Quinto Comes Out
2 min readIn what should be no surprise to anyone who has followed the career of the actor, Zachary Quinto has come out, revealing that he is gay.
His role of Louis Ironson in Angels in America as the boyfriend of a man with AIDS who cannot deal with the changes that AIDS has brought to their relationship was “the most challenging thing I’ve ever done as an adult,” said Quinto, “and the most rewarding.”
Working in Angels in America, an AIDS-themed play, made Quinto realize how fortunate he is to live in these modern times. “Doing that play made me realize how lucky I was to be born when I was born and to not have to witness the decimation of an entire generation of amazingly talented and otherwise vital men,” he said. “And at the same time, as a gay man, it made me feel like there’s still so much work to be done, and there’s still so many things that need to be looked at and addressed.”
The recent suicide of fourteen-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, after years of anti-gay bullying by fellow students, shook up Quinto. “When I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself – I felt deeply troubled,” said Quinto via his blog. “But when I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer had made an ‘It Gets Better‘ video only months before taking his own life – I felt indescribable despair.”
“I also made an ‘It Gets Better‘ video last year in the wake of the senseless and tragic gay teen suicides that were sweeping the nation at the time,” said Quinto, “but in light of Jamey’s death, it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality.
“Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country. Gay kids need to stop killing themselves because they are made to feel worthless by cruel and relentless bullying. Parents need to teach their children principles of respect and acceptance.”
“We are witnessing an enormous shift of collective consciousness throughout the world. We are at the precipice of great transformation within our culture and government. I believe in the power of intention to change the landscape of our society, and it is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action.”
“Jamey Rodemeyer’s life changed mine. And while his death only makes me wish that I had done this sooner; I am eternally grateful to him for being the catalyst for change within me. Now I can only hope to serve as the same catalyst for even one other person in this world. That, I believe, is all that we can ask of ourselves and of each other.”
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Hurrah Zachary!
About time and thank you!
Let’s see where this goes!
“no surprise to anyone”
You aren’t kidding.
how dare you imply that simply because an actor may have taken one or more ‘gay’ roles that there really gay. Star Trek may be all things but it’s still far behind the field in the representation of all lifestyles, and it doesn’t help when a Star Trek news website has to call it like that. What’s next it’s no surprise he’s really an alien……..
He’s Vulcan. He’s not supposed to be attracted to ANYBODY!
^^why should it go anywhere? Surely nowadays something like this is hardly newsworthy? Fancy that, Quinto’s gay, so what…
To the commenter who wants Star Trek to “show all lifestyles”: Should we show the “lifestyle” of child molestors next or cannibles? What about those people who enjoy murdering people? Star Trek is not the 24th century version of Rome and we will not tollerate those who wish to regress to barbarism. Gandhi said that passion was for procreation only, anything else is a waste of life.
Well it’s quite obvious he means “all legal lifestyles”.
Also not sure how you make the jump from normal lifestyles to monsters and criminals. Are you going to get upset if women are on TV or something?
It’s not normal. I don’t want to debate whether it’s natural, but it’s certainly not normal…
Wonder how he felt by kissing a woman in the last Star Trek movie. Well, ends my faithfulness to Star Trek. I’ll not read another article. I’m wiping my hands of it. It would have been better if he had kept his mouth shut. Now he has ruined it for all the normal people out there. I’ll not read another star trek article or see another star trek series or movie. I’m done. For the same reason I quit supporting Star Trek New Voyages, I mean hey even had a man kissing and lying with another man. They lost a big following doing that and now with Quinto’s disgustingly “coming out”, I’m done with all the Star Trek Universe. Thanks for nothing guys.
LOL. Star Trek will miss you! Not.
