British actor Rupert Everett's comments
on gay parenting have sparked controversy.
“I couldn't think of anything worse
than being brought up by two dads,” Everett reportedly told UK's
The Sunday Times Magazine.
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of
LGBT rights advocate Stonewall, criticized Everett's comments.
“Rupert should get out a little bit
more to see the facts for himself,” Summerskill
said. “There is absolutely no evidence that the kids of gay
parents suffer in the way they are being brought up or in how they
develop.”
The 53-year-old Everett is best known
to American audiences for playing Julia Roberts' gay confidant in the
1997 romantic comedy film My Best Friend's Wedding. He
currently stars as Oscar Wilde in the play The Judas Kiss.
Everett has previously stated that work
for him dried up after he came out gay.
In 2009, he advised aspiring gay actors
to remain closeted.
“I would not advise any actor
necessarily, if he was really thinking of his career, to come out.
The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old
homosexual trying to make it in the British business or the American
film business or even the Italian film business,” he said.