If you thought that was a tough question, how about this one: Who was your first celebrity crush?īoth Charles in Charge and Joanie Loves Chachi. I also know that the only way we're ever going to progress as a movement is if we continue to put pressure on our leaders to fulfill their promises. I also know that he is trying to go through a process in which once we get rid of don't ask, don't tell, it will be gone forever. We're all very aware that the President, who I supporter, could very easily sign a piece of paper - an executive order - and do away with a very ugly part of our history. Do you feel that should be behind us by now?Īh, Lord. You recently did an ad for the repeal of don't ask, don't tell.

I do hope that it's made it easier for other people to do it. The fact that I'm still doing it is something I'm grateful and proud of. To start my career as an openly gay man of color and to still be here after all these years, working and doing it on my own terms, is all I ever wanted. I've been able to do that, and I'm very proud of that. I feel like I have been doing what I always said I would do. I wouldn't say I was groundbreaking - I leave that to other people to say. There's probably less information within our communities that makes the process of coming out different, but I hesitate to say it is more or less difficult for anybody else. I'm not going to say that my struggle or the struggle of my African-American or Latino friends is harder than our white counterparts. I think it's different because of cultural reasons. It's been said that it's harder for minorities to be open about their sexuality. My job is to show up and do the best possible job that I can do. That's how you can maintain friendships and sanity in this industry. The way that you stay sane as an actor in Los Angeles, or even in New York, is that you make yourself available, and the roles you're supposed to get are the roles that you get, and the roles you're not supposed to get, someone else gets.

Those aren't creative types who are open to thinking outside the box. I'm sure that at some point in the last 16 years somebody has said, 'You know, we can't hire him because of this or that.' See, those are people I don't necessarily want to work with anyway. I'm not in that room when those decisions are made. There's no easy way of answering that because I don't really know.

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