Actor Zachary Quinto has said that he
feared coming out gay would hurt his career.
Quinto is currently promoting Ryan
Murphy's film adaptation of The Boys in the Band. The gay
drama is currently streaming on Netflix.
(Related: Netflix
releases first trailer for gay drama Boys
in the Band.)
Speaking with Variety, Quinto,
43, said that he was compelled to come out in 2011 by a spate of teen
suicides.
“That was at a time when a lot of
young gay kids were killing themselves around the country because of
bullying,” Quinto said. “There was a huge spate of teen suicides
that were happening.”
“I just felt like I had an obligation
at this point. Having enjoyed a certain level of success, I felt like
the hypocrisy was too much to bear for me to be enjoying this life
that I had created for myself and not acknowledging my identity as a
gay man.”
"I felt like it was actively
harming a group of young people who the choice to come out could
benefit.”
“I did feel like me coming out would
have potentially had an impact on my career and it wouldn't have been
a good one,” he
added.
Quinto is best known for playing Spock
in three Star Trek films and Sylar in NBC's Heroes.