Darren Criss says hes queer at heart.

The straight, cisgender actor explained why he gravitates toward gay characters during the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo on Saturday, where he told audiences that he has been culturally queer my whole life.

At a panel discussion reported on by Entertainment Weekly , Criss talked about getting his start on the turn-of-the-2010s show Glee, which broke ground with how it depicted LGBTQ relationships on the small screen.

It was fucking awesome, he said of playing Blaine Anderson, a high school a capella singer who was the partner of glee club standout Kurt Hummel, played by Chris Colfer.

Nowadays, we just call it a relationship on TV, Criss explained. But to contextualize it, a gay relationship on mainstream Fox, thats a pretty cool thing to be a part of.

I have been so culturally queer my whole life, he went on. Not because Im trying you know, actually, I was gonna say not because Im trying to be cool but Im gonna erase that, because I am trying to be cool. The things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from and be inspired by are 100% queer as fuck.