Lee Daniels explains to 'Out' Magazine that he came out as a gay man because he hated his father

Lee Daniels, 53, was recently open about the tribulations that led him to come out as a gay man with Out Magazine. The Butler and Precious director has struggled with addiction and family tragedy, but his decision to be open with his sexuality appears to stem from resentments he had with his father.

"When I came out it was because I loathed my dad so much -- I couldn't understand how you could, with an extension cord, beat a 45-pound kid just because he's aware of his femininity," he told the magazine. "For me it really created a world where I understood Precious, where you learn the power of the imagination. And that's how it began for me."

When Daniels was 15 his father was a cop and died on duty during a raid on a Philadelphia bar. He recalls his father finding him wearing his mother's red high heels and dumping him into a trash can.  Daniels' films deal with the struggles that come with adversity, and his own life displays those exact challenges. He has gone through losing loved ones to AIDS and developing an addiction to crystal meth. He says he still struggles with feeling worth after being told from his father as a young kid that he wasn't worthy.

Daniels, who won an Oscar for producing Monster's Ball, explains to Out what that night was like for him after the awards. "It's always when things are really good for me that I feel I'm not worthy of it," he says. "When Halle [Berry] won her Oscar [for Monster's Ball], I remember her calling, saying, 'Are you going to the Vanity Fair party?' and I'm strung out in the Chateau Marmont, methed out of my mind, thinking I didn't deserve it."

For a man who has gone through many challenges, Daniels has delivered touching, inspiring stories to the big screen through the years and will hopefully continue to do so.