Wow, what an enlightened individual you are. Let’s hope that you don’t watch anything with Neil Patrick Harris, Rock Hudson, or anyone else who has the misfortune (in your mind) of being gay. So you sat through the whole movie, I’m assuming liked it, but this revelation that the ACTOR is gay brings down the whole curtain for you. So sad. Go back to suckling at the teet of your sheltered and conservative life and hope that nothing else in the world happens to shatter the illusion. And no, I’m not gay. I’m just tired of the same people complaining that the gay population is throwing it in our face are the same ones trying to shove their conservative ideals down everyone’s throat. Trust me, speaking for the vast majority of the Trek Community, I say don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
I read the negative comments and have to remind myself that even idiots are allowed to like Star Trek. Who Zachary Quinto is has nothing to do with his role in Star Trek as far as the Character he plays. If you loved his work up until you found out he is gay, and now you detest it, you are an idiot…period. I wish him much success and happiness in his life.
Really, the old molester argument? That’s very tired, and you didn’t even spell it right. And as far as “Gandhi said that passion was for procreation only, anything else is a waste of life. ” 1) I don’t think he ever said that & 2) Either way thanks to you and attitudes like that, we are bursting at 7 billion people on this tiny rock, and no shuttles out of here anytime soon.
Don’t let the airlock doors hit you on your way out.
Seriously? You mean, an actor claims to be gay and you hate the franchise he has nothing to do with other than playing a role (a straight one mind you), but you stuck around after Jadzia Dax and Lenara Khan smooched on DS9. Oh, wait, that was different. It played in to your pathetic juvenile fantasies of two women so it was hot. And it’s not like they were lesbians, it was their symbiants who were in love. But two dudes, that’s just wrong…
See how stupid you just made yourself.
I still like star trek and I still like Zachary Quinto but homosexuality is wrong.
Or anything with John Barrowman, Dan Butler, Richard Chamberlain, Rupert Everett, John Glover, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Nathan Lane, David Hyde Pierce, George Takei, BD Wong, David Ogden Stiers, Roger Rees, Tom Hulce, Alan Cumming, or many, many more.
It really doesn’t matter if he’s gay or not. If he is terrible in his role then you have a legitimate gripe. The fact that he is attracted to other men shouldn’t have any impact on his acting ability or the characters he portrays.
Personally I could care less if he was gay, it doesn’t affect me. Now if he messes up the character or just does poor acting then yeah, I’ll be pretty annoyed. Until that happens though, which I doubt it will, I and many others will continue to watch Star Trek.
Also, FYI George Takei, who played Sulu in the original series, is gay and has been public about it for some time. If Quinto coming out makes you hate Star Trek then the jokes on you!
Well I was curious (I’m one of those people that I like to know the facts and not just take someone’s word) so I checked out Stiers and finally discovered a quote from an interview on his IMDB page. I for one wish him well in finding someone to share his life with (part of the reason he came out in 2009 is because he didn’t want someone he was with to feel they had to hide) but how sad that it’s only now that we are reaching a place where actors feel comfortable being their true selves.
On another note I was amused to discover that Roger Rees is gay since he has always been my choice to play Bart Fauliwell from the Starfleet Corps Of Engineers e-book series.
There were a couple on the list that actually surprised me, too. Kind of puts the lie to the whole “simply being out of the closet, they’re shoving it in our faces” canard, doesn’t it?
Spock sucks cock. Vulcan taint grip.
In other news, Chris Pine announces he is straight and dates hot chicks. Lots of men and women are very supportive of Chris. According to Chris, “This is hardest thing I had to do, I like girls … I can’t help it. If Shatner can hook up with a green chick, then certainly I can handle Hollywood girls.” Many other males have decided to announce they are straight.
Drama queen from an Ivy league school, chances of being gay …. over 90%. It wasn’t a shock. Maybe they should do a movie Star Trek 2: Spock Comes Out on your Uranus
Being a genius is not normal either, but they exist. Very tall people aren’t normal because you have lots of people being average and a small number of people being short… Homosexuality in the animal kingdom is common, if you actually tried to understand the natural world.
Being gay is a minority, but if you observe the animal kingdom same-sex sexual behaviour is common. Also read the news… it is a tragedy that young people are depressed and committing suicide because they are gay and they are bullied. Unfortunately it becomes too much for them. It is sad to see bullies everywhere and supposedly Star Trek is about optimism, tolerance and egalitarian.
Being gay shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t. But it does because young gay people are bullied. They are depressed. They needlessly end their lives. We need to stop this homophobia. Life is precious.
