Tilda Swinton holds a rainbow flag in Moscow’s Red Square

Tilda Swinton has long been a big supporter of LGBT rights, including making a bit of a stir last year by posing with a rainbow flag in Moscow’s Red Square last year, shortly after Russia enacted its infamous ‘gay propaganda’ laws.

Now she’s been sharing her thoughts about what gay people get from the challenges they face, which straight people lack. She tells The Daily Beast, “To pass through the transitions that gay people have to in order to come out to themselves, to their families when they’re quite young, it’s a grow-bag, isn’t it?”

“I think that very often, heterosexual people miss out on that. There’s a feeling of development and sometimes, heterosexual people have never had to go through that self-examination and just knowing themselves, and that sense of coming out, coming to your own defense, and being your own best advocate, and going, ‘No! I’m going to stand by myself and say this is who I am and you can all fuck off.'”

“That is a wonderful transition to go through, and I suppose a lot of straight people miss out on that, and then maybe their relationship choices are potentially less examined. They could be lazier or less thoroughly thought-through.”

It’s a good point, as while the difficulties of coming out are often talked about, the fact LGBT can grower stronger because of that is more often ignored.