Sir Ian McKellen Celebrates 30 Years Since Coming Out

Lord of the Rings star and fully-fledged national treasure Sir Ian McKellen is celebrating the 30th anniversary of him publicly coming out.

Taking to Twitter, the legendary actor wrote: "I've never met a gay person who regretted coming out - including myself. Life at last begins to make sense, when you are open and honest. Today is the 30th anniversary of the BBC radio discussion when I publicly said I was gay. So I'm celebrating!"

The X-Men star has previously said that coming out made him a better actor.

In a frank interview with the Huff Post, he said: "I think up to that point, I had been using acting as a disguise -- somewhere where I could express my emotions, and draw attention to myself in a way that I didn't particularly want to do in real life.

"Acting became not about disguise, but about telling the truth. And my emotions became much freer. I was able to act better as I think you are able to do any job. Everyone's better if they're being honest."

Sir Ian has long been a very vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights.

He co-founded Stonewall UK, a charity which lobbies for equal rights for the LGBTQ community and has helped to introduce an equal age of consent.

The charity also helped in accepting gay people in the military and repealing Section 28 - which meant that schools were prohibited from teaching about homosexuality in schools.

On the Stonewall site, Ian writes: "Nothing in life is more important to me than helping young people realise that there are better days ahead of them.

"I'm proud that Stonewall - which I helped create to tackle legalised homophobia - is now leading the fight in those British schools where homophobic bullying ruins far too many young people's lives. It's a privilege to play a small part in bringing it to an end."

Since posting his tweet, Ian has been flooded with praise from fans, messages thanking him and people sharing their coming out stories. The post has also picked up almost 70,000 likes and been re-tweeted over 12,000 times.

Sources: Huff Post; Stonewall UK

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Celebrity

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

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