Being straight is “normal”, yes, so I don’t know what you are getting at. If you are suggesting Quinto being gay is obvious and this shouldn’t be newsworthy I really hope you understand why he came out. You don’t get bullied for being straight, at least 99.99% of the time.
Why is it wrong? Perhaps you can explain why in the animal kingdom lots of mammals, birds and other animals show homosexual behaviour.
I never said it wasn’t. Then again, I guess it depends on how you see humanity. I see humanity as a constant struggle to overcome the baser instinct that nature has imposed on us. Animals also kill each other. The natural instinct of a human is pretty raw stuff. If you want to put homosexuality into the same category as animalistic rage, that’s on you. I specifically said that I didn’t want to debate whether it was part of nature to be homosexual… clearly it is… but what difference does that make in a human society? Humans instinctively want to steal, rape, kill, and do all the other horrible things that our gut and the survival instinct inside of us all demands. Being human, we overcome that as best we can. Sure, homosexuality is part of nature. That doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong. Nature also produces two headed snakes. Nature isn’t the be all end all of this debate. As The Doctor said in a recent episode of Doctor Who, good people don’t need rules. Good people just do what’s right… so, you should ask yourself why he has so many rules… same goes for Christians or anyone else. We establish rules against the most horrendous things, not because they’ll never happen, but because they would happen without us preventing them. Argue all you want that homosexuality is natural, I won’t disagree. Normal? Good? Preferred? Something that shouldn’t be discouraged? Nope…
What difference does it make if a chimp screws another chimp? Chimps also conduct warfare against other troupes of chimps, killing them all viciously. Should we go with that behavior because chimps do? Chimps will also cannibalize their children and enemies. Well, if it’s good enough for the animal kingdom, right? Wrong…. Stop using the Animal Kingdom as some kind of justification for behavior. Plenty of animal behaviors are unnacceptable in human society.
You know, the last time society in general turned this perverse, letting morality fly out the window, it took a thousand years of dark ages to recover. Let’s keep it up, we’re geometrically heading toward the fall of our empire faster than the Romans ever did. Kudos.
I HATE the following analogy, but I also HATE your method of trying to bully the general public… Homosexuality is clearly natural. Then again, attempting to mate with the youngest and most healthy & mature (meaning sexually viable for procreation) specimens is commonplace, right? Yet, we don’t allow pedophiles to traipse about consuming nubile flesh, do we? Even though it’s common, in fact mandatory, in the rest of the Animal Kingdom? I’m not saying homosexuals are pedophiles. However, the idea that just because a behavior exists in nature makes it good is just naive. All animals are what we would consider pedophiles… We reject that behavior as humans… but we didn’t always. Romans regularly married off their girls at 12 or 13. Would we do that now? No. Should we? No… why not? It’s natural! True, but nature isn’t what defines us… we define ourselves by molding nature to suit us… and in that same vein, society has, for all time, determined that homosexuality is undesireable and should be excised from human culture. If you want to change that perception, go for it… try… however, I caution against using the Animal Kingdom or Nature to provide you the out for that, as it just doesn’t hold up under scrutiny… as I hope I’ve illustrated. I don’t hate gay people, and I don’t think they have a choice of who they are attracted to. However, as with all humans, they have a choice in terms of their actions. Some people are naturally attracted to people they shouldn’t be attracted to. In some instances we accept that and maintain the social and cultural taboos. In other instances, people are trying to break down those walls. Personally, I think the cultural taboos are there for a reason. It was a cultural taboo to have a kid out of wedlock. Now it isn’t. The result? More kids born out of wedlock, resulting in more kids growing up without a stable set of parental influences. There was a taboo against divorce. Now there isn’t. The result, most marriages end in divorce. It’s such a joke now that marriage seems almost pointless to a majority of people… and the result is the destablization of our family units. If you really think the trajectory we’re on in eliminating our cultural taboos is a good one, I’m curious what gives you that idea… what evidence do you have that what you’re suggesting is good for any of us? The past half century is pretty good proof to me that the elimination of our cultural taboos has done nothing but make us animals that are narcissists.