Rosie Perez has long been an advocate for the LGBT community, but her support runs deeper than just being an ally. The actress and View host on Monday revealed at TrevorLIVE New York, an event supporting the youth foundation The Trevor Project, that she considers herself a "quasi-straight person."
Perez, who is now married to artist Eric Haze, talked about a relationship she had as a teenager with a girl named Michelle, and the effect it had on her.
"Every human being, whether they want to admit it or not, went through a period of questioning. I know I did," Perez said during her moving speech. She went on to say the questions came up when she met Michelle in junior high and "all I wanted to do was hump her." 
"I suppressed the urge and suppressed the urge and suppressed the urge until Michelle one day started humping on me," she continued. 

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Perez said, at the time she didn't have the support system to help her navigate her feelings. "I'm not the only one that went through this questioning period. I'm not the only one that suppressed those feelings, who hid their story," she said. "I know I'm not lesbian, gay or whatever, I'm a quasi-straight person, I still went through that period. And I thought I was all alone." 
"If I had other people, specifically adults, if I was just able to call up and they said, 'Oh, I humped the Michelle-type person too, you're normal, don't worry. You're either gonna go here, there or in the middle, don't worry about it, it'll pass. You're just figuring it out,' even that simple statement ... that would have made all the difference in the world," she said. 
Perez, who has mentored and motivated teens for years through various charitable organizations, concluded by saying, "There's no such thing as normal. What is the norm is being different."
For more information about The Trevor Project, click here. And watch the always-outspoken Perez talk Ferguson, hip hop and much more in our exclusive interview below:

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)