I’m not exactly sure that Zachary Quinto‘s coming-out story “shocked the world“—I mean, duh—but good for the A-list science-fiction actor, what with the whole biding-his-time and using his story to do some real good in the world.
Quinto admits that the death of Jamey Rodemeyer, the kid who committed suicide in September and inspired an important tribute from Lady Gaga, urged Quinto to make his own sexuality public this week. CNN:
Actor Zachary Quinto, known for playing Spock in the 2009 Star Trek remake and his role as Sylar on the television show “Heroes,” acknowledged his homosexuality in a post on his website Sunday, saying the action comes after the suicide of a 14-year-old who killed himself after apparently being harassed over his sexuality.
“When I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself—I felt deeply troubled,” Quinto posted. “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,” Quinto wrote. “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.”
It’s commendable that Zachary Quinto took this calculated career risk (c’mon! He’s a sci-fi/action star!) to talk about what really matters.
And this stuff is serious. I just watched fashion designer Tim Gunn‘s recent contribution to the ‘It Gets Better’ project, only because I had coincidentally been googling Tim Gunn, and his video completely broke my heart: in it, Gunn explains that as a 17-year old, he tried to take his own life as a result of bullying. And I just cannot even imagine that someone so self-possessed, funny, and confident had ever contemplated leaving us.
So congratulations to all you unsung heroes out there. While sexual preference does not matter, the message—that it really can “get better”—does.