Zachary Quinto is Gay, Comes Out on His Blog

Hey, did you know that Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, Heroes) is gay? Many have known or suspected as such for quite some time now, which posited Quinto squarely in that camp of “guys who everybody knows is gay despite their unwillingness to come out.”

Well, not anymore.

Today, in addition to referring to himself as “a gay man” in an interview with New York Magazine,  Quinto posted a blog about the recent suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer and explained how that made him realize that just living a gay life wasn’t enough unless he had the courage to publicly acknowledge it:

when i found out that jamey rodemeyer killed himself – i felt deeply troubled.  but when i found out that jamey rodemeyer had made an it gets better video only months before taking his own life – i felt indescribable despair.  i also made an it gets better video last year – in the wake of the senseless and tragic gay teen suicides that were sweeping the nation at the time.  but in light of jamey’s death – it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it – is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality.  our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country.  gay kids need to stop killing themselves because they are made to feel worthless by cruel and relentless bullying.  parents need to teach their children principles of respect and acceptance.  we are witnessing an enormous shift of collective consciousness throughout the world.  we are at the precipice of great transformation within our culture and government.  i believe in the power of intention to change the landscape of our society – and it is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action.  jamey rodemeyer’s life changed mine.  and while his death only makes me wish that i had done this sooner – i am eternally grateful to him for being the catalyst for change within me.  now i can only hope to serve as the same catalyst for even one other person in this world.  that – i believe – is all that we can ask of ourselves and of each other.

Quinto recently starred in an off-Broadway production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at the Signature Theater in New York, playing Louis, the gay word-processing court employee with lofty political critiques and a lover dying of AIDS, who he cheats on with a closeted Mormon. From an article about Quinto from The New York Times almost exactly a year ago:

While Mr. Quinto accepts the occasional fan ambush as part of the movie and television stardom package, he chooses to keep his distance from what he regards as mindless celebrity-gossip culture. “I’m grateful that celebrity or notoriety wasn’t thrust upon me when I was in my 20s, because I think I would have buckled under the weight of it, as so many people do,” he said. “But I’ve come to realize through experience that ultimately I really do have a lot of power in terms of the way I relate to the public or to people outside of my intimate circle of friends and family. Boundaries are very important to me.”

Despite Mr. Quinto’s efforts to keep his private life private, the blogosphere is rife with speculation about his sexuality, no doubt fueled by his support for gay rights and organizations like the Trevor Project. He prefers not to feed that rumor mill with either substantiation or dismissal. He speaks passionately about gay marriage, about “don’t ask, don’t tell” and about the recent wave of gay bullying and suicides.

“The fact that these things are such hot-button issues right now, socially and politically, I would much rather talk about that than talk about who I sleep with,” Mr. Quinto said. “I would love to be a voice in this maelstrom of chaos and obsessive celebrity infatuation that says, ‘Let’s talk about something that matters,’ ” he added.

Though many gay actors fear coming out of the closet will impact their ability to earn romantic leads (a concern stoked by people like Ramin Setoodeh), I don’t anticipate that being an issue for Quinto — and that’s good for everybody.

Quinto’s It Gets Better Video:

There’s a lot of honor in this. I don’t fault the celebrities who turn coming out into a publicity event, announce themselves on magazine covers or use it to promote an upcoming memoir/album. After all, they’ve been stalked and analyzed by their fans for years by that point and it makes sense to attempt to harness some of that unwanted attention for profit. That’s their job, after all.

But there’s something especially special about the celebrities who just come out with it, foregoing People Magazine or, seemingly, a consultation with a publicist — who decide that it’s the right thing to do and then they just do it. They just mention it offhand in an interview about something else and they write it on their blog. They don’t send out a press release, they just. do. it. It’s rare, but it happens — like Wanda Sykes, who came out at a Marriage Equality rally in 2008 because it was the right thing to do and she did it.

Today Zachary Quinto just did it, and now he’s one step closer to being forgiven for the 678 nightmares I’ve had about Sylar.

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3266 articles for us.

67 Comments

  1. I smiled when I saw this today. :) I agree, I love the way he came out. It felt very natural and meaningful.

  2. I am so happy for Zachary Quinto. I hope his coming out brings him peace.

    I might have another Sylar nightmare tonight to celebrate.

  3. Good for him! I love seeing celebrities come out–even though it’s not a big surprise with him, it still means a lot.

  5. Hooray you’re gay!

    Also, this makes yet another male actor that I find somewhat attractive who turns out to be gay. I have no clue what this means, but I think it’s interesting.

    • I thought so, too. Wasn’t it already public that he had a boyfriend? Of course, now I can’t remember who, so…

      But yeah, that’s a great post, and I’m happy that he was a serious activist even before he came out. Yay Zach!

    • Absolutely not. When I read the headline, my first thought was, “YES! the sum coolness of queer eyebrows exceeds that of straight eyebrows.” Then I realized how weird it was that I was apparently holding a competition in my head about what group had the coolest eyebrows overall.

      Seriously though, we’ve got Frieda Khalo, George Takei, and Zachary Quinto.

      • I realize this is weird, but I was happy to see a man with some powerful thick eyebrows came out as gay. Maybe this is a huge stereotype, but it’s something I’ve witnessed… a memo needs to go out to all gay men that male eyebrows should not be plucked, unless it’s to get rid of a unibrow! So, yay for Team Gay Thick Masculine Eyebrows.

          • Ahh, kitty. I recommend you never, ever watch any shows about makeovers, fashion or attractive appearances in general. You are bound to be so offended you may experience spontaneous human combustion. Talk about ouch!

