becoming your authentic self. Everybody can relate to that, which is why I feel like these stories are super important. We're so busy identifying ourselves and our stories for our own, when in fact they're everyone's stories."

When asked about docuspecial airing on a broadcast network like ABC, during Pride Month, at a time when politicians are actively targeting the LGBTQ+ community, Barbato admits that he is "seeing it become a very legitimate threat." Nonetheless, he adds that "World of Wonder is doubling down on what we do, and that's what we have to contribute."

"We have to get rid of this dark cloud over Pride so we can bring the rainbow back," Barbato says.

Late to the Party can resonate with straight people as well, Blow argues, showing them that they "already know these people." He adds, "This is an aunt you have. this is an elder in the neighborhood. You know these people, and you love these people."

Blow says that he's heard all kinds of coming-out stories over the years, and notes how these individuals often display "a calming, adolescent nature to them. It's like they're being born again, like children," he explains. "It's so endearing to see all the gayness and all the things you would expect from a 16 year old… Only this person is 60 years old."

When asked if he'd consider turning Late to the Party into a docuseries with several episodes and seasons, Blow is elated. "From your mouth to god's ears… Is that how they say it? Yes!" he teases.

Late to the Party: Coming Out Later in Life premieres Friday, June 6 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. The docuspecial will also be available for streaming on Disney+ and Hulu starting on Saturday, June 7.