Actor Chad Allen has joined James Duke
Mason's Trailblazer campaign.
Mason, the son of singer Belinda
Carlisle, launched the campaign, which urges gay actors to leave the
closet, with his own 3-minute-40-second video.
“It's going to take a movement to
beat the naysayers who would rather we remain silent, scared and
afraid,” Mason
says in the campaign's inaugural video.
Allen, who is best know for his role as
Matthew Cooper on the CBS long-running series Dr. Quinn: Medicine
Woman, released his video on Thursday.
In his video, Allen talks about his
coming out process at the age of 21 on the cover of gay glossy The
Advocate.
“I got amazing response from young
people all across the country, all around the world. And I watched
as networks that I worked for my entire life didn't want to audition
me anymore, I watched as opportunities fell away,” Allen says in
his nearly 5 minute video.
“What are we going to do? I'm going
to make this video. You're going to make a video. You're going to
tell your friends to make a video. And those of us who are leaders
in the industry, who participate in this crazy world of Hollywood,
it's time that we stood up and declared that we demand that our
workplace, our home, be safe, be welcoming.” (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page.)