Victor Garber Joins the Parade

After yesterday's post on Jodie Foster obliquely coming out at the Golden Globes, I saw a story on Towelroad about Victor Garber who also at the GGs for Argo, also being open about his sexuality in a much less ballyhooed manner. A reporter just casually asked him to go on the record about his partner. The actor responded that he ususally doesn't talk about it, but yes, his partner would be with him for the SAG Awards. I remember when Garber was on Alias and there was an interview with him in Entertainment Weekly. Not a single mention of his personal life or who he was dating. Now if it had been a straight actor they would have at least said if he had a girlfriend. It should have been obvious to me. When he was in Damn Yankees on Broadway, I recall hearing he used to crack up his castmates backstage by imitating Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard.


On Facebook, someone posted that everybody knew about Garber anyway so what was the big deal? I responded "NO, everybody does NOT know he's gay. Middle America dos not know that a fine, talented actor is gay. The more gay people who are open about themselves, the fewer gay teen suicides there will be."

There was another response to my comment saying gay teens aren't committing suicide because Garber didn't come out of the closet, but because they are being systematically bullied by people who don't care if stars like Garber are out or not. My reply: It's a gradual process. Bullying against gay or kids who are perceived to be gay or different will probably never stop, but the more well-known and accomplished people like Garber who come out, the more society will accept us and bullying will be less tolerated. There will always be bigots who pick on "the other" and among children who don't their feelings--good or bad--this hatred will emerge. But like Jackie Robinson being integrated into major league baseball, people like Jim Parsons, Victor Garber, Nate Silver, and Anderson Cooper b not hiding who they are shows a positive change in the American society.