        • I think the only response to this commentary I can come up with is a deeply exasperated guttural kind of moan.

          Ex: “UUUUUNNGHHHHNNNGHHH!”

        • I guess I know a lot more gay men that have gotten your “memo” than those that haven’t… Is it really a big deal? =\

          • I don’t think it’s even about what folks do or don’t do with their eyebrows, papi.

            Making stereotyping, policing remarks implying that gay men need to do things that are/look masculine is crappy. The stigma around gay men who do anything effeminate is a real, homophobic thing and it’s also this shot at femininity. Like you have to ask why it’s somehow degrading or not preferable to do something stereotypically feminine. Have you seen that video of Patti Stanger talking crap about “queeny” gay men? That’s what this reminds me of.

          • Oh God, totally. At our last LGBTQ* meeting, we were talking about “gender” and “sexism”, and I called out one of the presidents who was talking about how he acts more femininely around women when he works at a restaurant, and acting feminine meant “talking more softly, being more polite”. I asked why he had to use the term “feminine” when being a civil person. At the same point, why should taking care of your appearance be considered gendered? Am I less of a woman if I don’t shave my legs? WHERE DOES THE BEHAVIOUR END??

          • Yeah. While I don’t believe any of those behaviors is inherently gendered, some of them are stereotypically tagged as feminine. Like deciding not to shave your legs won’t make you less a woman if you ID as a woman, but policing whether someone decides to do the stereotypically feminine thing by shaving their legs shows a problematic attitude towards femininity. Does that make sense?

          • @difficiledame Yeah, because the moment you start gender-policing, you start imposing sexist attitudes. Because god forbid a man pluck his eyebrows, because that’s effeminate, and it’s degrading to behave like women.

            Thanks MLM for reinforcing why women are second-tiered citizens in our society.

          • You’re very welcome, Paper0Flowers. I know this is obvious, but let me just state for the record that I loathe and wish nothing but ill on any man who plucks his eyebrows. I furthermore think it should be illegal for women to have unibrows. I am circulating a petition, if anyone is interested.

          • I mean, this is totally the kind of sharp analysis + deconstruction I expect from autostraddle readerfolk so cudos

        • Hahaha. Apparently no one has any grains of salt to spare. Joke, much? Me and my gay male friends joke about the eyebrow plucking epidemic and its usefulness in spotting closeted gay men. Again, it’s a stereotype and a joke used amongst fellow gays. I guess it’s one of those things where you have to be there (and not surrounded by angry militant anti-gender folks). C’est la vie!

  12. Pingback: Autostraddle — Zachary Quinto is Gay, Comes Out on His Blog | MyGaySpot

  13. There was a rumour (well, okay, a ‘blind item’) going around a while ago about an actor who wanted to ‘come out’ publicly after the gay teen suicides but his ‘team’/publicists talked him out of it. There was a lot of speculation it was ZQ. Either way, very glad he’s done this.

  18. A drag queen told me once that when someone comes out, a gay fairy gets its wings.

    It’s always magical.

  21. I just love eyebrows and the letter Q and the letter Z and funky ears and serial killers with super powers and he is/has ALL OF THOSE THINGS!

    I’ve been waiting for years for him to come out as being in love with me and only me.

  22. His statement was really eloquent and beautiful. Mad props.

    And Spock is SO gay. Even when he was played by Leonard Nimoy. Even when he went through that Pau T’Fahr thing or whatever— the salmon-breeding cycle for Vulcans.

    Maybe that’s their little way to ensure procreation, because being queer is way logical and it seems like Vulcans would have to be at least 100% bi. Also, Spock is still SO a ‘mo.

    • Ahhh, Pon Farr. No sci-fi gimmick has ever spawned (hee) so many fanfics out of so little screentime. The revered niche ancestor to its ubiquitous and well-traveled hot descendent, ‘aliens/science made us do it’.

  23. I loved him on “Heroes” and “Star Trek”. I mean loved him. Now I find out he’s gay? Pssh, he and I should be BFFLs.

  24. I thought he was really cute as Spock, which makes it no surprise to me that he’s gay… pretty much every man I’ve ever found attractive has turned out to be gay or bi.

  26. Sean Maher , Zachary Quinto who’s next. Im waiting in anticipation usually when one does come out a few follow in line.

    • Oh I love Sean Maher. So devastatingly attractive that he had to be gay. :D I wish I saw him in more things though.

  27. I’m not sorry to say this isn’t news! He had a bf ages ago and was spotted with him. I’m not surprised but I sure am happy he’s encouraging others and is now apart of the open gay Hollywood crew. Now the real Q is:WHOSE NEXT TO COME OUT???? PLACE YOUR BETS AND STATE YOUR THEORIES!!!!!!

    • It’s called the glass closet. And it is news when someone decides to break it and SAY they are gay. Being spotted does not equal being out and proud.

  28. I’m extremely disappointed that nobody has mentioned his longtime boyfriend, Chris Pine.
    Seriously though, I’m really happy about this. It gives me warm fuzzies. :) This seemed like the perfect way for him to come out.
    Also, MY GOD he speaks so eloquently and uses such nice, fancy words. Pinto word war, anyone?

  29. It can be hard enough coming out in your social circle, I can’t imagine what it would be like to come out to the masses. This man deserves a cookie! I am so happy to hear this :)

    —-({*})—-
    For Women.
    For the Love of Women.
    http://www.VulvaLoveLovely.com

  30. Pingback: Zachary Quinto “Deeply Moved” By Gay Support – DailyFill.com | CelebPedia.Info

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