Country superstar Chely Wright recently rocked the country music world when she announced that she is a lesbian in her autobiography, Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer. This week, she sat down with GLAAD to discuss coming out, the acceptance she received from her fans and LGBT equality. Here is an abstract from the interview: GLAAD: 2010 has been a whirlwind year for you – a new album, a new book and, of course, coming out – how has that journey treated you and what are you looking forward to in 2011? Chely Wright: It's been as you mentioned a whirlwind experience. It's been very dynamic. I certainly can't begin to say that it's been all rainbows and daisies, there has been a certain degree of difficulty, but much of the difficulty came in the preparation in getting here. But once it all started to unroll, the plans started to progress and the coming out started to happen and the book and everything, the story was out there. The getting here was hard, but the being here is amazing. [Coming out] is a milestone in anyone's life, whether it be a publicly known person or a person who is a math teacher. Acknowledging such a fundamental part of a person's life that is not fully accepted in every fold of America, it's a difficult thing to do, but an extraordinarily gratifying experience and I have absolutely no regrets. GLAAD: Tell us about your experiences with GLAAD. CW: The folks at GLAAD have been instrumental in my coming out process. When I moved to New York two and a half years ago, I reached out to [GLAAD]… and confided in them. They took me in and helped me, not only with information and messaging and statistics and data, but they offered me a great friend. I found a community outside the professional realm of these agencies and organizations, you know that are LGBT oriented, I found a community of other human beings like me. GLAAD was very instrumental to me in so many ways. I learned a lot from the folks at GLAAD. And Jarrett, you know since he took over, I had a nice dinner with him shortly before I came out and we had a good talk and he said, "We're going to be here for you. We're going to stand side-by-side and we're going to change the world." Chely’s breakthrough biography, “Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer,” as well as her new album, “Lifted off the Ground,” are available for purchase at Chely.com. Chely's entire interview appears in GLAAD's Media Matters newsletter, a publication offered exclusively to GLAAD members. To read the rest of the interview and/or learn more about becoming a GLAAD member, click here!