'If actors experience homophobic bullying we would be able to raise that with the employer or if there was a case of member discrimination we would offer them legal assistance.'
'It's about giving members the confidence to come out and if they do, that we'll be there to offer them support,' said Max Beckmann, Equity's equalities officer. Now Equity has enlisted several well-known actors to lend their names to a campaign supporting gay actors who choose to come out. In 2006, the actor Chris New, who starred in the film Weekend last year, was advised by his agent not to talk about being gay, despite starring at the time in Bent, Martin Sherman's play about the persecution of gay people in Nazi Germany. A third had experienced homophobia in the workplace, 57% saying it had come from other performers.
Though there is a highly visible younger generation of gay actors, from Being Human's Russell Tovey to Coronation Street's Charlie Condou and Jeremy Sheffield, a recent survey by the actors' union Equity revealed that only 57% of gay actors felt they could be open about their sexuality with their agents. Yet, more than two decades on, despite strides in gay equality and the entertainment industry's liberal reputation, many gay actors still fear that being open about their sexuality will damage their careers. Sher finally came out in 1990, inspired by the example of Ian McKellen and Simon Callow.
