Matt Bomer: I Never Hid the Fact That I'm G*y

Matt Bomer dodged questions about his personal life for years -- but not because he's ashamed of his s*xual orientation.

The Magic Mike actor, 34, subtly acknowledged his homosexuality while thanking his longtime partner,

publicist Simon Halls, and their three children, Kit, Walker and Henry, when he was honored by the Desert AIDS Fund in Palm Springs in February.

"I never really endeavored to hide anything," Bomer tells E! News. "But there were times I chose not to relegate my history to the back page of a magazine, which to me is sort of akin to putting your biography on a bathroom wall."

Bomer continued: "What we really have to do is stop the adjective before the job title -- whether it's 'black actor,' a 'g*y actor' or 'anything actor. Everybody thinks that equality comes from identifying people, and that's not where equality comes from. Equality comes from treating everybody the same regardless of who they are. I hope the media and the press catches on to that because it's time to move out of 1992."

With a featured role in Magic Mike (in theaters June 29), Bomer certainly dispels the archaic notion that coming out will hurt an actor's career.

"When they called me, I thought, 'Do they have the wrong number? Did they mean to call the guy from Vampire Diaries?'" Bomer laughed. "And at the time I was really skinny so I think there may have been a five-minute window from when I hung up the phone to when I went to the gym."

Though he's proud of his role in Magic Mike, Bomer admits it's much too racy for his three sons. "One day when they are old enough, they can watch it," he told E! News. "I'll be able to say, 'Hey, your old man used to be in shape. He might not be anymore, but he used to be in shape. Now, go get me a beer.'"

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