Boo, Richard Chamberlain

For decades, Richard Chamberlain felt he had to hide his homosexuality from the world, especially those in the entertainment industry.

We can imagine how hard that must have been for him, being unable to be exactly who he wanted to be, but what we can’t imagine is why he is now telling this generation’s gay actors to stay in the closet.

According to Richard, the “tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture” should be enough of a reason for gay actors to hide their identity. He explained further to The Advocate:

“For an actor to be working [at all] is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren’t,” Chamberlain told The Advocate, the monthly magazine. So it’s just silly for a working actor to say, “Oh, I don’t care if anybody knows I’m gay” — especially if you’re a leading man. Personally, I wouldn’t advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out…”Despite all the wonderful advances that have been made, it’s still dangerous for an actor to talk about that in our extremely misguided culture. Look at what happened in California with Proposition 8. Please, don’t pretend that we’re suddenly all wonderfully, blissfully accepted.”

We appreciate where you are coming from, but there is really only one way to fix that – honesty.

Hiding the truth doesn’t help broaden people’s minds beyond stereotypes. It only gives the haters exactly what they want!

If we’re looking for acceptance from the rest of the world, we first have to look to ourselves to be honest about who we are. That’s the step forward the world truly needs.

[Image via WENN.]