Actress Deidre Hall says she's not sure
whether daytime's first gay wedding is going to “change the way of
the world” but increased acceptance of gay rights is needed.
Days of Our Lives, NBC's longest
running soap opera, will make daytime drama history this week by
broadcasting the genre's first gay male wedding.
The marriage of Will Horton (played by
Guy Wilson) and Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith) began unfolding on
Tuesday.
Hall's character of Dr. Marlena Evans,
Horton's grandmother, will preside over the wedding.
“I don't know how much we're going to
change the way of the world with this wedding,” Hall told gay
glossy The
Advocate. “But I think what changes the world is role
models standing up and saying, 'Hey, relax. We're all going to be
fine. Everything is fine.'”
“There's so much we deny gay and
lesbian couples that we freely give to straight couples and I think
that's shameful,” she added. “If you have someone in your life
to whom you're devoted and committed and that you've promised to be
there in every moment, then you need to [be allowed] to be there in
every moment. And for those who stand up and say, 'Not so fast,'
they need to step back. That needs to be the biggest change.
Because I don't know that we'll ever get acceptance across the board,
but humanity – we have to insist upon it.”