November 17 2025, 08:15 
“Who the f*ck is that? ‘Cause that ain’t me.”
That’s the “moderately gay” voice of Cheyenne Jackson, speaking backstage during his run in the Broadway hit Oh, Mary.
Related
Cheyenne Jackson’s story about his twins coming out will melt your heart
Jackson has been posting Instagram stories from his dressing room at the Lyceum Theatre about whatever’s on his mind as he gets into makeup and costume for the show — which hilariously recounts Mary Todd Lincoln’s last days in the White House before her husband’s assassination — and he recently riffed on the topic of “gay voice”.
Someone had sent him an old video interview he’d done while in the show Altar Boyz, Jackson said, and he was commenting on his then-deeper and more typically “masculine” voice.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
“It’s taken me a long time to be comfortable with just being who I am, and it got me thinking about gay voice,” the Glee star said.
The actor had listened back to the first installment of what he’s calling his “Mirror, She Wrote” stories, and he went through some mental gymnastics on hearing it.
“The first thought I had was, ‘Wow, I sound really gay,’” he said.
“And then I thought, ‘I am gay. What’s wrong with sounding gay?’”
“If you’re in the gay community, you are on the spectrum of gay voice,” Jackson explained. “Everybody’s on the spectrum.”
He described himself as a “moderate gay voice person,” and said he’d spent years being “very afraid to come across as gay.”
“Like, personally, I love feminine men. I always have. I mean, I love all men. Lots of men. But, my favorite is feminine. I mean, have you met my husband?”
That’s 48-year-old Jason Landau, a one-time actor in his twink years who’s now sharing parenting duties for the couple’s two kids.
Jackson, 50, said that “everybody from here to Beirut can tell” Landau is gay when he speaks, and “that’s what I love about him.”
He added his husband “knows who he is” and “doesn’t give a f**k.”
“And that is so hot to me,” he said.
The American Horror Story vet said people used to tell him they didn’t know he was gay, and that “used to make me feel really good.”
“Passing” as straight, he said, gave him a thrill, which he considers a little “f**ked up” in retrospect.
Jackson’s reflections came backstage on one of the gayest productions on or off Broadway right now. Variety described the critically acclaimed show from writer and actor Cole Escola as a “big queer romp ” that’s also a “smartly stupid riot.”
“Perhaps most subtly, Escola deftly folds in gender commentary and nonbinary experience,” the showbiz bible blurted, “highlighting the ways we use both fashion and performance to explore and embody our genders — and how for some people, these can be vital forms of expression.”
Jackson plays “The Teacher” in the three-person ensemble cast, now headlined by Jackson’s former 30 Rock colleague Jane Krakowski as Mary. They’re performing through January.
Of his time on the boards with his Oh, Mary castmates, Jackson was exultant.
“I’m excited to be here. I f**king love this show.”
He closed his “gay voice” rumination with an actor’s flair.
“My internalized homophobia is done,” Jackson said, alight in the mirror’s glow.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.