Out actor Zachary Quinto says he's okay
with straight celebrities who “queerbait” their gay fans.
HuffPost Live host Josh Zepps asked
Quinto to comment on the phenomenon.
“There's this weird space that's
occupied by people like James Franco, they also mentioned Nick Jonas
of the Jonas Brothers, where there's almost queerbaiting going on,”
Zepps said. “They're sort of icons in the gay community, but
they're not themselves gay, apparently.”
Jonas plays a closeted gay MMA fighter
on DirecTV's Kingdom, while Franco's involvement in the
subject includes numerous gay roles as well as work behind the camera
on several gay-inclusive films.
(Related: Nick
Jonas to headline Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Party.)
“These guys who are, in many ways,
considered very conventionally desirable, attractive leading men …
lending themselves to these kinds of stories is a valuable thing for
our culture,” the 37-year-old Quinto
said.
Quinto, who is best known for playing a
young Spock in the 2009 Star Trek reboot and last year's
sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, plays Franco's lover in I
Am Michael.
(Related: James
Franco: I
Am Michael
asks whether being gay is choice “in healthy way.”)