Tyler Whitman of ‘Million Dollar Listing New York’ Shares ‘What Pride Means to Me’

“It will never feel normal,” Tyler Whitman says about seeing himself on television week after week. The Million Dollar Listing New York star is currently popping up on televisions every Thursday night as his second season of the show airs on Bravo. “But I never take it for granted,” he says.

Tyler Whitman is one of the show’s New York City-based real estate agents, who we see making high-profile property deals and navigating their own personal tribulations. 

According to Tyler, though, it’s having the platform the show provides him with that makes it all worthwhile. These days he can reach more people than ever when it comes to issues that are close to his heart, among them LGBTQ topics and the importance of body positivity and self-acceptance, which he’s particularly open about on his social media. 

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In Hornet’s sit-down with Tyler Whitman, he was able to share his thoughts on the meaning and significance of Pride. We speak about his own relationship with Pride, and how his own personal journey to self-love intersects with it. 

“What Pride Means to Me” by Tyler Whitman

I was very insecure for a very long time, and I never felt comfortable going out in the gay community. Looking back on it, it was because I had conjured up these stories of, I’m overweight, and they’re not going to be nice to me. So I actually didn’t really celebrate Pride for the first time until the summer of 2017. That was my first Pride. I had a friend in town, we went to the parade, met up with a few friends. It was a very impromptu Pride, but so much fun. We bounced around from club to club that night and danced the night away, and there was such great energy everywhere. 

And then I realized, Oh, this is awesome. For 2018 and 2019 Pride, I went all-out.

At first, Pride was definitely just a party excuse. Extra parties! Let’s go out! And then you go out and you really start to see the community. And you start to see just how real our gay history is, and that in the grand scheme of things, the hard stuff was not that long ago. And you meet the people who fought for the community; pioneers when things were really scary. 

I’m filled with so much respect for the people who came before us and paved the way and got us to where we are today. And there’s still a lot of work being done. Now it feels like the world is really opening up rapidly to these conversations, some of which even I — as a cisgender gay man — didn’t have an understanding of five years ago. I take a lot of pride in our community coming together in that learning, adapting, staying open-minded and really embracing the community that we are.

One thing I really love is seeing people outside of the community come together to celebrate us. What feels really spectacular to me is when people outside of the community are like, We’ve got your back, and we’re here for you. And the visibility that comes from seeing companies support Pride, changing their logos to rainbow logos. It’s so nice to see Pride everywhere.

I’ve been out of the closet since I was 14 but never allowed myself to be part of the gay community, because of my own feelings about myself and not feeling worthy and not feeling like I would be included. And so for me to be where I am in life right now, as somebody who just truly loves myself exactly as I am, knowing that I still have to grow and that there’s still going to be many hard things that I have to overcome, I’m just enjoying the ride and loving myself through that process.

This year, I hope that not only the gay community has a great Pride but that everybody gets out and celebrates loving yourself for who you are. I hope everybody gets out there and feels this beautiful, bright energy that exists during Pride Month.

You can watch Tyler Whitman on Million Dollar Listing New York every Thursday night on Bravo.

Photo of Tyler Whitman at top by KARJAKA