In a recent interview with The Canadian
Press, Eric McCormack reflected on the role Will & Grace
had on the LGBT rights movement and marriage equality in particular.
Will & Grace returned
Thursday for its ninth season, 11 years after it ended its 8 season
run on NBC. The show, which premiered in 1998, was the first prime
time network sitcom to feature a gay lead in McCormack's uptight
lawyer Will Truman and has been credited for helping advance the LGBT
rights movement.
In 2012, former Vice President Joe
Biden credited the series with helping advance marriage equality
during an appearance on Meet the Press.
(Related: Joe
Biden endorses gay marriage.)
“[He] says that as far as he's
concerned, Will & Grace did more to educate the American
public about gay marriage and gay issues than any other thing,”
McCormack
said.
“We were all phoning each other like,
'Did you hear that?'”
McCormack said that the show “snuck”
in gay characters.
“We snuck in,” he said. “We were
in your living room every week and, ‘Isn’t that one so funny?’
and ‘I like him.’ Old women that had never met a gay man in their
life were like, ‘I hope Will finds a nice boy.’”
“It permeated American culture slowly
but surely, and all the more reason that we have to come back and
remind people that that’s why we got where we got – that’s why
we got to a place where gay marriage was passed, that marriage
equality was passed as a right in 50 states,” he added.