Will & Grace star Sean Hayes
talked about coming out gay during a recent episode of Close Up
with The Hollywood Reporter.
Hayes came out publicly in 2010,
roughly four years after Will & Grace ended its original
run on NBC.
In 2014, Hayes
married Scott Icenogle, a composer.
Will & Grace returned to NBC
last year to helm a new Must See TV lineup. NBC has renewed the
sitcom for three seasons.
“I was in a different place when I
was a young kid,” Hayes
said. “Being gay, I was out but not out to the press, but I
was out on the set, I was out to my friends, I was out to the world.
But I didn't have the DNA or the ability to [a] spokesperson for an
entire group of people. I wasn't trained to be that person. I
didn't know how to do it. I couldn't find the thoughts to connect to
give a positive message. And now I'm in a different place, and you
realize, you know, silence equals death. This is true.”
The AIDS protest group ACT UP used the
rallying cry “silence equals death” in the late 80s.
Hayes added that he would do “anything
and everything” he could for the LGBT community.