Actor Ian McKellen regrets not coming out earlier

“I wish I’d felt able to come out earlier,” said actor Sir Ian McKellen in an interview with Charlie Rose, according to Towleroad.com. “Everything in society was against people of my generation coming out, because it was against the law to make love. So if every time you have sex you remind yourself you’re a criminal, that’s not something you necessarily want to talk about unless you’re a really, really strong and brave person which I wasn’t, so I got on very comfortable with my life as an openly gay man without ever talking about it. And most people don’t have to but if you’re in the public eye there comes a time when it’s appropriate.”

He continued, ““A law was being passed I didn’t approve of which disadvantaged gay people, and that’s when I came out. And it was just the right time for me, because, 49, I was confident as an actor, as a person. And I could organize a sentence and make a case and feel passionate about it…there was a part for me to play within the gay rights movement in the UK and I loved it, I relished it. Acting was involved of course, but acting the truth. And then I felt a better person all the way around.”

McKellen was talking about the proposed anti-gay law in Britain called Section 28. According to Wikimedia, “It was not until 1988 that he came out to the general public, in a programme on BBC Radio. The context that prompted McKellen's decision – overriding any concerns about a possible negative effect on his career – was that the controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Bill, known simply as Section 28, was then under consideration in the British Parliament. Section 28 proposed prohibiting local authorities from promoting homosexuality ‘... as a kind of pretended family relationship.’"

It wasn’t the first time that he has talked about coming out. On Larry King Now, King asked McKellen what was his biggest regret. The actor replied, “That I didn’t, whilst they were alive, talk to my parents about being gay. My mother died when I was 12, so that conversation couldn’t happen. But my father didn’t die until I was 24, and I was a man, and living with another man, and I could have told him and asked his approval, and he would have given me a hug. And I’ll never get that.”

Campaigning against Section 28 was only the start of McKellen’s LGBT activism. According to Wikipedia, “McKellen has continued to be very active in LGBT rights efforts. In a statement on his website regarding his activism, the actor commented that:

“‘I have been reluctant to lobby on other issues I most care about – nuclear weapons (against), religion (atheist), capital punishment (anti), AIDS (fund-raiser) because I never want to be forever spouting, diluting the impact of addressing my most urgent concern; legal and social equality for gay people worldwide.’

McKellen is a co-founder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots. McKellen is also patron of LGBT History Month, Pride London, Oxford Pride, GAY-GLOS, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation, and FFLAG where he appears in their video ‘Parents Talking.’"

He has received many awards for his acting, and from LGBT groups for his activism. He was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts.

The Gayly – December 15, 2015 @ 5 p.m.