Groff publicly came out as gay when asked by a "Broadway.com" reporter during the National Equality March in October 2009. Groff has shared his experience with coming out, telling "Playbill", "When I was in "Spring Awakening", I wasn't out to anyone in my life … When I was closeted, I never realized how shut down I was until I came out." He has further said, "I always knew that I was gay for as far back as I can remember [...] I came out because I was in love initially. And I thought – because there's this weird stigma of, like, if you come out, will it affect your career? [...] And I thought, you know what? I would rather be in love. This feeling of love is so great and so deep. I would rather be in love than worry and obsess about my career."