Singer Barry Manilow has cited Vice
President Mike Pence's opposition to same-sex marriage as an example
of discrimination faced by the LGBT community.
Manilow quietly married manager Garry
Kief in California in 2014. While the couple has been together for
decades, Manilow only started talking about his sexuality last year.
In an interview with the Telegraph,
Manilow said that his sexuality was an open secret.
“Look, everyone knew I was gay,”
Manilow
said. “Garry and I have been together for 40 years, which is a
pretty good run.”
“I never talked about it because I
like my privacy, not because I didn't want people to know.”
Manilow added that he hopes his coming
out helps others.
“There are a lot of people going
through hell because they know they are gay and their family won't
accept it,” Manilow said. “It's awful and I do hope that I could
help somebody [by coming out]. It would be wonderful if I could.”
The 75-year-old Manilow added that
being gay is not as accepted as it should be.
“Being gay is not as accepted as we
like to think,” he said. “We have a vice president who would
like to stop gay marriage and would like to think we weren't even
allowed to be around.”
“It is very ugly being in the world
right now,” he added.