It’s like our culture is so rooted in voyeuristic obsession and the exposure of people’s lives in order to feel validated. It’s terribly empty and sad. It leaves me with a diminished faith in humanity.” —Recently out actor Zachary Quinto on defending his privacy, in the November issue of Details
Image via Details/Chris McPherson
Kyle
I like him, and glad he came out. But, only gay men worry about discussions about their sexuality, and who they are with. Only gay men. Gay men put up with a lot, and they have every right to be scared, evasive, private, and even self-loathing about their sexuality. Society is interested in who everybody is dating. It’s high school. But, that’s life.
Kyle
…he needs to move on with his life now. He came out, now, it’s over. Move on.
Little Kiwi
we should be more worried that more people feel Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan should serve jail times for their reckless-driving and cocaine charges than they feel the top Wall Street insiders and Bank owners should serve time for….well….. if you have to ask you’ll never know.
and kyle is right. i don’t understand this thing of “why can’t i have a personal private life?” you can. you can be publicly known as gay and still have a private life. just like many people are publicly heterosexual and still maintain private lives.
but i get Quinto’s point – more people are talking about him being gay than are talking about the fact that exceedingly wealthy white-collar criminals are ruling the world, whilst breaking it apart, and getting away with it.
JoeyB
Guess he said this a while back to the magazine, before he decided to come out? And yet, another kid has killed himself. We need a tidal wave of the gays in media, the arts, and politics to come out, or it will never get better.
christopher di spirito
If he keeps talking like this, pretty soon he won’t get booked for acting jobs and his career will be relegated to appearances on Chelsea Handler’s dreadful talk show.
Kyle
Every gay person needs to come out. It’s a moral obligation to gay kids.
NickC
If you read the actual article (link provided), this is what was actually said. He made no mention of an “interest in his sexuality” as this article would have us believe. Sensationalism much?
Details: You’ve been very protective of your privacy. How do you feel when you see videos of Ryan Gosling breaking up street fights?
Zachary Quinto: I mean, good for him for making an effort. But it’s like our culture is so rooted in voyeuristic obsession and the exposure of people’s lives in order to feel validated. It’s terribly empty and sad. It leaves me with a diminished faith in humanity.
the crustybastard
If not for humanity’s voyeuristic obsessions, there would be no need for actors.
Little Kiwi
we dont’ just need people in the media to Come Out, we need your average everyday LGBT adults to Come Out.
there are grown-ass adults walking around every day leading two lives – the gay life and the Closeted life, and it needs to stop. what are some of you grown men out there waiting for? get over your insecurity and sense of vanity, stop priding yourself in your ability to “pass for white” – every person you’re not Out to is an opportunity wasted to change a heart and mind.
My parents had zero issues at all with me when i came out because other men and women, from when i was a child and from before i was even born, had made it their business to be Out, visibly and identifiably known, to people that included my parents. not family members, im the first openly gay person in the family, and not even “best close family friends” – colleagues. co-workers. community members. church members. my parents knew gay and lesbian people – having their son Come Out therefore is no great hardship. there’s no fear, no disappointment – they already know gay people, they know there’s nothing wrong with having a gay son.
you could literally save a life by coming out at work – your coworkers no doubt have LGBT family members, they may not know it yet. you could save the life of one of their children by giving a face and name to what “Gay” is.
it’s important when visible public figures Come Out – it’s also important when your everyday Joes and Janes come out.
Help Out, Come Out.
We adults have a responsibility to open the doors for the next generations.
Kyle
Little Kiwi is right. Big Kiwi.
Michael
I’m pretty sure HE made this the big deal. I mean really, who cares?
Ad man
It is sad that so many in our community seek validation from others, especially celebrities.
Paschal
Zach is being a bit over the top.
Cam
Just a guess. The interview with Details was done before he came out.
mitchell
shush, Zachary, shush.
Jim
…which is why I am speaking to a national magazine ABOUT my sexuality.” He’s adapting to the superior queen persona already.
Ogre Magi
What the hell kind of dog is that? It looks like Sprocket from Fraggle Rock
Allen D.
