Yep, Pee-wee Herman was Gay

Paul Reubens, the actor best known for his role as Pee-wee Herman, was gay. In a new documentary, Reubens comes out posthumously after keeping his sexual orientation private throughout his career.

Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which ran from 1986 to 1990, was must-see Saturday morning fare. It successfully expanded onto the big screen with movies like Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Big Top Pee-wee. The Pee-wee Herman Show, which ran between 2010 and 2011, was a hit on Broadway.

In Pee-wee as Himself, Reubens talks about being in a romantic relationship with a man named Guy. Guy would say things like “Mmmm! Buttery” in “a Yoda-like style, and influenced the characteristics of Pee Wee.

“I was out of the closet, and then I went back in the closet,” Reubens says in the documentary. “I wasn’t pursuing the Paul Reubens career; I was pursuing the Pee-wee Herman career.

Two arrests, one for masturbating in an adult movie theater, upended his career for several years. He felt negative assumptions followed him for the rest of his life.

“More than anything, the reason I wanted to make a documentary was for people to see who I really am, and how painful and dreadful it was to be labeled something I wasn’t. To be labeled a pariah; to have people be scared of you, or untrusting.”

He lost Guy to AIDS. And though he would go on to have secretive relationships, he chose to focus more heavily on his career. An unhealthy helping of internalized homophobia didn't help.

“I was secretive about my sexuality even to my friends [out of] self-hatred or self-preservation,” he said. “I was conflicted about sexuality. But fame was way more complicated.”

Reubens died in 2023 at 70, losing a battle with cancer.