The Walking Dead Star Daniel Newman Comes Out in Heartfelt Video

Daniel Newman, who currently stars in AMC's The Walking Dead, took massive step in his career and came out to fans across his social media platforms Thursday night.

After tweeting with the hashtags #OUTandPROUD and #LGBT, the actor shared a video describing the exchange he had while volunteering at a homeless youth shelter. After correcting a young girl who thanked him for helping even though he was straight, the girl asked why he'd never said anything publicly about his sexuality. "You could help change our lives," Newman recalls her saying. "It hit me like a gut-punch," he said.

"I realized how important it is in this day and age to be visible and have people know who you are," he said. "We're partially to blame for kids getting beat up, ridiculed, and the stereotypes and stigmas - if you don't like them you need to be visible and change them."

Newman recalls growing up in an Irish Catholic family in Georgia where no one really talked about their personal lives, and compares it to now when openly gay athletes, actors, lawyers, and doctors abound. "Our culture has changed so much, the whole world has changed," he said. "You see at this moment how rights are getting stripped away so quickly. Who are the people that are easiest to take rights from? People that are invisible, people who are silent."

The actor went on to recall how the men in the LGBTQ community labeled as "sissies" and who were the most effeminate have always been the heroes. "They're the strongest because they didn't have a choice," he said, "those guys are incredible and so, so amazing. If you don't identify with that, you need to be visible, you need to show the entire full spectrum of the community." Watch Newman's video, below.