It may be 2017, but ‘coming out of the closet’ is still a thing that most LGBTIQ people have to go through. It’s a rite of passage to be taken upon by awkward, croaky-throated teenagers and mature, fully-grown adults alike; a ritual of self-acceptance and empowerment that will likely never disappear from our lives so long as society dictates us as a form of otherness that confronts or challenges the status quo.

When it comes to celebrities, however, people have a lot of opinions. Whenever a famous person comes out to the world, they are inevitably besieged with people thinking they only did it for attention, questioning why they didn’t do it earlier, or wondering why it matters at all.

Many act is if fame and money somehow eliminate the doubts and the struggles, the insults and the harassment that come before acceptance. So what happens when you come out on a mass scale like Ellen Page did, aged 26, in a speech at a Human Rights Campaign-organised event?

Unlike others who have come out via magazine covers or Instagram photos, Page’s moving speech at the event didn’t just thrust her sexuality into the limelight, it made her a genuine icon for a new generation of LGBTIQ voices with an act of soul-bearing vulnerability.

“I’m here today because I am gay … I am tired of hiding and I am tired of lying by omission,” Page said in her speech, noting she struggled for years because she was scared to be out in the public eye in an industry that has so many conflicting messages. “My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered and my relationships suffered.”

Watching Ellen Page’s progress towards her public coming out has been fascinating. Her natural charm is one of the reasons movies like the quirky pregnancy comedy Juno and the kick-ass roller derby action of Whip It work as well as they do.

Seeing somebody that we’ve seen grow up on screen over the last decade — her earliest recognisable roles include the controversial thriller Hard Candy and X-Men: The Last Stand, in which she stars as Kitty Pryde — struggle with the conformity of wearing gowns on award show red carpets or playing into the typical Hollywood game, has been refreshing in a way. She was never really hidden, but took things at her own pace and helped pave the way for other natural coming-outs by young stars like Kristen Stewart and Colton Haynes.

Her Most Important Role Yet?

The memory of Page coming out plays as an important backdrop on Gaycation, the new television series that finds the actor travelling to experience LGBTIQ culture around the world. Along with best friend Ian Daniel, she travels to countries with some of the harshest attitudes towards the queer populations of today, including Jamaica, Brazil and even the US.

In the first episode, Page mentions having been to Japan multiple times, but never before as an openly out woman no longer scared to visit a gay venue. In another she worries about admitting her homosexuality to potentially dangerous homophobes, and later confronts one-time US presidential candidate Ted Cruz over LGBTIQ rights at an Iowa State Fair.

Since coming out, Page has criticised the double standard when it comes to the sorts of roles she has been offered by Hollywood. Speaking to Elle magazine in 2016 she said: “I look at all the things I’ve done in movies: I’ve drugged a guy, tortured someone [in Hard Candy], become a roller-derby star overnight [in Whip It]. But now I’m gay, I can’t play a straight person? Okay, cool,” noting that nobody gets “pigeonholed” playing straight characters.

Nevertheless, the new out-Ellen is a role she clearly relishes and it’s visible to anybody who has watched her work in the last few years. Alongside Gaycation, the actress has become a fierce spokesperson for LGBTIQ rights and has not shied away from letting the world see her relationship with Samantha Thomas.

She has taken coming out on the world stage — one of the hardest things any LGBTIQ person can do — and turned it into something overwhelmingly positive. She’s a queer leader for a new generation and we’re excited to see where around the world it takes her.

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Glenn Dunks is a freelance film critic and culture writer from Melbourne. He is the author of three books and tweets too much at @glenndunks.

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To learn more about Ellen Page and Ian Daniel’s journey head to the Gaycation page on SBS on Demand.