Arvada man comes out as gay -- at 90 years old: "It's never too late"
Coming out looks different for everyone. And for one Arvada man, it was something that took him until he was 90 years old. But today he told me it's the best decision he's ever made.
"It's never too late to come out," says Kenneth Felts. Born into a religious family in Kansas in 1930, Felts never planned to tell anyone he was gay.
"I knew I was gay when I was 12 years old," says Felts.
But in his 20s, love found a way. Felts dated and lived with a man named Philip for a short time... Before shame pushed him back into the closet
"I stayed there in the closet as it were all those years," says Felts.
Felts went on to marry a woman, have a daughter, and then get divorced. After surviving cancer in 2019, he began writing a memoir.
"I got up to Philip, it hit me so hard that, here was this great love affair I'd had, and I walked away," says Felts.
That's when, at 90, Felts finally decided to come out. First telling his daughter, then posting to Facebook, soon the whole world knew.
"Pretty soon I was doing interviews in Tokyo, in Berlin, in Paris, and everywhere wanted an interview of this old man who decided to get out of the closet and be a real person," says Felts.
After coming out, Felts received hundreds of messages.
A stranger in New Jersey helped find Philip, who Felts had searched for earlier in life but never found. They were successful, but sadly, Philip had died just two years earlier. However, Felts was grateful to finally have photos of his long-lost love.
Another stranger asked Felts on a blind date, and at 90 years old, he gave love another chance.
"Johnny and I have been together now two years this Sunday," Felts says of his partner, whom he lives with, "that's the result of getting out. Of coming out of the closet and finding out that the world is very accepting and very warm and has a lot of love out there and I found a lot of love in Johnny."
After coming out, Felts became active in "the Center on Colfax," an LGBTQ safe space. He's made art there. Some of his pieces are currently on display at the Denver Art Museum in their queer creativity exhibit.