And Queerty AGAIN posts a snippet of something and comes up with a ‘shocking’ headline. He didn’t mention his sexuality.
John
Hey Zach, glad you play for our team…but for those of us working 80 hours a week to put food on the table…shut the fuck up. We’d all kill to be in your financial situation.
PS, Little Kiwi sucks
Christopher Banks
I think the most remarkable part of his coming out, the fact that he just dropped it into an interview answer, integrating his sexual orientation into a discussion about his life in the same way that heterosexuals do (and take for granted) every day, was overlooked.
It’s also one in the eye for the people who say “my sexuality is just a small part of me, it doesn’t matter” – it does, and Zach Quinto has come to realise that.
My thoughts on this today: http://bipolarbear.co.nz/2011/10/19/spock-is-gay-why-should-we-care/
Avenger
@Little Kiwi:
Who the hell are you supposed to be? A gay Gandhi? *snicker*
Sit down with that idealistic ‘Think of the children’ crap.
SluttyNutty
The dog is cuter than Quinto.
iDavid
Coming out is an organic process with many variables. Forcing someone can have neg or pos effects. It’s all a delicate balance where I believe patience is our best bet. But I agree the more that do, the more kids have healthy role models to look up to. A very big plus that Quint obviously saw. Very awesome. Let’s hope his example lights more fires under those scared to be awesomely vulnerable mixed with intrinsic authenticity. Go Quinto.
Jose
Funny, because I think it is more about personal connections and acceptance from public figures that other gay people wonder “could he be like me?”
So it just depends on how you look at it.
Sanford
@Avenger: Several like ‘Lil Ki’, ‘Intersting’ and a few others that spend entire days here. My take is that they have no real influence in their own lives or worlds, so spewing bullsht on a blog makes them feel important and relevant. LOL
Interesting
Well if he said this prior to coming out himself, I don;t really care. Sometimes people evolve over long periods of times, and sometimes it is just an epiphany.
rikard
who are you dating is the question every single person gets. there is a yenta in all of us. we want matches. the reason we are more uncomfortable with the compulsive questioning is that for large section of society it invites their revulsion of us. they can’t stop thinking of sex and shit. the idea of sensuality, tenderness and intimacy are obliterated by the assumption that we inevitably end up covered in shit.
jeff4justice
The burdens of being beautiful. Poor thing. There there. I’ll cuddle you to cheer you up.
Kieran
Let’s face it, most heterosexuals are much more comfortable dealing with gays that look and sound like Carson Kressley. But Zachary Quinto? Zachary Quinto who could be anyone’s ideal as a “straight” boyfriend, brother, husband or father? And here he is OPENLY saying he’s gay? This is the kind of “coming out” that disturbs heterosexuals no end and makes them mutter, “What is this world coming to?” or “Who else might be gay?”
Allen D.
@Kieran: I first saw him on “So NoTORIous”… so, I have to say calling him “anyone’s ideal as a ‘straight’ boyfriend” is fucking HILARIOUS. Not attacking you. Just sayin’.
Brand
I wanted to point out what only two people in this discussion—and not even the Queerty editor who posted this item—seem to have noticed: Zachary Quinto was not talking about his sexuality, and had not even come out of the closet publicly yet, when he gave the quote that Queerty is printing now, completely out of context.
But worse than the people here not knowing that and lacing into Zachary Quinto for having whatever personal journey of coming out that he may be having (even though, as I said, that wasn’t what he was saying), are the assholes attacking “Little Kiwi” for making a point he feels passionate about, about how regular people coming out helps kids feel less isolated as they’re struggling with their own sexuality.
There’s no law that says internet blogs have to be some snarky twitter feed. People writing about profound issues can use more than a limited set of 127 characters and they can use more than a limited set of emotions or brain cells. That is, if they know how. It’s hateful, hurtful, sarcastic and one-dimensional attitudes tamping down freedom of expression, deeper thought processes, and open discussions, precisely like those exhibited by a couple posters here, that are driving these teenagers to the brink. For some of us, embracing our sexuality isn’t license to unleash sarcastic zingers like a high schooler or a stand-up comic, it’s freedom to openly express compassion like a mature adult or a caring and responsible member of society.
JAW
Zac is so right…. the cameras are now on him 24/7/365… everyone wants the first shot of him with a bf… so every time he is seen out the cameras will be clicking like crazy. All males out with him will now be perceived as being gay… and perhaps his new BF. They will be trying to get long lens pics of him shirtless, or less… going to bars in bed etc. he will not be left alone till they can dig up dirt on him.
The gossip shows on TV… People, The Star The National Enquirer etc all live for stories like this.
It will be interesting to see what happens to his career as a gay leading man. All of the other GLB people that have come out and been successful have been comics… no leading men or women
look what happened to TR Knight… does anyone even know who he is/was???
jh
If it were true, as somebody here says, that “only gay men worry about discussions of their sexuality” (and it isn’t), the reason would probably be that gay men have more reason to do so, being more subject to prejudice and discrimination. Actors in Mr. Quinto’s category deal with this even more than other people. Quinto is a very attractive man (particularly in his Star Trek movie) who is well-qualified to play a heterosexual lover, if only people will let him. Between straights who now won’t take him seriously and peevish, jealous gay people whose gossip about his sexual orientation has always been envy masquerading as social responsibility, the world has a lot of knives out for actors like Mr. Quinto. I’m always ashamed of my fellow gay men when they won’t let a gay actor in a homophobic world make a living, and then pretend the problem is entirely his own.
Oh Dear (John From England)
@Brand:
I know I saw that. Even Cam ‘mr facts’ didn’t follow the link. How perculiar that Queerty isn’t even changing this lie? Oh well. It’s never known for being a decent blog.
@Michael:
How did he do it? Was HE the one that tweeted or was it the NY Mag?? Asshole.
@JAW:
The TR Knight was very odd. And was orchestrated by his hag he also told him to quit Greys, Katherine H. Now has she even managed to get him a tiny little role in all the movies she has been in? Even a walk on part? We know what a nightmare she is and how she always gets her own way..nada.
It also seems that Knight didn’t have a lot of people with power he was in contact with and as he is no Cheyenne J-who’s slept with most of the power gays and so is forever their number one gay-who is gorgeous, he has pretty much been effed over.
I completely agree with what Quinto says. We we never this obsessed with celebrity. It’s gotten ridiculous and is even worse in the UK where the only shows that are green lighted are reality and the only people who make money are reality. Haven’t you noticed an array of House like American accents in your shows? Yep, they are from England. I recognize them all.
But I will say against what Zach has said that Goslings thing was staged, like was Cruises saving a fn just before his premiere. Hollywood manipulates us all the time and unless he is woefully naive, which I don’t think he is as he has hung out with Lea Michele and Tori Spelling, he knows what the publicists do to get their star in the press.
We are living in the information age, anyone with a working brain can go on a search engine and google what publicists have been known to do for their clients or how Britney was in with the Paps during her ‘crazy’ days. So if people choose to ignore this because they are emotionally unstable and need to worship a stranger, then that is up to them.
So for that, I am disappointed that Quinto didn’t elaborate that it is a two way street. He needs to be having a go at people like Beyonce, Rihanna, Jennifer Aniston etc etc who are equally to blame for our obsession with celbutards.
Franco
I think the reason he gave for coming out was an excuse. Choosing when to come out is a personal choice, but I think in his case, working in an industry that embraces gay people, he could have made a greater impact if he came out years ago. Every gay person knew he was gay, it wasn’t a secret. I believe every gay person has a moral obligation to come out of the closet so that gay kids know that there is nothing wrong with who they are. I’m glad Quinto came out, it will do a lot of good, I just wish he had done it long ago, and that his reason for coming out was more genuine.
Chad
Way to be a drama queen Zach! I agree with Franco that yeah everyone did know that he’s gay.
Laney B
I don’t understand why people are upset at this comment. It’s the truth. He came out for a good reason, but people are gossipy assholes.
ewe
Just look at that face. He probibly loves him some big black cock. Bitch!
GregR
That’s nice that Zachary came out for the people who couldn’t tell. It was kind of obvious to me. I liked him on the NoTORIous show. I could tell he was gay back then.